Ah the wonders of modern technology. In most of my drives around the Peninsular, maps have been the order of the day. On my bicycle ride I even mounted a map on my handlebar bag which helped me keep on course, never mind the fact that the map was not a very large scale and was proved to be erroneous on at least one occasion…
The car Adrian provided was their daughter’s Proton and it came with a Garmin GPS unit which was quite useful, but as we discovered, a little off at times too. More of that later.
Our first morning and we found our bag of packed lunch waiting for us on the front verandah around 7. We were going to the Gunung Gading National park for a spot of hiking and to look for the Rafflesia. We’d seen some in Perak a couple of years ago when we did a Northern Peninsular trip with Megan and Michael but this was a different species and anyway, it’s always fun to see something in the wild which is special and rare.
Getting to Gunung Gading involved crossing a river by car ferry and this was a little adventure. The ferry was much larger than any I’d been on except the Penang ferry - certainly many times the size of the winch-ferry I’d been on in Lahad Datu in the 80s. This one could hold maybe 10-12 vehicles and even trucks. We drove down a steep concrete ramp and up onto the steel deck then got out of our car - something the rules said we had to do but which the ‘regulars’ casually ignored. The crew didn’t seem too fussed either and when we paid the RM1 I had a short chat with them. Turns out there are really two ferries which are docked at opposite banks and depart at the same time, passing each other mid-river.
The river itself was not too wide and the crossing took just a few minutes. Despite the weather report predicting a week-full of rainy weather, the day was reasonably bright and the water was calm. I wonder what it would be like in a storm - that little 2-car winch-ferry I was on in Lahad Datu had to defer to the raging waters and floating logs rushing downstream. This ferry, I was assured, could weather any storm and ran every day, rain or shine. It did seem tough enough.
All aboard...
Good to see inflation doesn't affect some things.
That little notice was for a Karaoke competition in a nearby town. I wonder who won...
A floating fish farm or something.
The other ferry.
After disembarking, we pressed on along a quiet, two-lane trunk road. The steady drive was periodically punctuated by narrow bailey bridges which we had to slow down to cross. If another vehicle happened along in the opposite direction, this was effected always with politeness and patience, and usually with a wave goodbye as we passed. I’ve learnt in the past few years that Sabahans and Sarawakians have a thing or two to teach Peninsular Malaysians about living in harmony - and here was evidence that the lifestyle here aids that.
An old Bailey Bridge, upgraded with a steel surface rather than two strips of planks.
A narrow bridge and patient and polite traffic on the other side.
We hired a guide at the Gunung Gading Park Entrance and he turned out to be a soft-spoken man of about 50 or so dressed in a casual shirt, tailored pants, hiking boots, a green vest and a baseball cap. He spoke with a slight accent which I initially thought was Filipino but I came to realise it’s the local accent. The three of us plus our guide were soon joined by Indiana Jones. Well, another guide who looked the part - he was dressed in khaki shorts, hiking boots, a khaki shirt, a belt with various implements hanging off it including a very local rattan basket containing… well, who knows what it contained? Poisoned darts? A small snake? Leeches? This chap seemed tough as nails and looked like he could hike over steep mountains before breakfast, snare and kill a wild boar for lunch, then swim down rapids to get home in time for an episode of ‘Survival with Ray Mears’ just to laugh at how much a pansy Mears was in comparison.
A couple of tourists accompanied this Indiana Jones and the lot of us trekked along behind our guides. The first chap pointed out various things of interest and eventually we found not just a blooming Rafflesia (about to die though), but also rotted flowers that had already died, buds that were awaiting the next stage of their lives, buds that would miss out on that next stage for whatever reason and so on.
A bit less than the 70cm they claimed I think, but still very large nonetheless.
And there's a little insect attracted by the odour, doing what it's meant to do - propagate the species for the Rafflesia.
A strange seaweed-looking plant.
Here we are all gathered around the flower.
Sharon and Mei.
The vines are tagged for easy dating and identification.
A flower that's already expired and will soon return to the soil.
And one which is about to bloom. It looks just like a loaf of bread.
This variety was not as smelly as I had thought it might be though the others detected a faint odour.
The trails in Gunung Gading are very well marked and you get a good briefing before you set off so after we’d seen a few of the plants, including a bread-loaf looking bud about to burst into a flower, we let the guide go and wandered off on our own towards one of the waterfalls. Not only are the trails well marked, they are also in a good state of repair - the wooden bits that got slippery when wet now had little wooden strips nailed into the planks at one-step-distances. These 1 cm high slats give you better purchase on the wooden surface and prevent slipping. They were also neatly painted so you could spot them easily. Some concrete-slab steps were also being replaced. All in all, a very well run park from what we could see.
The hike up was pretty challenging and even though the distance was not great, the strain was a little. We opted not to go to the higher falls which were supposedly more spectacular and stayed around Fall 1 instead. More a series of rock pools than anything, this was a nice enough spot and we stopped and had our lunch here.
A couple of HDR shots - I do like the effect.
At one point along the hike Mei and I spotted a weird multi-legged bug which was crawling on its back. Thinking it couldn’t right itself, I tried to help, but it didn’t take long before this fella was back on its back, wriggling along through the leaves right up to the water’s edge, whereupon it went straight in and was swept away. Most unusual…
We also spotted some strange formations at the exposed roots of a plant - bulbous shapes which I took to perhaps be tubers but we later found out were actually termite nests.
Here's the strange bug that insisted on moving along on its back.
After leaving the park, we stopped at a nearby town for a drink. We’d wanted to visit a couple of nearby beaches which were reputed to be beautiful but the GPS unit took us some distance away and when we arrived, told us we had to turn around as we were actually in the wrong place. We gave up and eventually drove back, boarding the ferry en route once again. Dinner was enjoyed in that night, and after 2 cans of Fosters in the two days we’d been at The Kebun, I discovered the bottle of Tuak and left the Ozzie piss alone for the rest of our stay.
Here's another bug which was rather large.
These shapes around the roots are termite nests apparently.
An HDR shot of the Park HQ.
No, I don't know why they appear in this sequence either!
More information on Gunung Gading National Park can be found here.
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