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Day Two: Cameron Highlands to Fraser’s Hill
Day Two: Cameron Highlands to Fraser’s Hill, 193km, 2,328m
Day Two was scheduled as an ‘easy’ day – just 190km of riding to Fraser’s Hill. The rain of the previous day was gone. With close to half the journey downhill, a fun morning in the sun lay ahead.
The road out of the Cameron Highlands travelled east before heading directly south on the ‘farmer’s highway’. Built to allow easy transportation of the area’s agricultural wares, the road was wide and well paved and the gradients weren’t steep; it was fast, with hardly any need for brakes. Curiously, there were few other vehicles, as if the road had been closed for us. The reality was that the Saturday chosen for this leg of the adventure was a public holiday, so instead of sharing the road with a fleet of trucks, the group journeyed through the valleys untroubled.
Down, down the road went, for some 80km before it levelled out. Gone were the lush green forests, replaced by mile after mile of plantations. It was preferable to be riding on roads flanked by palm-oil trees rather than industrial or residential thoroughfares. And yet the plantations that are ubiquitous across large swathes of Malaysia have also stripped away some of its natural beauty. Tigers used to prowl these parts and it would have added an edge to think of such magnificent beasts hiding in the vegetation. Along with countless other species in Malaysia, they were eradicated when their natural habitat was cleared in the name of progress.
Fortunately, some local sights were more robust, not least the climb of Fraser’s Hill. Two options for the first stage of the ascent are available and we chose the quieter road, from the town of Raub to the Gap, a small settlement on a flattish road that provides a stepping stone to the top. When the pros tackled Fraser’s Hill in the 2008 LTDL, they followed the southern route, an hors categorie climb whose status owes more to its 25km length than its difficulty (the average gradient is 2.6%). Day Three’s descent would follow that road but the ascent up the other side, would offer a slightly tougher average of 3.2%. Steep and long enough for it to present a challenge, it was easy enough for a tempo climb at a good clip. The occasional passing car kept us on our toes but didn’t spoil the joy of this long climb, which thankfully was mostly shaded by the jungle canopy. When the sun did come through, it did so with a vengeance, hitting the lower slopes at temperatures approaching 40C.
Unfortunately for the LTDL pros, their last visit to Fraser’s ended at the Gap, whereas our destination was the hill station itself, a further 8km up another long and winding road. This section is much steeper, 4.9% according to the data, but the road flattens for 500m near the top, thus eating into the average. The first 6km are a true test of climbing and the first of our riders attacked it with gusto; as the road is one-way, the hairpins could be tackled with no concerns as to what might be coming around the corner. The reward for finishing the climb was a slightly surreal one. Arriving at the quaint Clock Tower, the focal point of the town of Fraser’s Hill, we found some local Rapha fans awaiting our group.
The view from our accommodation, the famously rustic Smokehouse, was stunning as the group enjoyed a traditional high tea of scones, cream and jam, a tasty relic of the colonial era. At an altitude of 1,235m, it was high enough for the occasional peak to be hidden from view by banks of fluffy clouds. And yet the views prompted a macabre thought; somewhere in these forests lay the remains of Louis James Fraser. What might he think of a bunch of cyclists climbing all the way up to his mining camp. Not in pursuit of precious minerals but simply for the adventure itself.