CHEMPEROH part 1

can you find a froggie ? top left of picture...look carefully....

21st June!!! finally at chemperoh waterfalls...why do i say finally? well...i've been part of this outdoor group that seek out difficult waterfalls to trek to....we use GPS...correction...an old GPS...and a black and white computer printout and we run into the jungle in search of our reward...a nice waterfall...in my book, any chance to be out of a four wall concrete cubicle is greeted with a big yeeaaahhhhh!!! so yeah...it's all good...but chemperoh was a waterfall that ellude us...on our last trip here to cemperoh...we could not find the waterfall...anyway...before i talk about today's journey...let's rewind back to 23rd February 2008...our first attempt at chemperoh.
As usual...after meeting up at 6am in bandar utama....and having our breakfast we drive off to our starting point...usually some weird end at a road when you can't drive anymore and have to stop and go by foot...


at this point...some people will decide to go barefoot...it's the better choice...as mud, water and slopes makes shoes really uncomfortable...but then some are too precious about their legs and are afraid of leeches, adding even more uncomfortable leech socks....

at the begining...we were deciding...if we were to follow the stream nd get the to waterfall...or to follow land routes...we decided on land routes because the stream really hindered our movement as we tried to balance in the current....

Land routes aren't free of problems either...water routes will eventually lead to the waterfall upstream...but land routes tend to be very confusing with trees and splits in trails possible bringing us in the wrong direction...luckily we have our reliable super-GPS-boy seng keong...
ever smiling and ready to lead us...astray...yes...we got lost and ended up in empty fields baking hot with no shady trees...occasionally we had to run as sprinklers came on and we didn't know if they were filled with chemicals....the ground we were walking on was like lumpy porridge but littered with dead grass poisoned by weedkiller and the air has a smell of smoke from the burning and land clearing that was underway nearby...needless to say it was a hopeless situation
but we were in good spirits and could still cam whore to amuse ourselves...
the waterfall...it shouldn't be far....we should be able to do it...we tried to keep faith pointing at a little black and white image of it on our map printed from the internet.
we all tried to give opinions on where the waterfall is...some of us looked under bushes...i heard water that way!!!! if only it's that easy...leaves in the wind sometimes do sound like water flow....
there was hope...in a farmer...we showed him our map and asked him directions...he began by shaking his head in amusement. He then said..."aren't there easier waterfalls to get too? you people too free is it to look for one so deep in the jungle here?"

eventually...all hope was lost...hey...you'll give up to if you walked for 4 hours and all you see is this....

even our scout explorer...was sitting down and you can almost hear his silent moans.... and you can almost hear his silent moans....but it's not as simple as saying we are giving up and getting a cold glass of coke and a sofa to relax...we have to walk the same distance we walked in out...yes...another three hours across crazy hot terrain...to everyone's credit...nobody gave up...we took a break by a stream...and ate our cold now a big mess nasi lemak...as it rode in our bag pack through all the crazy terrain...the river looks nice but as tempted as we are we avoided swimming in it as it was farmland,and honestly on our journey just now we say many fertiliser and chemical pesticides oozing into streams that probably feed into this river way downstream...

Seng Keong was clearly dissapointed and said sorry but it really wasn't his fault...we just got lost...really lost....

Finally...we did get out...and well...seeing there's no waterfall...we decided to do something stupid before running off...ride outside the 4WD as seng keong drove it up and down fast...little victories...and that conclude our first 'failed miserably' attempt at chemperoh...check in again in a few days to read about our second attempt...
to be continued