Morning hike to the Broga Hills

Sat 28/11/09. 7.30am. Broga Hills

The view seen from the hill topI have heard about the beauty of Broga Hill but never made the trip there in my whole life. Broga Hill is the name given to a hill side located not far from Broga town, a one street nondescript town in Negeri Sembilan, about 17 km from Kajang and 10km from Semenyih. If not for the sign board at the entrance to the town the first time visitor from Selangor Kajang wouldn't know that he is stepping into Negeri Sembilan territory.

Mist in the backgroundMy daughter Amy tracked up the hill last week with her friend and the friend's mom. After returning from the hike she was full of praise for the beautiful landscape and the clean mountain air. After hearing so much good things said about the hill from Amy I decided that I should at least investigate her claims. So this morning I decided to drag myself out of bed at 6.30am and together with the dear wife and daughter, the three of us drove to the hill in the Kancil.

We arrived at the foothill at 7.00am. There is a Chinese temple and a stall selling organic food at the foothill. There were some cars parked in front of the temple. Thus other people had arrived there even earlier than us. When I looked up the paved terraces cut into the hill side  I saw groups of people trekking up the winding slopes and also doing morning exercises.

Steep trail up the hill For the first time visitor like me and dear wife, the view of the hill side and the valley was magnificent. The clean morning air was crisp, clean and invigorating, certainly so much more refreshing than the polluted air of Kajang.
  
There are many steep and winding tracks cut along the hill side. However all the tracks are paved with bitument thus suitable for the general public to walk. At first the various tracks starting from the foot hill up to the summit look intimidating and dear wife  expressed her reservation whether with her weak legs she could make the climb to the top.

Start of the trail up the hill With my assurance and encouragement dear wife held onto my arms and the three of us began the descend slowly and leisurely on foot. In the beginning due to the exertion we had some difficulty breathing comfortably but as the climb became more familiar we were able to adapt our breathing to the climb. Bit by bit and stopping at intervals for rest the three of us finally made it to the summit. The summit is just apiece of flat land cut into the hill side. Beside us there was already a party of middle aged men and women doing exercises at the summit. We stayed at the summit for about 10 minutes doing some limbering and light calisthenics.

The view from the top looking down to the valley and the temple below was beautiful and breath taking. The presence of the morning dew and mists added to the beauty of the picturesque landscape. It reminded me of the mountain landscape of Cameron Highlands and Genting Highlands.

Rocky hill slopeThe descend was not as strainous as the ascend, although by that time all of us were sweating from our exertion. While descending we changed our normal way of walking by walking backwards and sideways.

After we got back to the Kancil I suggested that we ate at Semenyih for breakfast. dear wife said she wanted to buy vegetables and meat at the wet market. So the three of us then decided to head back to Kajang.

It was a happy trip for all of us. Definitely there will be more treks up the hill in future.