| PCC: Rainbow Waterfalls, Sungei Lembing | ||
| 17 June 2001 | ||
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KRANKY WEEKEND IN KUANTAN |
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Difficulty: It’s all an illusion. |
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| ‘Sungei Lembing to Gunung Tapis Rainbow Waterfall’ | ||
| by Dr. Eric Orang Gunung Tan | ||
| This was my inauguration ride with PCC, and I was very much looking forward to the event having not given opportunity to do much off-road cycling in Malaysia. To my surprise, Father’s day did immobilize many from leaving KL, and the small numbers of riders was a blessing in disguise to me as it made the experience more personal. | ||
| The route was not exactly a spectacularly scenic or technical one, the track being ruined by previous logging and recent “road improvement” works. The Tyrant told me that just 9 months ago, this was the best off-road track Kuantan had to offer… and I do very much agree with the Tyrant that even David Coultard will have no problems driving his McLaren Mercedes on it (just unfortunate for me not to have known PCC earlier). Even with that disappointing note, the track was still very excellent for fun fast rides on downhills and good physical challenges on uphills. | ||
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| The initial few kilometers of the track, from Sungei Lembing to the hot spring was an experience to mention… not only do we have the challenge of a continuous (and rather steep) ascend from 200 m to 600 m, we also had to frequently avoid being run over by the heavy traffic and breathe smelly fumes of their exhaust after that. Beyond the hot spring, the track was much more pleasant. After 18 km, we came to a logging camp. This was our start point to get our shoes wet and to face the leeches. | ||
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The trail to Rainbow Waterfall was, to me the highlight of the trip. We followed the river upstream scrambling over wet boulders for about a kilometer when suddenly the forest canopy opened up and… Rainbow Waterfall and all it’s magic was reviewed. A spectacular vertical drop of about 150 metres, and the flow becoming a mist at its foot; it was one of the most aesthetic waterfalls that I have seen. |
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| ‘Rainbow Waterfalls Revisited’ | ||
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by Tyrant Chin |
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| Those that saw this unique falls will remember it for a long time. In its present state of UN-NECESSARY ease of accessibility, its future will be greatly threatened by reckless disposal of rubbish along its tracks. When you neglect a jungle path – it just become virgin again unlike humans once touched – it’s contaminated forever. But when you start throwing rubbish along the way – the Forest is RAPED!!. Will we ever learn? I counted - one rubber sole, one broken slipper, one empty mineral water bottle, and one sun block bottle. Any form of littering is not acceptable no matter how small or little – litter is litter and someone else has to come along and clean it up behind you! | ||
| Father’s Day. The usual Kuantan gang was here including our Soh. Chong could not attend today’s ride due to earlier appointments. | ||
| Started off at 8.45 with the mandatory warm up lap around town. It was up, up, up for the next 4 km. I believe none of us stopped along the way. Eric family stayed back in town for breakfast – to catch up with us later. | ||
| Made several stops along the way - to collect waypoints with Eric’s GPS. With good cranking speed, we still managed to arrive at the river crossing in 1hr 35 minutes. Our guests – Ingrid & Eric plus myself decided to head up the falls instead of waiting around. The rest decided to hold back for Josephine & Jr. | ||
| River crossing was a bit tricky. Water was murky due to late evening rain. Once across, it was a short very stony walk before you reach the embankment. It was quite a long time since I did this climb but based on Chong & Soh’s recent visit, it should not be too difficult to trace the path. The tracks are slightly more run in due to the higher traffic. | ||
| About 100 yards in, we heard Tham’s air-horn, which I believe, indicated Josephine’s arrival. A quick check with the wireless – Yes, she will be coming in together with 2-year-old junior!! | ||
| In the mean time, we continued with our climb. Mid way through, another small party of weekend hikers overtook us. We eventually bottle neck at the last 100 meters up the rocks into the falls. | ||
| From this distance we could already see the top of majestic falls. Lots of water today and also means will have problems getting a good photo. | ||
| It was not another 30 minutes later before Soh finally pop his head over the rocks. Eric had to backtrack to bring up Jr. Finally all of us finally regrouped. That makes Jr the youngest member to have visited Rainbow falls!!!! | ||
| Going down was a breeze. Kranking the home run was even easier. The long rest in between plus cold water means cramps for me. A small pull just before we started was good enough a reminder. Taking it easy, I still managed to crank a steady speed up the hills until Sungai Jin when I had a small attack. Making use of the excuse to stop for Ingrid at the top of each hill – helps. Fortunately, experience in dealing with cramps helped to pull me through without too much difficulty. You bet I was dehydrated! That means limping for the next 3 days. | ||
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Surprisingly, all of us were out in 1hr 30 minutes…. No slower then going in. I told you it was all an illusion…. |
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