In case you have missed them have a look at part 1 and part 2.
Day 4:
After a rough evening and a short wet night, we all wake up at a soaked camp. The mood is somber.
A quick breakfast and everybody gets busy packing belongings and all the equipment. We have a long day of trekking ahead.
We walk on the side of the river for a long time taking a few breaks here and there before entering the jungle again for the rest of the trek.
There is so much humidity around because of the night rain that it doesn't take long before our legs and feet are attacked by the leeches. They are pretty small overall but they are everywhere and every time we take a break, you can see us trying to get rid of them.
We keep walking and the day goes by, uneventful until we reach a clearing next to the river. It's now already 4 or 5 in the afternoon and every one is tired. Legs are painful and so are the backs having to carry those heavy backpacks. Time to set up the camp for the night. Everyone gets busy, some pitching the tents, others getting everything ready to cook dinner.
Once all is taken care of, most of us decide to brave the cold water of the river to take a bath and change to dry, comfortable and good smelling clothes.
We spend the evening chatting together while enjoying our plates of pasta before making our way to our tents and hitting the sack.
Being 3 in my tent, and not being able to keep the door open because of the mosquitoes and leeches trying to make their way in, the heat produced by our bodies quickly makes it very hot in here. So hot that I decide I can't take it anymore and need a breath of fresh air. I get out and my colleague being too hot as well follows me. As we try to cool down standing up outside our tent, in our boxers, we can't help but notice something glowing on the ground. I pick it up and we're both surprised realizing it's just a piece of wood. How could wood glow in the dark? This is a story to tell everybody in the morning. We've finally cooled down and get back to our sleeping bags.
Day 5:
As we wake up in the morning, the mood is much better than the previous day. We all know this is the last day of the trek. My colleague and I try to tell our story from the night before, but not one person believes us and they all think we are crazy and that we hallucinated. We both know what we saw and it'll just stay between us then.
Quick breakfast again and packing time. It doesn't take long before we start hiking again.
This time it only takes an hour or so before we are out of the jungle and reach the pick-up truck waiting to take our belongings. The next activity awaits us already.
After another hour of walking we arrive at a small cafeteria just above the river. We sit down for a while, get some food and participate in a safety briefing. We are going white water rafting! The few of us who are not comfortable with water are a bit anxious, but the rest is excited.
We don our life vests and helmets, grab a paddle and make our way down to the river bed. We hop on the rafts and off we go. A few rapids here and there, some screams, laughter, racing with the other rafts, capsizing in the small rapids, now this is much more fun than the trek!
By the end of the course, you can see a big smile on everyone's face but it's also obvious that we are all tired, time to go back to Nomad Adventure's headquarters for a hot dinner and a good night sleep. We've got more in store for us tomorrow.
Day 6:
Today is straight forward, some spelunking in the morning and then we start a 100km bike ride to the sea.
We are driven to a cave, of which I am sorry but I can't remember the name nor location, by the Nomad Adventure Crew. We put on our helmets and off we go exploring the inside. We get to squeeze in tight places, crawl around a bit bang our head to the ceiling a few times and then get out by following the water stream outside. It's fun.
Time to head back to the Earth Camp for packing our personal things, this will be our last time in the place before we leave for our bike ride.
The bicycles are brand new and were purchased by our company. Unfortunately they are not the most comfortable and they are a bit small for the tall ones among us but they'll have to do. The route is from the Nomad Adventure's headquarters to Pantai Teluk Batik.
The truck is loaded with all our belongings before it leaves to take them to our destination for today. We look around one last time and say goodbye to the place. Everyone hops on his bicycle and off we go, 40km today and 60 km tomorrow. Looking at the map and the elevation, it shouldn't be too difficult. Let's just enjoy the scenery and hope the rain won't last.
For several kilometers, we follow our guide on the main road. We try to keep to our most left as much as possible. The car drivers don't seem to care much about us as they just zoom pass.
After a while, we leave the road and enter a dirt path which goes through immense rice fields. The view is just amazing. There is no better way to take all that beauty in than just cycle through it.
After 40km, we stop at a guesthouse where we will have our dinner and spend the night. Most of us have a sore bum, but we are all happy with how it went. We got to enjoy some of Malaysia's beautiful nature.
The whole trip is starting to take its toll and so as soon as we are done with dinner, we lie down in bed and fall in the arms of Morpheus.
See you soon with the Final part and the last few days of the trip.
Thank you for following the adventure thus far.
P.S: Are you still wondering what the glowing wood was? Well after a bit of Googling, I want to believe that it was foxfire. Look it up 🙂