Adventures in the great outdoors
The writer recalls – with excitement – the many fun outings he had amid nature in his younger days.
HITCHHIKING caught on in the late 1960s. Almost everybody wanted to experience the thrill of it.
My friends and I were curious too and jumped at the first opportunity. Three of us teamed up to hitchhike to Port Dickson to join our school gymnastics club’s seaside camp. The saying “two’s company, three’s a crowd” was never truer as we had a hard time thumbing a ride.
Even girls then dared to hitchhike, which is unthinkable today. We met two of our Form Six schoolmates who had hitchhiked to PD for an overnight stay at the same youth hostel we were camping at.
At our expense, our teacher let them use one of our tents as they wanted to experience sleeping under the moonlight instead of in their hostel beds.
With one tent sacrificed, grudgingly we had to rough it out in an insanely tight squeeze in another tent. Our teacher, being protective, offered to drive the lasses home while we lamented in silence.
The most popular mode of transport in the old days was the ubiquitous bicycle. We used the iron mule to carry us to school as well as transport drinking water in two large tins from the kampung’s standpipe back to our home. We also used the bicycle to roam around.
Children’s bicycles were unheard of in those days. Kids had to use the one-size-fits-all bicycle to learn cycling, enduring the knocks and falls in the process.
A group of us friends dreamed of cycling to and camping at Ulu Kancing some 20km away. After much planning, we set off one morning. We rode past Jalan Tun Razak which was flanked by luxuriant greenery and expensive bungalows with well-manicured lawns.
On reaching the foothills of Ulu Kancing, we were forced to push our heavy bikes with “sticky” tyres up the steep slopes before zooming down at the next decline. We reached our destination safely and completely drained but exhilarated with our accomplishments.
The next thing we knew, it was time to go home. We mounted our bicycles and zoomed down the steep and winding road, fuelled by an adrenaline rush. Drivers were kind to make way for us schoolboys.
We became curious on seeing a crowd gathering at the roadside of a sharp bend and stopped by to watch the spectacle.
There had been an unfortunate accident involving a taxi that had crashed into a deep and wooded ravine, with only its yellow top visible. We were shaken as we continued our journey home more carefully.
Then there was hiking. My first hiking experience under the guidance of our schoolmaster was exploring the dark caves of the revered Batu Caves. It was pitch dark the moment we stepped inside the caves. Crawling on all fours was unavoidable along some stretches.
We loved the cool gentle breeze but not when it reached howling pitch.
We were not used to the dark and silence but we stayed calm; we laughed and chatted to regain our composure. We plodded through numerous muddy and waterlogged patches in our quest to locate the magnificent stalactite and stalagmite formations.
Another notable experience was scaling Bukit Takun (at Templer Park, Rawang) with a group of youngsters. I was startled to see a vertical rock face about 20-30ft (6-9m) tall confronting us midway. The younger ones scrambled up with ease before lowering a life-saving rope to the jittery few below who hung on gingerly as we were pulled up part of the way. At the peak, we had a bird’s-eye view of the whole of KL and could even see Genting Highlands.
One of my most harrowing trips into the wild was the trek to the unspoilt Lubok waterfall, Hulu Langat. We trekked up a well-worn path used by seasonal wild durian collectors, to reach the scenic spot in less than two hours.
An uprooted tree partially blocked our path on our return journey. As such, we had to squeeze through or go around the fallen trunk. My petite wife chose the former and her movement stirred a hornet’s nest which was hidden from our sight.
The furious “occupants” went into a frenzy and unleashed their stings on our poor heads. They were intelligent creatures as we could feel their spindly legs parting our strands of hair before delivering the stings, as we ran helter-skelter to safety.
Those were some of my memorable adventures in the great outdoors.