The Extreme Hike from Gunung Gading to Rock Well (Batu Berkubu)

Gunung Gading National Park, the Lundu Water Treatment Plant its just before the main entrance to the park. This means the water here are crystal clear, and good for consume. 

Its been a while since my last visit, so that morning I woke up at about 5am, after freshen up myself, I depart at about 5.30am, and reached Lundu town 5 minutes to 7am. After meeting up with friends for breakfast, we are then here at the Gading NP.

The entrance its RM10 per person, we will need to paid at the registration office.

Remember to sign out after your hike, so the person in charge will know you are safe. 

08:00am, It started off with a slow inclination, there is also a water pipeline next to the trail

A total of 7 waterfall open to public, Waterfall No.1, No.3 and also No.7. 

 8:14am, reach the junction of Waterfall No.1

08:24am, reached a pile of big rocks stacking between each others, and also a small DatoGong altar is being place here for worshiping.

Most of the trail needs to hike uphill, so for me, this is good. By the time when I descent, I don't have to use much energy, as I know I'm going to be tired by then.

08:57am, almost an hour into our hike, still following the Red and White marking to reach the summit first, then follow by the Batu Berkubu trail. 

The place are full of different type of mushroom, so many of them. 

I really enjoy seeing this scenery, bring peace to my eyes. 

09:27am, Hollow tree 

The size of this frog its not bigger than my thumb. 

11:00am, reach the summit of Gunung Gading. We rest here for about 30 mins and continue on with our hike to Rock Well. To hike to rock well, we will need to descend, from 965 m to around 600 m, the destination is to reach to the few big pile of rock at the end of the mountain range. 

 More beautiful mushroom along our hike

 The rock formation gets very interesting, some looks like a palm of the hand.

Some looks like an axe, or a sharp blade

12:04pm, this place its called the sitting rock, as this huge rock looks like its sitting on two smaller rocks. Its also known as the Windy Rock (Batu Beranin) because of the whistling noise created by the wind blowing through the rocks.

 See, the big rock stacking on top of two smalle rocks.

Some of the mushroom is as big as my phone. 

 I like the color of the mushroom hat, a bit of purple.

12:30pm, This is the Rock Well, and the info I get from the Gunung Gading park guide was Rock Well (Batu Berkubu), its on the slopes of Gunung Sebuloh, and it served as a campsite for the Indonesian and communist guerrillas during the confrontation days. Although it is often called a cave it is, in fact, a huge rock which along with the surrounding trees provides a cave-like sheltering area.

01:43pm, on my way back to the park entrance, it was a steep slope and I hike slowly up, and suddenly saw this beautiful snake right in front of my trail. Good thing i'm not running fast, I quickly take its video and picture, what a beautiful creature. It slowly craw away into the jungle. 

 03:30pm, reached the Park HQ, my legs are sore especially my toes. I need a new hiking shoes.

The view of Lundu town

A conversation between me and my friend who hike the Rock well trail twice, told me that the end of the trail looks like this, with a signboard stated 7.5km (this must be the total distance of the trail). Oh well, next round if I happen to hike to Rock Well again, I will try to hike to this point too.

Trail Details

Trail Distance: 6.48km

Total Time: 4h 36min

Max Elevation: 903 m ASL

Mount Sentah A Local Village On Top of The Mount

The Sentah Village situated at Siburan town, my last visit was at year 2010, where I hike up with my aunts. Read the post here. So 9 years later, I revisit the place again, this time, not with my SLR (it was broken in one of my hike to Santubong), with my Olympus TG-5 compact camera, and my Mavic Pro Drone.

This is the base of the mount, and there is a stream nearby, I saw many litters there. And strong smell of urine too 😖

After I used my Olympus for more than a year, I still can't really get over with the image quality if I where to compare with my old SLR Nikon D90. But I know the both of them can't be compare like so, but I just can't help it. Really feel the need to get a SLR again, yet my hike most of the time are rugged, humid and damp. SLR still not a good idea, and its heavy too.

Coming back to Sentah mount, the big Tapang trees can still be seen, some additional handrail are installed along the trail up to the mountain. 

Still can see the farmers doing their plantation along the mountain cliff.

There is only one narrow road for the village people to go up and down, and I notice the villages some have car. My question will be what if one car need to drive down, and another one from the opposite direction needs to go back up, and there are no place to give way, what happen then?

Use about 30 minutes to hike up until the church of the Sentah village. Power up my drone, and get some footage from above.

The height of this mount its just around 126 meter above sea level. The view up there its really nice, as you are able to view the Siburan town from above. 

Kampung Sentah has been in existence for more than 630 years and is the ancestral home of Bidayuh Biatah clan, the settlement was started by the villagers from the nearby kampungs which are the Kampung Kuop, Sungai Du’uh, Masa’an, Sinjok, Tijirak, Seratau and Primas. Kampung Sentah was once thriving but now, only some 40 odd families with a population of over 100 people live there.

There are few big Tapang trees still intact, and its a good sign, the people there protect the forest

The Siburan town can be seem far away, as its the most develop town among the three (Siburan 17th mile , Beratok 21st mile, and Tapah 22nd mile) along the Kuching-Serian road. 

The Sentah Village

Trail Details:

Height: 126 Meter ASL Total Distance: 2.18 KM Total Time: 32 Minutes