Malaysia, Selangor, Kemensah
380m | 8.0 km | 2:35 hours

Our aim was to climb Bukit Tabur Extreme, the easternmost of the Klang Gate Quartz Ridge.  They are apparently two routes to the peak, one from the west, starting from the end of Jalan K5 near Sunway Rydgeway at Melawati, and the other from the east, staring from Kemensah on Jalan Zooview.  The route from the west is the same one that leads to Tabur Far East.  We initially attempted the west path, but was hampered midway as the gate to the farm was closed and locked.  Perhaps it was too early in the morning (about 7.20 am).

So we drove out to Kemensah and attempted to find the way from there.  Near the end of Jalan Zooview, there is a narrow road to the left, immediately after a fishing pond.  Near the end of this road is a dirt track that goes up the hill on the left.  We took this path, and after walking for 15 minutes we began to suspect that it might be the wrong one.  And indeed it was.  The correct path is an earlier dirt track just before a cafe.  Coming from Jalan Zooview, you will see (all on your left) a small tarmac road, then a dirt track, then another small tarmac road (with a sign saying Orang Asli settlement) and then another dirt track.  The correct path is the first dirt track.

Malaysia, Selangor, Kemensah
493m | 11.7 km | 3:55 hours

This was a reconnaissance  exercise to see what lay beyond the end of Jalan Zooview in Kemensah.  We knew from the internet that there were trails to waterfalls, and trails leading up to the hills.  We didn't quite know what we will discover or what the condition of the trail will be.

We headed out to Jalan Zooview, the road right next to Zoo Negara.  When we were young, the road led to Aquarium Negara which was just behind the zoo.   The zoo was otherwise surrounded by jungle.  It was therefore a surprise for me to see that Jalan Zooview is now a rather long road that took us past housing areas, then villages and finally the countryside.  Near the very end of the road, just before the gate into Institut Budaya Baru Malaysia there is a path that veers off to the right of the road.  This is the start of our trek.  

Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Taman Melawati
363m | 4.1 km | 3:21 hours


Tabur Far East is part of the famous Klang Gates Quartz Ridge in Hulu Kelang.  Going from west to east, it is the set of peaks after Tabur East.  There is another set of peaks even further east, and that is the so-called Tabur Extreme.  I was initially under the impression that Tabur Far East and Tabur Extreme were one and the same, and only when researching the directions for this trip that I learnt that they were in fact distinct sets of peaks on the ridge.

When climbing Tabur East from the Klang Gates Dam, the trek goes up the Tabur East ridge, goes up and down 4 peaks before it ends at a sheer cliff that drops some 50m down to the forest floor.  Beyond the void is Tabur Far East.  It is not possible to access Tabur Far East from the Tabur East trek, or even from the forest floor below as it starts as a vertical wall.  It has to be accessed  by climbing the ridge from the other side.

Which is what we did.

Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Ampang
261m | 10.7 km | 3.5 hours

This was an attempt to follow the various trails leading from the Old Ampang Reservoir to its conclusion.  It’s a continuation of our earlier reconnaissance of the lake and trailheads.  We climbed to the level of the reservoir and proceeded to walk on a clock-wise circuit around the lake.  First up was the trail that led westward from where the pier is.  The one marked with "D”.

The trail initially runs level to the reservoir as a wide path.  Just 50m from the lake, there is a another path to the right marked with red trail markers that heads up into the hills.  This track is marked along the way with large signs showing "Bukit Kembara D”.  

Our hope was that since it was heading in the general direction of the high northern peak, it would eventually lead us there.  After about 500m of climbing, the marked trail levelled off and then started heading downwards steeply until it reached a level path next to a gully.  The level path led back to the starting point of the D trail, making a roughly 1.2 km loop.  The level path seems to have been created to run pipes from further up the hill down to where the reservoir is.