Taman Negara National Park
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2006
1
21
55
Trip End
Ongoing
Kuala Tahan,
Malaysia
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Arriving at Kuala Tahan, I checked into a dorm with 2 Germans guys I'd just met, and because accomodation is located on the opposite side of the river to the park, we almost imediately crossed over and started our first trek. After 45 mins or so of scrambling through the undergrowth we reached the 'Canopy Walkway'. This activity was actually the one I was looking forward to the most and it failed to disappoint. It was exactly how I'd imagined/hoped. The walkway (very 'I'm a celebrity get me outa here') is the world's longest, at 450m and is suspended 40m above the ground in parts. Going across was shakey, as I'm pretty sure they had just used ladders and planks of wood as the bridge, but the view from above was stunning. We continued our trek and headed for the peak of Bukit Teresek, which was a gruelling hike up a very steep incline. The path was mostly made of tree roots and although ready to pass out at the top, again the view (and sense of achievement) made it worth while.
My actual brushes with wildlife seem tame considering the vast number of species living here.
Canopy Walkway
However, I saw a massive lizard, I only caught the back end of it though as it shot across my path. It's tail alone was at least 1m which makes me think it could have been a comodo dragon. Not wanting to sound too David Attenborough, I also saw a huge, bright red centipede. We put a light down next to it, to give it some perspective, and it attacked it...I was glad I hadn't stepped on it!! So apart from a few monkeys, that was about it for animals. They probably heard me coming and scattered, but more likely I just didn't see them because I was walking with my head down most of the time, making sure I didn't go arse over tit on a root and constantly knocking off leeches. The jungle was rife with them, especially after rainfall, and if you didn't catch them in time, the fast movers would be feasting on your blood without you knowing. I went trekking with Felix and Bjorn again the next day, we arrived at Lubok Simpon a popular swimming hole. As it had been raininy the water didn't look too appertising, plus I was fearful of a mass leech attack if I did venture into the water. A less obvious danger however, was when we became under attack from a mango tree, sparadically dropping a lot of its fruit!After the Germans departed I wasn't alone for long as by chance I bumped into Nick, my pal from Bangkok and the full moon party, and I spent the next 2 days with him. For my last experdition into the jungle, we decided to cross the river at a different point and head in a new direction in seach of Gua Telinga, one of the park's accessible caves. After a hard 3km we reached our destination, and although we knew the caves would be tricky to negotiate, the crevises were smaller than I'd expected. But we'd gone that far, we weren't backing out, so armed with a torch I entered the first section, which went fairly deep and was wet at the bottom. The next section put my newly acclaimed rock climbing skills into action, as I squeezed throught a tight gap (I say I squeezed, Nick must be 7ft 10 or something!!). What greeted me on the other side were lots of bats, hanging from the roof. Moving our torch over them seemed to distrub them and a couple flew very close to us! This promted a swift movement to the next and last section, but this was worse and was home to hundreds of bats. Our invasion wasn't taken too kindly and many got restless. I had visions of coming out with 2 holes in my neck so we made our excuses and left!! This was a fantasic trek, very long, but enjoyable and as a bonus, good exercise.
I really enjoyed getting back to nature for a few days, but by the end of my stay I looked and smelt like I'd been living in the park for months. So on to a big city, and the chance to get some clean clothes...
