By their very nature they are humid places but nothing prepared me for what the worlds oldest rain forest had to offer. We left the clean, cheap and well organised Sri Emas hotel in Jerantut and took a three hour boat trip up the Terrangan River into the national park. Having found another superb, cheap and well run guest house (Tehan Guest House – I’m impressed with this part of Malaysia) we were ready for 4 days of jungle exploration.

On day one we went for a simple 3.5km walk, yet the humidity was stifling and we found ourselves exhausted after only 3 hours. A positive experience none the less. The noise in the jungle is incredible. There is no silence, just hundreds of animals, insects and birds all doing their thing. On our way back to the hostel we walked passed an “Orang Asli” nomadic people’s village. The children ran away as we approached, but smiled and waved at us once we’d gone by. Shortly after Espe found one of their poison darts on the ground.

On the second day we headed off in the direction of the Canopy Walkway. This was something that I knew I wanted to visit from before we set off. In fact I posted about it back in November. Nearly 500 metres long this is one hell of a way to be in the canopy (come on Paul, we’re waiting). Scary stuff, well at least if you’re afraid of heights like I am. Walking on a swaying bouncing set of ropes suspended some 45 metres above the ground… nerve racking stuff, well it is if your afraid of heights like I am.

With the nerves calmed we set off up to a pair of viewpoints some 344 metres above sea level. This was the most strenuous trekking yet, sweating our way up the hill. Upon reaching the summit instead of being greeted by peaceful stunning panoramas, we were faced with a whole gaggle of college kids from Kuala Lumpur on a school trip. Although initially annoying because of the racket, many of them were very friendly and outgoing and made a real effort to talk to us. We continued on our circular route back to base, once again exhausted, having completed a total of 5.5 km.

After two days’ “warming up” we were ready for the big one. We planned to spend the night in one of the hides thick in the jungle. This increased our chances of seeing wildlife and failing that promised to provided a real feel of the environment sleeping in the jungle. Now I’ve done a fair bit of trekking, but nothing this tough. The humidity was a killer. Add to that water logged paths, stream and river crossings, bogs, leeches, mosquitoes and fallen trees blocking the path (these had to be clambered over or walked around through the overgrowth). One particular tree had recently fallen so no alternative path had been created and all of the branches and leaves made it particularly difficult to pass.

Our route out to the hide was a tad under 11km. The first 5.5km we managed in two hours. Thinking we’d be at the hide by 1pm we decided to hold back on making the sandwiches until we arrived. As the path deteriorated, so did our rate of progress. We eventually arrived at 4pm, some seven hours after setting off. Unfortunately in the process the high powered torch fell out from one of the bags so we were unable to look out for wildlife after dark. Apparently the best opportunity to see larger mammals is around 8pm when they come for water / salt lick. Still it was not all a waste as just hearing the sounds was indescribable. At one point Espe and I got quite alarmed as we heard a growling noise. We heard this “tiger” several times with the noise coming from different sides of the hide. After closing and securing the door, I realised that it wasn’t a tiger at all, but just the roof grinding as we moved around the hide.

Falling asleep to the sounds of the jungle was incredible, but my rather uncomfortable sleep (think wooden bed and 5mm camp mat) was interrupted by a rather fierce thunderstorm that shook the whole hide. Very cool… I love thunderstorms. This one was very loud but it wasn’t able to eclipse The Thunderstorm when returning from Spic Gaff on Calle Caleruega.

The hide itself was very basic. With only wooden bunk beds and a toilet, we had to carry everything we needed. Camping mats, sleeping bags, gas stove (that turned out to be as good as useless), food and water. We set off with six litres (which weighs quite a lot, especially when you have to lug it 11km through the jungle) but this wasn’t enough and I had to purify a further three. The first time I’ve ever had to do it but that just added to the sense of adventure.

On the second day the return journey was a similar distance but the route followed one of the big rivers so the path was forever going up and down as all the tributaries flowed into the big river. This lead to lots of scrambling up and down and multiple stream crossings. Despite having less weight the second day was much tougher. It took us just under 8 hours to complete the 10.9km. Thankfully we were lucky with the rain. Every night we were in the park there was a heavy storm. Our last day the rain started earlier, but thankfully we’d made it back to the park resort an hour before it started.

Without a doubt this was the toughest trekking I have ever done. I couldn’t believe that a mere 22km spread over two days could be so difficult. The jungle really throws it all at you. Once again I have to mention the humidity. My t-shirt was 100% saturated with sweat. I have never sweated so much.

So what did we see. Not a great deal really. Most of the animals and birds were long gone before we got there but we did get a glimpse of snakes, lizards (including the large Monitors), water buffalo, wild boars, squirrels, pheasants and kingfishers. We also saw all sorts of of weird and wonderful insects including giant ants, butterflies, stick insects and something that I can only describe as a hammerhead worm.

Oh, and of course, we saw plenty of leeches. Urrrrghhhh…. Horrible revolting cretinous little beings. Every time I looked down at my shoes there was at least one leech creeping up towards my ankle. Every time I removed my shoes to check, there were leeches inside. Most could be flicked off before they started sucking, but several were able to delve in and some even finish sucking and dropped of before I had even noticed. Upon returning to Jerentut I counted from the marks how many had got me. One on my hand, one on my back, seven on my right foot and thirteen on my left foot. All that left some rather blood stained clothing…

Utterly exhausted and looking forward to a shower and a good nights sleep we got into our minibus to come home, yet the excitement wasn’t over. About 10 minutes into our journey the driver exclaimed something in Malay, locked up the brakes and swerved to the right. At that moment I spotted a rather frightened cow in front of us getting larger and larger. As the driver swerved, the cow in its ultimate wisdom ran forwards to the other side of the road – the same place the minibus had swerved to. Some more steering applied saw the driver place us onto the grass verge. Unfortunately the cow thought he too would be safer there and ran onto the verge with us. Then came the collision. Silence and no sign of the cow. Several seconds later it stood up in the glare of the headlights, looked at us as if to say “what did you do that for”, and then limped off into the field. Ironically had the cow stayed still we would have missed it. Likewise had the driver not swerved we probably would have missed it. The damage to the minibus was mainly cosmetic, although we had to limp home (much like the cow) with only one headlight.

Edit – 05/06/07

Forgot to mention, while sitting down for dinner one night two familier faces presented themselves. Claire and Tom, last seen in Cambodia after we were on the Vietnam – Cambodia Mekong Delta tour together. I know this SE Asia loop is well trodden, but the chances of bumping into them at Taman Negara had to be pretty slim. tomanddotontour.blogspot.com.