Gathering with Kinta 01 Ex Scouters!

These are some of the best scouts of Kinta 01 during the 90s!

December's expedition shots compliments of Soon Wen

These are contributions from Soon Wen. He managed to capture visitors to our camp, the froggie FROG and a shot of us cooking our sumptuous dinner. The speed of the rapid could be seen better from this shot of his!

Gopeng-Tanah Rata Expedition Dec 2008 (Day Two)

We woke up around 630am embracing the cooling and moist weather from the continuous rain since yesterday night. It was apparent that the river is not an option in the early hours from its fierce current and murky water. It was good that we have sufficient water for us to cook our morning breakfast! Breakfast was a variety from Baked Beans and Sardine to Scrambled Egg to warm Porridge and Warm Noodle Soup.

The initial part of the walk shall be most challenging given the slopes, wet terrain from the rain and river crossing. We started around 9am after we clean the site at Camp 1.

The river is fast and swift and we formed human chain to support each other through. The depth is approximately 3-4 feet and we completed the river crossing safe and sound as usual!

Our master Orang Asli guide, En Talib and his son in law prove to be the best guide in town. We learnt a few tricks from them on preventing leech attack and apparently tobacco does wonders to protect our feets and socks!

More hiking snapshot of us! Despite rations have been consumed, the humidity and wetness from the rain has added on weights on our items in our backpack!

The ending of a bloody leech after being drown in salt! You can see some of us clearing our leeches at the riverside!

We also spotted a spot where the bear dug up a bee hive for its honey and at another spot the wild boar dug for their delicious food!

We spotted various wild mushroom of various colours during our hike. (Photos courtesy of Sir Selvin)

The river remained the main water source is also very rich in fishes. Our guide easily caught us "Ikan Jelawat" for dinner. While the river is fierce it is also gentle at certain parts and the water remained clean and crystal clear.

We can definitely certify it as the "BEST MINERAL WATER IN TOWN"

The flora here is a mixture of secondary and primary. Bamboo appears to be sprouting everywhere and as they fight for the sun shine, the seems to be protuding upwards towards the sky. Various berries type trees and flowers are sprouting everywhere too bringing variety to the jungle. (Pictures courtesy of Sir Selvin)

The "Ulat Gonggok" here is long and wide. At a glimpse it might looks like a "lipan".

As usual, we broke for lunch at the dam and we do a major leech cleaning here as the walk from here onwards shall be relatively leech free since we shall be hitting plantation road thereafter. We again have our sumptous energy bar and BBQ sliced Chicken Meat with bread for lunch. It is cooling by the dam and it is a windy lovely spot!

The above is the famous Rajah Brooke Butterflies which we can see by the dozens beautifying the serenity of our walk. Below you can see more wild flower species which are rarely seen nowadays

We managed to chat with some of the Orang Asli which are friendly and despite within the jungle, it amazes us of the standard of living that they have with the usage of solar power and water source all the way from the mountain top. Motorcycle has becomes their major source of transportation and they mainly still depends on firewood for cooking.

We managed to see that some of the pets that the Orang Asli have includes a fox, squirrels, parrots and chicken.

Finally we reached base camp and TJ came to visit us. Overall, we felt we achieved a lot and we have learnt more life skills from this expedition. We were sure to come back and this time we shall hike all the way to Tanah Rata!

This concludes our Gopeng- Tanah Rata Expedition Dec 2008 Log.

Gopeng-Tanah Rata Expedition Dec 2008 (DAY ONE)

The journey started on the 6th Morning where we hike to our Orang Asli's house known as Talib which is approximately 2 hour hike where he and his son in law shall be guiding us. We were set for the 8 hour hike for the day with high spirits and energy

Despite with the backpack and rations on our back, the initial 2 hour journey is pleasant through the plantations with the cooling morning. We started at approximately 8am after a sumptuous breakfast at Gopeng Rainforest Resort owned by a couple known as Foon and Janice

We has a glimpse of the fox and squirrels which has been taken as pet from the orang asli at our 1st pit stop. Our journey from here shall led us to the Dam built by the British then for the purpose of tin mining in Gopeng which wll take an approximately another 2 hour. With the average load of 20kg in our backpack, some of us are starting to feel some strain on our energy level.

As the weather was the guide's major concern, the guide persuaded us to push on failing which we might not be able to cross the river should there be a heavy rain. With that, we pushed ourselves harder until approximately 1pm where exhaustions started to kick in into some of us. With the wet weather recently and the drizzling rain, leeches are storming in on us and the rain has added on a little more weight on our shoulder. We took our lunch break of power bar and wholemeal bread with sliced BBQ chicken meat. We rested for approx 45 minutes.

The trail we took has narrowed from the initial 5 feet wide to approximately 2 feet and as the trail has been unused for quite some time, even the guide has to work on clearing the path by chopping off the fallen bamboos. We have to manoeuvre between the fallen branches where we cannot cross and this we feel is the greatest challenge as we have to do it with our haversack which surely tested our leg muscles to its limit.

The sight within the rain forest is indeed spectacular despite the challenge we have. The bamboo here is tall and mighty and we managed to see some fallen tree of which some we think is from the primary forest as the diameter of the tree could easily stretches beyond 7 feet.

We decided to push on given the gloomy weather ahead of us. By noon, most of us have ignored the leeches bit as with the rain and river crossing, most of us are drench with sweat and water from top to toe and thus the leeches are no longer a major risk. We wanted to reach our estination soonest possible.

Our spirit is always revived by the river, which remained our best friend throughout our journey as it offers extremely cooling and refreshing water source. We also reloaded our water supplies when we needed and the river water remained a fantastic source of cooling water. The current of the water at certain part are treacherous while gentle at the same time.

By 3pm, we have reached to the toughest bit which is the river crossing. Thecurrent is something not to be taken lightly and it took a couple of us supporting each other using a human chain as we cross. Upon crossing, I especially could really feel the drain. We decided to break camp at Camp 1 instead of taking the risk of doing another 2 hour to Tanah Rata given the
weather and the energy level of the team. The team reached the camp at approximately 3:45pm which is approximately 6 hour plus of hiking

It took us another 30 min to reach Camp 1 where the hike is extremely steep and slippery. A couple of us have the experience to crawl through the magnificent fallen tree of which it is a splendid experience where no pictures or words could describe despite the challenge. Upon arriving at Camp 1, the team quickly clear the area and speedily assemble our camps. The
guide started a fire and then went straight into fishing for us after they have setup their camp. Some of us took turns to clear the leeches who had their feast on us while the camp is being raised and we quickly cooked dinner before the nightfall settled in.

The dinner was fantastic and it is great experience to relived the IKAN JELAWAT experience that some of us had years ago during our younger outing days as Boys Brigade and/or Boy Scout as shared by some of the scoutmaster.

We had some of the fish orang asli style in bamboo as "fish soup" while the balance are deep fried. It went well with the fish. We shared many stories and experiences which enhances our fellowship.

The night came in fast and by 10pm we decided to call it the day to retire into our camp. It rained throughout the night. It is cooling and there are droplets of the rain that crept into the dome camp but we remained mostly dry. Though we felt a little sardine cramped in the tent, we rested from the good hike we had.