In 8 days time, Peak to Peak 2015 will set-off….

In 2013 Alan Silva and myself made our first Peak to Peak Odyssey from the summit of Mt Ruapehu in New Zealand to the summit of Aoraki Mt Cook, completely by human power (read more here).  In 2014 we made our second Peak to Peak journey this time on the opposite side of the world, from the summit of the UK (Ben Nevis) to the summit of France – Mt Blanc, (read more here).

Our Peak to Peak journeys follow these basic principles:

1. Begin and End on interesting mountain summits
2. The journey between the summits made completely by human power
3. The expedition to be completed on a shoe string budget
4. The expedition to be fit into our annual leave entitlement
5. Our particular journey/route has never been attempted before
6. The ‘style’ of the expedition to be carried out with as little support as practically possible.

Peak to Peak 2015 will adhere to the same philosophy as the previous expeditions and involve us starting on the summit of Singapore – the mighty Bukit Timah Hill at 163m above sea-level.  From here we will make our way by bicycle 150km north, into Malaysia to the small town of Mersing on the east coast of Peninsula Malaysia.  From Mersing we will make a 65km open water sea-kayak directly offshore to reach the Island of Tioman.  Tioman is a small but beautiful, heavily forested Island, surrounded by Coral Reefs.  According to legend (and Wikipedia!):  “Tioman Island is the resting place of a beautiful dragon princess.  Whilst flying to visit her prince in Singapore, this beautiful maiden stopped to seek solace in the crystal-clear waters of the South China Sea. Enraptured by the charms of the place, she decided to discontinue her journey. By taking the form of an island, she pledged to offer shelter and comfort to passing travelers.”

The geology and geography of Tioman island is very interesting.  Massive granite outcrops reach out from the steep jungle, rising vertically hundreds of metre into the heavens.  The most impressive of these are twin 400m vertical monoliths known as the “Dragons Horns”

We will be attempting to finish our expedition with a big-wall-style, three day, vertical ascent of the Dragons Horns, which have only been climbed a handful of times since the very first ascent in the year 2000.

As usual we be using a SPOT Tracker to track our progress in real-time, I will share the link within the next few days before we depart.  We expect this mini-expedition to take us 7 days in total – wish us luck!

The Dragons Horns on Tioman (Photo source: http://www.headlampsclusterfucksandotherverticaladventures.com/)

Route map of our intended journey.