We have started this blog's activity category as walking, but this turned out to be more like climbing as we went through the pain barrier and beyond and all in the name of enjoying yourselve apparently!

Matthew was really looking forward to doing a bit of walking and seeing the true Malaysia, i wasn't too sure about how hard the walks would be, so was a bit apprehensive but was looking forward to the scenery. On our first day we decided to do the easiest walk first to get us into the swing of things, and it was ok at first. We walked past a small waterfall called Parit falls and then up to a viewing tower. That bit was hard and i had to stop a few times on the way up, then i had to psych myself up to climbing the tower(i'm a bit scared of heights), i made it though and the views were awsome. It was there that Mathtew pointed out the mountain he wanted us to climb the day after.....it was big!

We walked for 3 hours the first day and alot of the paths were quite hard to negotiate, but it gave us an idea of what the following day might be like. It was very quiet i the jungle apart from the odd pheasant making sirens noises like we had never heard before and one mongoose we saw.

Well in good spirits and with Gemma's knee strapped up we set off to climb Gunung Brinchang 2031 metres above see level the next day. Before we got to the start of the path we had a hour of half walk which took in Robinsons falls. We thought we better see this first as there would not be much hope of wanting to go there after the climb. The start was very steep and we had to use roots of the trees to help make our way up. It was harder than we had expected and both got really muddy in the process. 2 hours later we made it to the top. Tired we got some more views from another watch tower. There was nothing else at the top, so a taxi ride back down was out of the question. We had to follow the road back down towards the tea plantations another 2 and a half hours got us to the plantations for a well deserved brew and scone. We estimated that in 2 days we had walked just short of 20 miles and how we are feeling it now.

We were very pleased with what we achieved considering our fitness levels and although tired thoroughly enjoyed Cameron highlands. The people were especially friendly and the meals were back to a good standard. Yes that means a few curries for Matthew again!

We both deserve a rest and have gone off to Pangkor island for some r and r on the beach for 3 days.