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20~21 May 2006
Sungai Perdak Trip
a.k.a the write off
Chapter 1 : The Story Behind The Trip....
Wesak Day fell on Friday 12th May and that weekend was a there-day weekend. Plans were made to venture the Sungai Perdak trail, but in an almost last minute manner, Whiskey Mike pulled out as he had to be in Kota Kinabalu over the weekend on a short notice. I decided that two cars would not be as fun as having three cars. With November Hotel announcement that he made up his mind to sell his Land Cruiser after a frustrating (to him at least) performance on our 3rd Lepar outing (on 29th April to 1st May), and Zulu Yankee's stand on not joining any outing for reasons still unclear to most of us, the Sungai Perdak trip revolved around Romeo, Whiskey Mike and me. But it was postponed.
The week after, the three of us were silence about our postponed Sungai Perdak trip. But on Wednesday, Romeo sms'd indicating the trip to be on. Long story short, Whiskey Mike declined joining the trip. Although Romeo and I felt a bit disappointed with Whiskey's decision, we decided to go on with the planned trip. Thus it was down to two cars..... and Romeo vented his impediment through sms that said "Gugujah is left with two cars....".. hmmmmmmm....
Anyway, the show must go on, right?
I needed an alternate co-pilot ~ I could not bring my brother May as my wife had to attend a dinner at her school that weekend, and somebody need to mind the children. Romeo also indicated he needed a co-pilot and asked me to bring another person with me. For me, I had a few friends whom had "registered" to follow me on outings but I could not not before bring them due to the limiting seats in my shortie elsie... Late Thursday, Azilan (from my biking world) agreed to join the trip, but there were no one else that had the weekend free. Thus, when Azilan and I headed out from my home that Saturday morning, I reminded him that he'll be doing co-pilot work for Romeo as well... he was ok with that! But fate has it, when I stopped over to pick up the spare rim from Snan in Damansara, Dedeq (my nephew whom is living with Snan) agreed to tag along. Thus, Romeo would have his co-pilot for the trip....
Chapter 2 : The Trip
Arriving in Bentong, I stopped over at Wai Loon's workshop to trobleshoot the aircond in my car which has not been working for the last few trips. He repaired the thing and it was a 'cooling' ride from then on...hehehehehe..... Arriving at Romeo's house, he insisted that I put on a spare tyre for my tyre-less spare rim. Well, in case anyone is wondering, I had taken off the spare tyre from my elsie the week before as it came from my street tyre set (of only four pieces). That street tyre set is now on my Trooper (and case anybody is wondering, I bought that Trooper sometime back for family outdoor trips just like the Lata Outing). Thus, we ramaged behind his house and took out one his many unused tyre, headed to a local tyre shop and with RM8, my elsie was equipped with a spare tyre.... We headed ot of Bentong around 1000hrs and in less that an hour later we were driving into the orchards that lead into the Sungai Perdak trail.
| Ohh... by the way, I was having a bit of migraine attack since morning, thus I asked Azilan to pilot the elsie from Bentong. He drove all the way until we hit the trail.
Azilan (among others) have been asking to follow me on outings eversince I first bought the elsie. But with limited space, I could not invite him before until this trip. Azilan loves fishing, and by virtue of his fishing trips, he loves camping as well. 4X4 activities, he admires, but for have not had a chance to go on any 4X4 outing until this trip. I must say, Azilan is a natural outdoor man! He fitted just fine only after a few instructions and tips on 4X4 do's and dont's.... |
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After that first obstacle, we decided to stop and rest at a nice camping site. Beautiful riverside with a flat and cozy area. Seen here Romeo fulfilling his obligation, while Dedeq was still enjoying the cool water.... and Azilan was posing for the album...hehehe |
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We arrived at that area around 1230hrs, and after having lunch, said our prayers, bathed in the cool river, we were refreshed and continued our journey at about 1400hrs. The trail were mostly climbs with sandy and rocky routes. Big boulders were everywhere along the rail. At time I can feel my undercarriage (hopefully not the axles) being either scraped or thumped by the rocks!
Chapter 3 : The Highway to nowhere....
The hill climb after our pitstop seemed challenging. At times, we talked how our other members missed this rather exciting trip ~ a little something for everybody, remarked Romeo. Well, Zulu would have loved the camping area with wide and deep river. November would really enjoy the mild trail, while whiskey would just enjoy the trip as he always did....
Ohhh...by the way, we did deploy our winches once on this trip. And it was here where we had to negotiate a big boulder with deep ruts to the left and right - not to mention the deep ravine on our right hand side! The climb was quite steep as well causing both the elsie and the Suzuki to be quite unstable for us to charge pass this hurdle.
Chapter 4 : Our Prayers Answered...
God works in mysterious ways.... always.
While making our way (from Shah Alam) to Bentong, Azilan said the weather was nice and shiny. To that I remarked "this is no good for us... not fun as we always pray for rain when going on an outing!". Romeo also said similar to Azilan during the lunch pitstop. Well...after half an hour or so into our journey from that pitstop, it rained..and it rained heavily! so much so that all of us were soaking wet as we stepped out to recce the SS along the way.
Although it was raining cats and dogs, Dedeq didn't mind!
Chapter 5 : The About Turn...
It was almost 1600hrs when we reached this SS, a wide river crossing with damaged timber bridge. Boulders and rock posed an obstacle that would require not only tremendous effort and energy, but time consuming as well. And with only four people on the trip, Romeo and I deliberated at length and decided that it was best we end the trip there and make an about turn and camp for the night at our lunch pitstop.
It wasn't only the crossing that made us decided to swing around. The whole journey has been what Romeo described as "highway drive" except for a few hurdles that was not really hard to overcome. And another remark from Romeo "this trail is a write off lah..."
Chapter 6 : The Camping
We decided to head back to the place where we stopped for lunch earlier for our camping ground for the night. It has wide flat ground area and easy access to the river.... After the evening rituals (bathe, eat, prayers etc...), Romeo took to the 'kitchen' to prepare dinner. It was a delicious one mate!
After dinner, and immediately after Isya' prayer, I was ready to hit the sack while Azilan was already in his tent. Dedeq was already dozing off in the tent. But Romeo was not ready to leave us alone! Thus the three of us engaged in a chit chat session while Dedeq was already halfway into dream zone. But with Azilan yawning away, we retired for the night well before midnite! And by the way, Azilan has been officially accepted (by the decree of Romeo...hehehehe...) as a Gugujah member! Welcome bro!
Chapter 7 : The Morning After...
We retired earlier than our previous outing that night. So, the reward was we woke up very early in the morning. And I was in the mood to prepare breakfast, which was our specialty ~ the french toast a.k.a the bombay toast by some. And before the sun was up, we had our breakfast, do 50% of packing up and more importantly, we were refreshed!
From left: The toast, inviting and ready to be savoured; and the tents ~ bigger one is mine, smaller one Azilan's.
From left: Romeo's sleeping den; and Romeo packing up...
Chapter 8 : One for the album...
Dedeq and Bravo Romeo, Dedeq and Azilan
As we headed out of Sungai Perdak trail, took this picture of a beautiful waterfall...... too bad we didn't see it the day day before, otherwise we would have camped here!
Here's another photo (copyrighted, i.e. this was not taken by me on this trip) of the fall...... nice eh?
: Gugujah's Home :
written and uploaded by Bravo Lima on 23rd May 2006
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