Nature - one of the pure love treatment

I slept too early tonight and about 9.45 pm I woke up and seeing my lovely wife sleeping. This evening we had a long chat, talking about those activities to be done when I am back home. I feel very happy to have such strong and dependable women in my life. Alhamdulillah. I said to myself, I will make her life full with happiness no matter how far we away from each other. If I have time, I would like to bring my wife for some outdoor activities – camping. I love a nature and peaceful place. I am sure she feels the same way too. Come to think about it, I’ve been to one of the most beautiful waterfall in Malaysia, Berkelah and I hope she will be part of my below diaries on the trip next time.

Friday, 11th May,2007

It was 5.15 pm. I was excitedly waiting for Nazrul and others at Kasim (Mamak stall in Wisma Technip). As planned, we need to pick up some camping gears, tents, food containers, fly/groundsheets at my friend’s house (Ali) in Cheras. This trip was organized “officially” by Technip but all the itineraries were planned by “Rakuzz Outdoor” committee which means we have to prepare those related stuffs by ourselves provided this is an open trip and most of the people joined the trip was a first timer. 8.45 pm. Still in Ali’s house. Helping him packing some foods in a medium size container and loaded them into my car. Few minutes later, we rushed to pick up Khairul at his house somehere in Sungai Besi. Reached there after 45 minutes and he wasn’t done with his packing. Looking at his old big backpack, I remind him don’t forget to bring those climbing gears as there will be an abseiling activity in this trip and he was the only one who know the best about this activity. Nearly 11 pm, I sped my car towards Wisma Technip and accelerated as fast as the traffic would allow me. Reached Wisma Technip about 11.30 pm. There were many people waiting at the stair case and eagerly waiting for the bus to arrive. They came with their big backpacks, some seated on the stairs, and others stood around. Then, unloaded all the stuffs from my car, distribute them to the others and repacked again our backpacks. Then, I met Thoriq and checked out his brand new backpack. I said to myself, hmm nice pack, slim design, conveniently placed straps for securing camping stuff, but the colour was not to my taste - nothing really wrong with it except I don’t really fancy red. Then, a short briefing takes place followed by doa. Finally the bus came.

Saturday, 12th May, 2007

The journey took about 5.5 hours with 2 stops - at the MRR2 Projet petrol station and Temerloh (as I was told). Upon reaching the Kampung Gelugor mosque (meeting point for human cargo ferrying arrangement), washed up and said my dawn prayers. Prepared my gear before having a nasi lemak breakfast, pre-arranged by the organizing committee, at a local restaurant, Restoran Laila. Well done to the organisers! The 3 tonne lorry came, up went the backpacks and human cargo onto the wet metal bed. I was on the second lorry, full with jolly and eager-faced brothers. The 30 minute journey was filled with excitement and adventure, with everyone trying to dodge the oncoming branches and moving along with the sway, pitch and roll of the lorry.

Once we reached the trailhead and unloaded ourselves and our backpacks, it was time to stretch, led by Khairul. It was about 10.00 am when we started our trek to Camp 3. The first 200 meters of the trek was on cemented track with mild ascent. Next was a dose of jungle trekking followed by a breathtaking view of the free flowing Bekelah river, as we cleared the trees. The remaining 1 hour upstream trek was full of slides and a few falls, due to the wet and slippery rocky riverbank. Finally, just a few minutes before noon, the first group reached the campsite. The site was flattish 20ft x 40ft, with plenty of foliage, giving us very good protection from the sun. About half an hour later, the separated groups were together again.

Setting up camp quickly got underway, with the ladies preparing lunch. I think during that time, I dozed off after a few minutes of lying down on the ground sheet, set up in the middle of the camp. When I woke up, there were not many people around the camp site. Lunch was ready but everyone was having fun in the sun. So, I dragged my weary body down to the river about 10 meters away. The natural pool is about 20m x 60m with varying depth of about 30:70 shallow to deep ratio. The water was clear, fresh, cooling and refreshing. Everyone was really having a good time. As for me, since I have no skills at swimming, I could only “swim” on the shallow part of the river and sat down on the shallow riverbed for about an hour. After that, we were served with sumptuous sardines cooked in thick coconut milk, scrambled egg, fried potatoes and fried cabbage. Done eating, I performed my prayers before continuing with my power nap. When I woke up, the sun was already setting.

Night came, after the combined Sunset / Evening prayers, I joined the rest for dinner. Around 10.00 pm, some of us wanted to enjoy the beauty of the starry sky from the waterfall upstream. About 11 of us gathered around over instant noodles and got to know one another over a game of Questions & Answers. How does the game work? Well, each person is given the opportunity to ask one question and everyone has to answer as truthfully as they possibly can. So I got to know a little bit about Irma, Nazim, Zura, Suraya, Ida, Nazrul, Ishar, Zaza, Nizam, Khairul and, Nurul who joined at the tail end of the game.

Sunday, 13th May, 2007

Woke up just before 7.00 am, performed my dawn prayers, and down I went into the pool for 1.5 hours of dipping. Breakfast was again supervised by Head Chef, Kak Nor, assisted by Fara. We had fried meehon, fried rice, french toast and, power root coffee and tea for drinks. After that, we packed, cleaned up the campsite, took a few more group shots and started our track back around 11.00 am. A few of the guys had left earlier to set up the rappelling equipment about 1 hour downstream of the camp. There was nothing dramatic about the track back except a few slips and slides. After 1 hour of trekking, we took a breather not knowing that the rappelling location, where we will descend a rock using a fixed rope, was only 2 minutes away. Again we rested. I took the opportunity to cool off in another natural pool nearby. After about 1 hour, we headed down to the trailhead. With just a little detour, we reached the trailhead in a fast time of 30 minutes.

I am too lazy to remember and write in detail about what happened after that, all I could remember was that I bought a canned drink and RM3 worth of keropok lekor (fried chewy fish snack from Terengganu ) to share. Then I changed into fresh clothing, waited for the lorry to come back after picking up the ladies. Reached the restaurant around 4pm. Had fried mee for lunch, Noon/Afternoon prayers combined. Boarded the bus around 5.00 pm. By 9.15pm we reached Wisma Technip.

Looking back, it was a very enjoyable camping trip. Nice and friendly people that I got to know during the trip. Well organized except for the delay in departure and looking for volunteers to carry the tents, food containers and the fly/groundsheets.

Overall – Adventurous, Exciting, Addictive and most importantly SERIOUS FUN!