Pu Ta Leng Mountain trek, Vietnam

This is an excerpt from Billy’s Travel Diaries to Vietnam 

We headed out on the road out of Sapa, north-west into the mountains. Another nice day this morning, misty, cool and a little sun. We drive past Fan Si Pan (Phan Xi Păng 3,147m) and 5 fingers mountain (Ngu Chi Son 2,850m), their majestic peaks visible, surrounded by mist lower down.

We stop off to get the official paperwork to get my permit to climb, and I meet up with my two porters who will assist me for the next 3 days hiking up Pu Ta Leng mountain. Pu Ta Leng mountain is located in Hoang Lien Son mountain range in Lai Chau province. Its peak at 3,049m above sea level makes it the second highest mountain in Indochina.

This was the first time for me to trek solo, but ably assisted by 2 most helpful porters. This was going to be an interesting experience for the next 3 days, no phone reception, no internet, sleeping out and the porters don’t speak English and of course I’ve no Vietnamese! We set off in almost perfect weather conditions, dry, warm and sunny but not overly hot. Passing by the salmon farms are a few farming houses, growing vegetables, with chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, dogs. Very soon we are off the well beaten track clambering across slippery, mossy riverbed rocks, frequently crisscrossing the river, which is thankfully not that full of water, but not easy to navigate for an awkward Irish lad. The porters hopped effortlessly over the rocks in their gumboots smiling at my clumsy efforts! I have them to thank that I didn’t fall into the river, wet feet early on the trek would not be good.

We are now high up in virgin forest with massive trees around us, steadily climbing up a narrow ridge. Also there is encouraging regeneration of many of the trees. The paths are strewn with Magnolia seed pods from the monster trees high above us. Thankfully, there is no Cardamom farming in this area, so the forest is as good as it gets. Cyathea tree ferns, Rhododendron, Magnolia, Schefflera, Brassaiopsis, Ophiopogon, Camellia, Viburnum, Exbucklandia to name a few of the many botanical treasures on show.

I am glad to have done the Carrauntoohil hike last week with the lads, this is a different challenge, but like Carrauntoohil, the terrain is unrelentingly challenging and difficult. It took us 8 hours of almost constant climbing to get to our evening campsite. Time for a well-deserved espresso coffee and a Cadbury’s Twirl as you do! Watching the sun set over distant mountains made all the days hard work worth it. Dinner followed, I was on my vegetarian fried rice (again), green vegetables and some fruit. It’s dark already and time for my bed, it’s amazing how easy it is to sleep 12 hours in a tent out in the middle of nowhere. I had insisted on a tent to avoid having any rodents run over me at night (from previous experience). It was a very stormy night and a lot of rain fell during the night but as we got up the rain had thankfully passed.

After a hearty breakfast of noodle soup, one porter and I started the ascent to the summit of Pu Ta Leng at about 7:15am To be honest I’m not feeling great, very low energy levels but a few hours later, we clambered to the top which always makes it worth while, surrounded by mother nature. After a short deserved break, taking in the incredible views, observing the plant life up here, we returned back to the campsite for a spot of lunch alfresco!

After lunch it was on to our next campsite, which was a relatively easy trek with no more serious uphill challenges, botanising along the way, another great weather day. Thankfully this trek was an up and over route, meaning we didn’t have to double back over the same ground on the descent which makes things more interesting. Our last day was to be the easiest, heading downhill after breakfast for a little over 3 hours, once again encountering the slippery rocks while crossing the river, before being collected by motorbikes to take us about 15km down a muddy narrow trail at top speed to the nearest village. Time to part company with my 2 good friends, thanking them as best I could for their assistance.

The past 3 days have been a privilege to spend time in the jungle, with nature, the only sounds I heard was river water, bird song, the wind in the trees, the insects, with no communication of any kind.

Time to return to the bustling town of Sa Pa, where I’m looking forward to some hot water for a good clean up followed by a nice meal!

To see even more images from this trip, check out my Facebook post here.

– Billy