Camping in Lata Beringin
RECENTLY, my family and I went on our first camping trip. We had mixed feelings about going – some apprehension peppered with a bit of excitement of the unknown.
We drove to Lata Beringin in the district of Hulu Langat in Selangor. The weather was drab and grey, with intermittent showers. I kept my hopes up that the weather would to improve.
Google Maps led us on the right direction for about 50 minutes and after taking our final turn, the app “announced” that we had reached our destination. On any regular occasion we would be happy to hear this, but not that day.
At that point, Internet and phone network coverage became non-existent. “No point calling anyone,” I thought to myself, but still, I tried. In desperate times hope is all you have and you cling tightly to it. I called Calvin, our camp organiser, but sadly the call did not go through.
At that point I became uneasy. We decided to continue driving. Relief swept over me when we finally spotted the “B2N” (MY Back To Nature) banner in the middle of the forest.
We parked our car and took in our surroundings and proceeded to enter the camping grounds. After a short briefing, we pitched our tent, with help from the campsite manager and her family. Everything was clean, neat and tidy, but this was soon going to change.
The campsite was in a natural setting. Logging activities had previously cleared a major part of the forest, but fruit trees were planted to replace felled trees. There were nangka, duku langsat and even durian trees.
I sat myself on a rock by the river and started sketching. My first sketch was of the flowing river, which was right in front of me. My second sketch, which was done in ink, was of the waterfall. After 45 minutes of sketching, I stopped and went to look for my husband.
Once I found him, we sat together on a bamboo bench and I started sketching again, this time of the bamboo forest. I challenged my husband to sketch along with me and to my surprise and delight, he agreed.
Soon, it started to rain. We packed up and ran into our tents as fast as we could.
It rained for a good three hours. We had to bring many of our bags into the tent to shelter them from the rain, but then puddles of water began to appear at the lower corners of our tent.
Also, going in and out of the tent in the heavy rain made it impossible to keep our tent clean; we tracked mud and muck in with us each time.
We were cold, wet and confined to a small space. But we had each other, and that was enough.
To while away the time, I sketched a photo I had taken a few hours earlier.
At about 8pm, the rain slowed to a light drizzle. Dinner was served. It was a BBQ meal, prepared by Calvin and his team. The food was just amazing, and cooked to perfection.
After dinner, we washed up as best as we could (there were no shower facilities), and just sat in front of our tent for about an hour or so.
The campsite was dimly lit with warm lights. The air was filled with that earthy, post-rain smell. It was slightly breezy.
The kids reassembled for their after-dinner treat – toasted marshmallows and s’mores. They then decided to explore the camping grounds with lamps and torchlights; they were in high spirits and energetic.
While our son was enjoying the company of his new-found friends, my husband and I decided to take a short walk to the waterfall. It was really dark but we still managed to walk the trail. However, if not for the thunderous roar of the waterfalls, we would have walked straight into the river!
We retired for the night before 10pm. We laid down on our inflatable mattress, three in a row. We moved around until we each found a comfortable position. Tired and a little uncomfortable, it took us a while to fall asleep.
I woke up at 6.30am and the first thing I thought was, “We survived the night!” I was relieved that we were not pummelled by another bout of heavy rain.
My son went to look for his friends and was soon playing a game of chess. We were served a simple breakfast of fried noodles, eggs and sausages.
After breakfast we heard Calvin calling for the campers to go hiking. A group of four adults assembled, us included. After a briefing, we hiked towards Sungai Resam. We crossed a total of four waterfalls, all of which were simply breathtaking and spectacular!
What a wonderful end to our first family camping trip together.
The views expressed are entirely the reader’s own.