Had some personal encounters N experiences on
" Lost In The Jungle" during trekking expedition
1)
Mount Ayam, ( 1480 M ) Kelantan,Year happening :
2007 Location :
Gunung Stong/Gunung Ayam Kelantan
Mountains like, Gunung Baha, Gunung Stong & Gunung Ayam, all are adjecent one to another in Jungle of Jelawang in Kelantan.
Happening : After a night of camping at Camp Baha, we trekkers took the Jelawang Jungle trail, trekked towards the peak of Gunung Ayam.
It was our first experience
trekking in downpours, for almost 4-5 hours to the Gunung Ayam peak , the rain has gathered so much water that we felt like trekking in
mini rivers and
mini waterfall as we ascended and decended the
mountain ranges.Soaking wet and cold but
breathing the fresh air.Gunung Ayam was our second outing after Gunung Ledang,Johor, which went on smoothly and successful except some of us had overpacked and some underpacked our luggages.
We had improved but were
still quite inexperience in a
different terrain such as that of Gunung Ayam, so, all of us were very cautious and stick to one another, been accounted for each other and so on.
There were
many cross junctions that we were unfamiliar with, though our group were consisted of trekkers who has different trekking speed,
Some were fast, their legs are light as wings, it was as if they could trek not on legs, but wings
and some were slow.
But we uphold team spirit,
trekked in a team, and
managed to the peak in the team.
After reaching the peak, we were waiting for the porter to arrive.
Of which he never did.
Later from our organiser, we got to know that porter said he had
walked so fast ahead of us.
He then realised he has
made a mistake in the
presence of the wrong grouping of trekkers, of which their destination was Gunung Stong ( 1390 M ) whereas ours was Gunung Ayam.
He
back trekked from Gunung Stong, by then the rain was so heavy, it slowed him down. He
could not have caught up at all.
Next he was
stranded by the river bank.
He
wasn't able to go forward as the river bank had swelled to dangerous level for crossing. Though we have just got to know each other,
news on someone got lost from the group
is no fun.
In another words, it was really no joke to
hear & experience the news in itself let alone
searching for him
after trekking the entire day without stop.
The incident had
taken a toll on the organiser, and other team members were
stressed out too.
Finally, The porter was, very clever to take care of his own safety by
camping on his own, of which we were consoled and comforted.
we
dreaded to think of what might have happened to him,....
..
had he tried to cross the river by himself.
...the
swift river flow after that rain,
....
slippery river bed and unstable as well as moving rocks etc.
...it is scary even to imagine that.
Lessons to learn here : Beside safety as utmost importance, communication is also very important.
From this experience, we had learned that there is
actually not much worth in
rushing from one point to another, unless there is a valid reason to do so.
Even if there is, it is undesirable to rush in the deep forest & jungle which you might
injure yourself accidently.
So we had
no dinner on that particular night, and
so was no breakfast the next morning, we trekked down from the peak.
It was a
good opportunity learning to respond to different situations that arised on that instance.We
make do with whatever that we had, snack food like chocolate bars, we fed it to the children....... and we enjoyed the moon lit night at the Gunung Ayam peak, the beautiful sunrise the next morning.
In retrospect, it was alright to go without a meal or two on that particular trip only to gain a lesson or two on jungle survival.
To be careless and lost yourself ? Jangan Main Main....takut la!
