a CHOICE hike up MukaHead

it's been a while since i did a hike and i'm sure its the same for the gang too (maybe except for Telly - who hikes every other week..) and we decided to organise one for the core team who have helped organise the CHOICE weekend #55. it would be a somewat teambuilding cum nature adventure cum relaxed fellowship. and boy... it was an adventure, for me that is - i over-estimated myself

anyway, Telly and myself was to organise this outing and eventhough we had some weather concerns, the day finally came and everything fell into place AND the weather was good. Praise God for that!

so what happened? of course we met up super early in church as the meet-up point to organise the car pool and barang barang - but you know la, being in Malaysia, you got to follow Malaysian time right? ok, so everyone finally arrived and decided to go fuel up our energy with breakfast. we went to Mt.Erskin market for breakfast. it was actually my first time there and boy, the wantan hor fun was yum meh!!

we finally reached the "End of the World" - Teluk Bahang around 10am or so. then we had to register ourselves, arrange with the boat man to pick us up and some of us had to change to something more comfortable. took a group pic and off we went, to MukaHead aka Monkey Beach aka Pantai Duyung (which ever name you wanna use). we definately didn't go to Pantai Keracut as... well, it rained the night before and the trail would be dangerous (and i heard it's harder than the trail we took)

this bridge indicates the start of our "torture"... well it was for me anyway

my "entertainers" and motivators behind me - thanks guys!

one of the many mini pit-stops we made - no thanks to yours truely
(what did i say - i over-estimated myself, i thought i could do IT!.... ugh)

and FINALLY we reached our first proper stop - this beach was small but nice and clean. there were some other ppl around too as well. all i could think of was to sit and not do anything. Irene - took over my job, as the photographer... hehehe thanks Irene! obviously we had loads more pics but i can't post it up here :p some of us still had energy, and they were running around, posing, taking pics, like the hike was nothing to them - i was half dead. again OVER-ESTIMATED myself....

so after a few big gulps of 100Plus, some chocs (yea, i ate chocs), rested abit, i finally managed to get up and take some pics with the peeps.

with the main co-ordinator - Telly

AND yes!!!! we finally made it!!! no more hiking, no more climbing OVER branches, tree trunks, no more hiking UNDER branches and tree trunks, no more climbing stairs, rocks, cliffs.... we're on flat ground now! i wanted to kiss the ground but body was too painful to bend.. lol

Elizabeth had a sprained ankle and couldn't hike, so she took the boat to the beach to meet us, so nice of her, she layed out all the mats and arranged the things... but unfortunately, when we got there, monkeys were around so Mr.Organiser said it's better to change position.


so once some of them stopped "monkey-ing" around (no pun intended) we moved to the new location and started to enjoy the cool water from a stream nearby and had our lunch - though none of us were that hungry, more thirsty. but we all ate the nasi lemak that we had. once we got our energy back, we had some games to play (thanks to Irene again). it was quite fun! and of course before we boarded the boat back, we had to get a group pic! say CHEESE!!

getting on the boat was no prob, it could fit all of us. and found out that it was the first time for some! sitting in a boat! so it was good to know that this trip opened up doors to many with new life experiences :D
the view around the island was beautiful, the day was great, the water was green, the sky was blue and it was just great - especially when you have special people around you :)

so after about 15 mins or so, we reached to the starting point and got refreshed. washed our faces, hands and legs, dried ourselves, checked out from the registration and again one more last group pic before we left

overall i thought the whole trip was a success. though we did have some difficulties with plans because of the weather, but thank God, we didn't need to use plan B, C, D..etc. as the weather became better. i believe everyone had a great time too, and also discovered things about themselves that they didn't know. it was a time to know more bout each other as well and hope from this outing, we'll be able to work with each other better and stronger in future. so thanks guys for joining us and making it a fun-filled adventure!

*i was all sore the next day, but it's all good - though i might think twice for the next hike :p