SFC invites public to Vallombrosa Walk

KUCHING: Sarawak Forestry Corporation (SFC) is inviting the public to take a walk through a piece of Sarawak’s history this Thursday.

Vallombrosa Walk will take you through the early years of Sarawak through the field stations on the slopes of Gunung Matang. The walk was named by a renowned 19th century botanist Odoardo Beccari after a Benediction Abbey near Florence in Italy.

Becarri was an Italian naturalist best known for discovering the ‘titan arum’, a plant with the largest unbranched inflorescence in the world, in Sumatra in 1878.

He had also explored, discovered and described numerous species of plants that add to Sarawak’s fame at that time.

Apart from Beccari’s ruins, participants of the walk will have an opportunity to explore the remnants of the coffee and tea plantations that Rajah Charles Brooke had put on Beccari to open up the area.

Two temples and a chapel that were constructed during Beccari’s time and then swallowed up by the jungles and lost to memories have since been rediscovered.

In 1960, Abi Bengali, a Dayak hunter, stumbled upon the dilapidated ruin of one of the temples.

News of his discovery spread far and wide and the descendents of the plantation workers who had first built the temple had since tried to restore Sri Maha Mariamman’s temple to its past glory.

Vallombrosa Walk is more specifically a nice and easy two-and-a-half kilometres walk through the undisturbed forests of the Gunung Matang Water Catchment area.

The walk will start at 9am and participants are to gather at the Matang Red Bridge beforehand.

Participants are advised to wear comfortable walking gear and bring along their own food and enough water for the walk.

Interested individuals may contact Asmah at 082- 629622 (SFC corporate office) or Stephanie at 082-845035 (Kubah National Park) for more information on this or any other activity during Kubah Week.