Broga Uphill & Beyond

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.  ~Lao Tzu


I think I might have taken Lao Tzu a little too seriously. Allow me to explain

Its the raya weekend today and taking into consideration that the diplodocus  has been bugging anyone that stops to listen about getting to the top of Broga hill and the fact that Carol had just asked me to go on a hike, I decided to give it a go.

Most sites I explored cited the hike as 'relatively easy' but the Pekster had warned me before that I may not be able to take the trail. You see, I have this awful knee injury that kind of puts the full stop on most of my outdoor activities. But  dealing with the injury has taught me to listen to my body and I now know the extent that I can push myself and also the consenquences of pushing too hard(*shudder*). Not giving it a second thought (or 4th in my case), I called up Carol and arranged to meet her early the next day.

We left Seri Kembangan around 5am and drove for about 30 minutes along the Silk Highway. The turning point is Semenyih town from the highway and after a 10 minute drive, you can see the signboard to Broga town. Just watch out for the Petronas station on your right.

Wee hours of the morning made it a little harder for us to spot the rabbit farm that is the landmark for the hike trail. Honestly it did not look like much of a rabbit farm..unless the rabbits were zombie rabbits running a haunted house. But find it we did, and took a left into the oil palm estate where we can park our car for RM2 per entry.By 6am there were already a lot of cars parked there and people were already on the move up.

Cars can be parked under the oil plam trees

Entrance to the Hill

Rabbit Funland Landmark

Self reminder: Please do warm up exercises if you do not want a muscle pull in the future. Only along 20 minutes up the route, I has a pull on my left calf but decided to be heroic and athletic and pushed on with Diplodocus and Carol's motivation. It was a slow hike for me, though Carol did mention that it took her about 20 minutes to reach the first peak on her last visit.

So depending on how fit you are, the hike can take from up to 20 minutes to an hour(thats me). But do take your time, the trail is pitch black at that hour and certain areas can get a little slippery and in some parts the gorges are a little deep. The original trail was smaller but Broga is a hill thats frequented by hundreds of people every weekend, so it was obvious(well to me at least) that the trail was expanding thanks to the many footsteps taken on its path. The rocky part of the hill is quite apparent and makes up most of the trail.

The topmost of Peak one is the steepest climb. Though most of the way has some plantations and trees to hold on to as you come up, this part was nothing but a dirt trail. I was really queasy looking at it but the fact that the 'scared of heights' Diplodocus was plunging her way up irregardless made me less fearfull. The Peak was crowded with people and though it was a little cloudy, the view of the hilltops and foggy valley was breathtaking.

View from midway point

It can get pretty crowded up here

We did chance upon one lady who seemed to have never seen a sunrise before as she was loudly exclaiming how it beautiful it was. Now I am one who believes in expressing oneself, but given the fact there wasnt much to behold and the ecstacy in which she was making her exclamations, I figured she either a) didnt get out much from her house b) she was still hungover from last nights booze party


Diplodocus taking her break



Trail to the second peak



View from Peak one

Anyways, 20 minutes later we decided to start on the descent which was pretty easy and uneventful, save for the one guy who came up behind us somewhere midway down the hill. He was obviously trying to macho up to the lady who was walking with him and doing a couple of daredevil stunts of jumping over 1 foot ridges to show off to her. But his shoes were not right and couldnt grip the ground, so he ended up slipping and falling into one of the ridges. So do wear proper shoes, expecially if you are trying to impress a girl.

With tummies now growling, we decided to head out the Broga Town to get some breakfast. Pepe had mentioned that this township is actually famous for its 'exotic' fare. Turtle soup, zombie rabbit satay and the like. But all we wanted was good old nasi lemak, though we couldnt find any thanks to all the shops being closed due to the public holiday.

I gotta say though, this is a pretty cool place for retirement. Its quiet and well...retire-ish..

Well, till the next post- stay healthy folks!