Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Teluk Ketapang Story Part 03: The First Attempt

With a very vague and short description of how to get there obtained from various sources, we used our (non-existent) pathfinding skills to find our way there. According to the guide, it is only a short 1.2km journey that would only require 15 to 30 minutes. Of course, we allocated many more hours than what was recommended just in case, considering this trail was hardly used.

So, we started our little project (non-research related as claimed by all dailies) last month. We were expecting the difficulty to be something similar to that of Teluk Kampi but the truth is, it was probably more difficult. There was practically no path whatsoever due to the overgrowth of vegetation and fallen trees covering the trail.

It was very much like a treasure hunt as we searched for clues and locations stated in the guide. The trail begins from one of the casuarina trees near the abandoned Boon Siew bungalow. We had to walk past overgrown lallang to get to a canal and cross it using a makeshift bridge. After crossing the canal, we entered the forest and came to a fruit orchard with mangosteen trees. As we ventured further, we reached a durian orchard and a very steep hillslope (the durians were delicious, by the way). According to the guide, the trail starts to the right of the wild ginger plants. Unfortunately, the area was overgrown with vegetation and fallen branches with no trail to be seen. As we couldn't decide which path to follow and there were a group of our friends waiting for us at Teluk Duyong, we decided to continue another day.




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