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The Second (unfinished) Sungai Liang Trip
30th June 2006, Friday
It has been a month of no activity for some of Gugujah members... For me, the previous Sg Perdak trip was more than one month ago. Thus, when Romeo made plans to re-visit Sungai Liang in Raub, Pahang, it was a trip I was looking forward to.
This time around, the trip would start on Friday evening to return back on Sunday. So, it was supposed to be a two-nights camping affair. Romeo (the event manager thus far except for Lepar outings..) said that we needed the extra night to cover the whole track of Sungai Liang. The first time we visited this forest reserve in February, we managed to cover only the mild stretch as were pressed on time. Sungai Liang track is a dead-end track with many fun and challenging SS ~ at least that's what Romeo gathered from the groups that has made the trip successfully before. And it would take a solid two days to do that....
We headed out late in the afternoon, arriving Raub town at almost 10:00pm. I met up Romeo in his hometown Bentong while Whiskey waited for us in Raub (he was on his way back from business trip in Kota Baru).
The first obstacle was a small river crossing with deep rut on the uphill river bank as we crossed the river. The narrow track gave Bravo's door (driver's side) a serious dent! Anyway, Romeo whom was leading the convoy made his way through this SS without winching. Hail Romeo ! Whilst for Bravo and Whiskey, winching was the only way to get through....
When we arrived at the second SS, the time was already passed midnight.
The SS has a bridge crossing --> 
<-- picture from our first trip
However, the timber crossing was badly damaged, with signs of oil spill probably from previous unsuccessful attempt to negotiate the crossing via the timber bridge. After scouting around, we decided to go around the bridge, thus pioneering a new crossing just to the left of the bridge. Romeo passed through the steep climb and descend across the stream. But when it came to Bravo's turn, fear got the better of Bravo! Instead, Whiskey drove the elsie to get it through this SS.....hmmmmm.....
.... Bravo's elsie in a dangerous slant postion when it slipped into the slopes as Whiskey was negotiating the SS....
Immediatley after breakfast, Whiskey had his hand full trying to troubleshoot Bravo's elsie. The engine was acting up - only ran on three cylinders, while there were certain problems with the steering ~ not to mention oil leaks which was noticed earlier from the oil pan, or from the engine itself as it was really messy in there (so, not easy to narrow down the source of leak)
As it turned out, one plug was burnt-out, thus the elsie would be running on three-cylinders. By then, it was decided that we would turn around ~ what a frustration for Romeo and whiskey especially as we hadn't even reached the river crossing from our forst trip to this place! The speedometer indicated we had only covered less than 10km of offroad!
Bravo's elsie came down not with one illness, but at least three during this trip. Firstly the engine was running at below capacity; secondly, the front axle could probably have some broken gears (tell tale sound while driving); and thirdly the axle stbilizer was broken (this had caused a major steering mis-alignment...)
Had it not been for the ability of whiskey to modify/makeshift the tie-end, the elsie would have been stranded in the jungle at least until spare parts are brought in to replace the broken stabilizer.
elsewhere... the Camping Activity...
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the camp ground... simple and easy... |
Romeo preparing lunch.... |
While dad was busy preparing the meal, Romeo's two sons was enjoying the cold creek and tried their luck at fishing (no luck though... so we had canned sardines for lunch!)
After lunch and Zohor prayers, the team (of three-cars, less November and Zulu whom have been absent from trips for a while now... not too sure when they will come back active...hmmmm...... ) packed-up, and head out of this (again) unfinished trip. In my mind, we will return to finish the track... soon....real soon..........
Here's the images from the SS that has taken Bravo's elsie's axle stabilizer.... the place where the timber bridge crossing was damaged and we had to chart a new route to cross the deep ravine/stream...
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Whiskey's Trooper needed an extra winching effort (from Bravo's car) to overcome this hurdle.... |
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All in all, it was a rather disappointing trip. From the main road, we covered 10km into the offroad (that's 20km round trip). Although we did face one challenging SS (plus two others), our intention to reach the end of this track did not materialise.... I must say, Romeo and his Suzuki did very well on this trip... only having to do winching when it was really needed --> and that's easily half the time that Whiskey's or Bravo's use of winch. He's the winner I guess.... if we were on competition!
Hasta Manana
: back to GUGUJAH home :
as always, the webmaster and narrator, Bravo Lima Charlie, 4 July 2006.
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