Jungle trekking road trip!!

ROAD TRIP!!!!!  I woke up feeling pretty rough, probably due to sunstroke, but still managed to make it down the elevator to the smallest hire-car ever which Ben & Simon had organised for our trip to the world's oldest jungle (135million years) - Taman Negara.  The car itself was a beast, boasting an engine that was less than a litre!  I jumped in, and we headed back to Freya's place to pick her up as she was slacking off work for a few days,

Check out the cammo

After stopping for petrol I tried to get a map, although there doesn't seem to be road maps for Malaysia so I settled for a drawing from a petrol attendant, which was surprisingly accurate.  It clearly wasn't accurate enough though as we took a bit of a detour through the Genting Highlands!  The debate still goes on over who was responsible.... the journey was a good laugh!  Once we arrived in Kuala Tahan, via Jerantut, we checked all the accommodation out, got a pretty nice but cheap room, and grabbed some local food before playing some cards and then hitting the sack pre-major jungle trek.

Check out the compfy bed

We got up reasonably eary on Tuesday (10th), grabbed some local donuts and got on with the important task of getting cammo-ed up, much to the amusement of everyone.  (check out the pics).  After sorting out our permit, we headed off on a massive trek through the jungle to a wooden hide (Buumbun Kumbang) that we would stay in.  Early in the walk we did a Canopy Walk on man-made platforms over the jungle, which was pretty good although a little busy.  After leaving that behind we never really saw anyone else on our track.  The walk was pretty hard work, and it was made even harder by the fact that leeches seem to love me.  I currently have 13 bite marks as evidence just on my right leg!!!  Even so, it's all part of the experience.  After about 5 hours trekking things were made eve tougher by what I would class as a mini monsoon.  It chucked it down for the rest of our trek (2 more hours), turning paths into rivers, which made for some wading!

Survivor!

When we finally arrived at the hide (after 7 hours and 12km through thick jungle) we cleared all the leeches off, everyone got down to their boxers as everything was wet, unpacked all the wet stuff from our bags and chilled out playing cards.  There were a few other people there, trying to spot animals out the windows, but in all honestly they were saring into darkness.  If they would have seen anything exciting we would have known and gone over to see for ourselves!  Sleeping was pretty much impossible without any dry clothes or bedding.  I managed a couple of hours somehow! 

We decided we weren't going to do the trek back as we were low on water, food, and warmth so we made our way 2km to the river, seeing a snake on the way) and managed to pay some locals to boat us back to Kuala Tahan, where the car was waiting.  Once changed into clean clothes we drove back to KL, stopping on the way for the most appreciated McDonalds ever.  The jungle in Taman Negara was by far the best I've seem.  It was also the best trekking as it was a lot tougher than my previous ones, and a lot more dense.  Plus the rain made it a real adventure.  It was a great road-trip that I doubt I'll forget any time soon, particularly if the leech marks remain...

Team Rambo

The canopy walk