It was an exciting experience! This is the first expedition I went with the adventure club. I was in the food I/C. There was much to learn about what kind of food can be brought and which is more nutritous etc.
The first day was spent teaching about how to do the gas cannister, pitching of tents and getting to know one another. Then we travelled for 7 hours to Kuantan.
We arrived 3 hours ahead of time at the Mosque where we spent the night. We had to do sentry duty, so each group had to spent 1.5hours awake looking out for suspicious people or objects. Haha. I did the last sentry duty. At 6.30am we prepared breakfast. 8am the lorry came to bring us to the foot of Berkelah waterfall.
Now we know how those construction workers feel sitting on a lorry! The 10min ride to the foot of berkelah was really bumpy!! HAHA!
After a head count, we set off for an hour's trek up to our campsite. We took the most difficult route, which is the rocky route. The first few minutes of trekking, it was okay...quite easy. Suddenly we came to this 80 degree slope down. The slope is made of HUGE rocks. I was thinking, how am I going to get down without slipping and carrying this 65litre backpack. So I threw my bag down, with the help of Melvin stationed there. Then I slowly slided down. I thought that was it...
I saw another 80 degree slope UPWARDS. And again it's made of huge rocks, this time..the rocks had a good thick spread of algae. Great. I passed my bag up to another person stationed there. And carefully went up.
Then ANOTHER steep slope. AHHH! I really gave that -.- face to Melvin. HAHA. I shouted, "AGAIN?!?! Irritating!"
Haha...finally reached the campsite after an hour of trekking with that heavy backpack.
The campsite is lovely! It's about a few meters away from a small waterfall, one of the drainage system from the real big mama berkalah waterfall.
This is the 2nd day already. We trekked up 20minutes to where the water current isn't so strong and played funny games! HAHA. Everytime someone made a mistake in the game, EVERYONE has to DIP inside. The water is FREEZING cold. So you can imagine dipping inside. GOSH.
We made our way back for dinner. It was PASTA! =) Yum yum.
In the night, I did the first sentry, we laid on the rocks just next to the waterfall, looked at the stars and hear the sound of the water crashing. SO NICE! And I saw a shooting star! =)
After my duty I went to the cooking area and slept under the basha. Think Irving was next to me. Can't remember.
In the morning, had to force myself to get out of my warm sleeping bag and out and face the cold morning breeze.
We had potato salad that morning. It was surprisingly nice! =)
We set off to trek up to the top of the waterfall. The route was a little more difficult. Had very slippery rocks and a lot of steep slopes. We finally reached our first stop to do a cliff jump! SO fun! We all climbed up this big big rock, then stand near the edge of the rock, then...1 2 3...JUMP OFF! HAHA. The jump is about 1-2 storeys. Ya. Super thrilling for me coz I'm scared of heights. When I stood at the edge of the rock, I was quite hesitant. But I just quickly jump off before I change my mind.
One girl was really really frightened! She stood there for a whole 2 hours! And Mr.Wilfred kept encouraging her. Those who had already jumped and waiting on the other side just encouraged her too! =)
Since it was getting late, we had lunch at the cliff jump stop, supposed to have lunch at the top of the waterfall.
Lunch was tuna and bread and nata de coco. Haha.
Kudos to the girl who finally jumped off together with Mr.Wilfred! YAY!!! So proud of her!
Because we took too long at the cliff jump stop, we didn't have time for everyone to trek up to the top of the waterfall.
But Mr.Wilfred allowed the committee to trek up. And because I was in the committee, I was allowed to go. So thankful to Mr.Wilfred! =)
Pang Keng, Eddry, Min, Melvin, Pangkeng and 2 seniors Rafi and Yan Chang and myself trekked up. After 11 minutes of trekking, Yan Chang said, "WE ARE HERE!!"
We all went, "HUH?! SO FAST?!"
What would take 1.5hours for all the paricipants to trek up, the 8 of us took only 11minutes! HAHA. Great!!
The view at the top of the waterfall is amazing! Very beautiful! We took lots of photo with Yan Chang's olympus waterproof camera! HAHA. And we collected some water from the 1st pool of the waterfall. FRESHEST WATER! Haha.
Then we made our way down. On the way down, I slipped A LOT. Thank God that Yan Chang held my hands all the way. =) She taught me a lot, like where to step, look out for dry spots and what to do if I slip and fall into the waterfall. Most of the route is just next to the waterfall. So if you slip, you'll just roll down into the waterfall. If you hit a big rock in the waterfall...gd luck. Mr.Wilfred said that if we fell in, he'll just go down to the bottom of the waterfall to collect our bodies. Hahaha!
At one point of the route, there was a very narrow pathway. It was only about 20cm wide, on the right is a 45degree rock and on the left is a 60degree slope down all the way into the waterfall with fierce gushing water. Yan Chang was in front of me and was holding my hand. We had to walk almost sideways. Suddenly I slipped and half my body slipped down the slope. It happened so fast! Quickly I gripped Yan Chang's hand hard and she said, "DON'T PANIC". Haha..and she pulled me up. Thank GOD she saved my life.
=)
Instead of walking all the time, sometimes we took the water route. SO FUN! Haha! We just sat on rocks, then we push off and let the water current push us down. Hahaha! We all had our valuables with us, so we stopped on the rocks, in the middle of the stream of water, to ziplock and wrap our stuff with our raincoats. Very thrilling!
I was SO relieved when we finally reached base camp. I quickly settled down outside the committee's tent. haha. Everyone was exhausted. Suddenly 2 participants rushed up and said that the back doors of the tents were opened and their bags were all ransacked.
In total we lost 2 handphones, 1 MP3 player, some clothes and 1 credit card. Sigh. Yan Chang lost her valuables too.
The participants were given a choice if they would like to go for a night walk, initially they agreed, but after they found out that some of their things were stolen, they decided not to. Afraid that if they leave their things unattended again, more will be stolen.
We had dinner of rice, sweet beans and chicken sausages and leftover tuna.
While everyone was downstairs cooking, I decided to go up to the committee's tent to accompany Yan Chang coz she volunteered to sit up there to guard our things.
She talked quite a lot and I listened. Then I told her a little about God. Will continue to pray for her. =)
Dinner was quite nice!
That night I slept on the rocks with Yan Chang just next to me. Wei Ni was just behind us.
During the night we kept slipping down. When Yan Chang and I woke up the next morning, her pants were wet, and my back was wet. -.- Haha.
8.22am we set off down to the foot of the berkalah waterfall. We took an easier route down, the trekking route, not the one we came up from on the 2nd day. It was very very much easier. =)
The travelling back was rather quiet. I slept about 4 hours in the bus. =)
Did a 30mins shopping. Bought those beh-teh-soh and lao pao bing for my mom, and some mochi!
=)
I really enjoyed this expedition. I want to go for June's Jerang Kang expedition...even if I miss the church camp. Sorry Jocelyn, at least you have Ruth, Mei Wei and Jasmine!
Next camp will be ADC orientation camp! =)
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