Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Broga Extreme, April 11, 2009

We rolled off at precisely at 0830 from Kg Kapal and immediately after about 200 metres turned left to climb cycling within a kelapa sawit plantation. After about 10 minutes of friendly climb we came out into a plantation that had been recently cleared to the ground. The weather was still decent as we rode along the ridge of the clearing. I was at the back of the peloton thinking hard whether I should take out my camera and rode shooting from my bike. The idea dissolved immediately when we came to our first downhill. It was not bad but because of the rain the night before the terrain was a bit slippery and my recent mishap at FRIM made me think otherwise. In fact I did not take that many photos in the end. Since it was a recce ride I was focus on it. I kept on looking around me to savoir the moment. The sun was rising on ahead on my right creating a shadow less surrounding in the open plain. Had it been a fall like in New York, Michigan or New Hampshire it would be a perfect ride for all of us that day. The rain the night before help a little bit and encouraged me to think that I was cycling in a nice cool weather he he he. I maneuvered the bike down to where the rest were already waiting. It was like that until we came to a small tarmac road surrounded by a kebun sayur. I was in kebun sayur bigger than that before but I did not take the opportunity to capture them with my camera. With my camera in my backpack I was tempted to get down and spend few minutes there. But then it would mean I would drag everyone behind.

You could see beautiful sawi, pucuk manis and kangkung around you. We turned into one of the kebun and came to a halt in front of an obvious what left of a bridge. We were bullish and very excited, and jokes about jumping across came easily from us. Since we were still thinking of saving our shoes from the water Lan asked an Indon farm worker who came out from his hut really close by. He suggested another route across and hi ho silver we rode again cycling among the vegetables farm into an orang asli village. As we rode I framed several possible shots there. The day on the real ride I must do it I said to myself. Lan was not sure of the exact route and we almost rode into what supposed to be our finish line for the day ride, the waterfall. We turned back and with the help of the orang asli we found our way to Kg Kedah and we were back on the right track. Up until then we have been cycling on a tarmac but just outside Kg Kedah our real adventure began.

Immediately after the last house in Kg Kedah which was a small climb we came down at the base of our first steep climb. If climbing to Genting Sempah was tough last week imagine in front of us a steep slippery and uneven terrain to be conquered. Azman went first only to stop halfway to T&T. Seeing Azman almost at the top, with my gear at the lowest, I pedaled up. I wanted to give up halfway as well but the guys down below started to yell at me to have it a go. I pedaled hard up with my heart rate monitor beeping like crazy. I was panting at the top and waited for Jefri, MKA and Lan to come up. I knew there and then this route was not for PER’s PAR. We stopped for a while for a breather before we proceeded into the unknown, at least to MKA, Azman, Jefri and I. Immediately we came down to a small river crossing. I knew this as before I took the corner I could hear Lan making a water swoosh ride sound across. We tried but got stuck only to push our bike across. There was no way we could save our shoes from getting soak by then. After that it was cycling along a slippery, uneven small single lane walking path. We were enveloped by a damp dense forest. If you had jungle trekked before in that kind of environment just imagine you are on a bike now. I straight away remembered the time I walked in that kind of environment going either fishing or searching for buloh lemang with my cousins and uncles. To us it was exhilarating and fun as we were laughing and joking. Once in a while we hit a pot hole and crash landed onto the bushes. I could not remember how many river we crossed in total but I think five. The last being at the end of a downhill into another kelapa sawit plantation. Before that there was one incredible down hill that was so treacherous that I did not dare to ride down. Only Lan and MKA did it. Immediately at the bottom of the downhill was a small log bridge across what seems to me a small landslide. It was up and down within a jungle again after that. After we crossed the last stream Lan told us that we would be going into a Kelapa Sawit plantation passing another orang asli village and continuous climb to the summit of Broga Hill. A beautiful promise that speared our already tired muscle forward. From a Kelapa Sawit we climb into a rubber plantation. The canopy helps to create an air-conditioned environment that helped our body a bit. We thought it was going to be down hill all the way to the ultimate climb but Lan tricked us into climbing a very sudden steep one first.

We leisurely rode under the rubber trees anticipating the hard climb. As usual I stayed at the back letting the younger guys tackling everything first. Then from the front Lan shouted for us to brace ourselves for a long climb to the summit. Everyone immediately jumped at the first climb. Looking from the back I saw Jefri stopped halfway and as I passed him he yelled that his bike broke. MKA immediately turned back to check to diagnose a broken hanger. We knew only Lan could help us and shouted for him to come down. On seeing the damage Lan said only one thing he could do, to cut the chain and put it back at the medium level enough for Jefri to cycle. Which means he could not use his gear anymore. Well it was better then to carry the bike all the way back. We thought it would be easy, in the end it took Lan almost one hour. I tried to keep moving and warm to make sure my muscle did not go to sleep. I failed and I struggled for the rest of the climb. Since Jefri’s bike broke at the very bottom of the climb the rest of the climb became too much for both Azman and me. We mostly just T&T, that’s Turun and Tolak if you are not familiar with the term, to the summit.

If a gift of a waterfall was waiting for us at the bottom the summit was by itself a breathtaking gift. When we saw the view from the top we forgot about our tiredness Since we were late already we sat up there just enough to rest and enjoyed the place for awhile. Lan told us it would be downhill all the way from there on and our spirit picked up a bit. Expecting it to be easy we started to enjoy ourselves once again. Lan even said since we were late once we were down at the village we were going home and not going to the waterfall after all. We were ok with that but getting down now was another big challenge for all of us. The terrain has changed since the last time Lan was up there so much so he could not locate the shortcut that we intended to take going down the thick secondary rubber tree jungle. Nevertheless we confidently cycled down until Lan realized and confirmed by MKAs GPS we were actually going further from the village down below. We backtracked to a spot where we took a rest and let Lan went back up to locate the spot. MKA followed him living the three of us. In about ten minutes they shouted for us to cycle up again. Confident he got the spot right we walked down carrying our bike through the dense unattended rubber plantation. It was a steep downhill and our path was just big enough for a rubber tapper to maneuver himself from tree to tree whereas we had to carry our bike. Once we were inside there was no turning back and we suffered our way through. At least I was very sure we were not going to slide down if we slipped. Eventually we reached at a small ledge big enough for us to rest for awhile and decide which way to go. By then we could hear and see the roof of the houses down below but below us was a deep ravine and there is no way through. Lan decided to go and find us a way out. He came back a few minutes later to say he had found a way out but we had to take it slowly. Without giving too much detail in the end we climbed out into a clearing downhill into the village.

We were, at least I was, relived to be back on the tarmac and we rode back to Kg Kedah. We stopped in front of their community hall to rest and chatted with two government officials who were there to discuss on a documentary they were making of the place. Luck has it there was also a small sundry shop and we cleaned the refrigerator of anything that was cold. I actually downed the 100plus in two big gulps. While in the jungle suffering from fatigue Azman joked hoping that there would be 7eleven along the way. The small sundry shop was our 7eleven. I just laughed when I saw Azman almost yelling kedai and rushed in.

Since we decided to go to the waterfall we rode out through the way we came in and out using the tarmac all the way. We were back at our car at 1350. Checking my gadget I burned 2300+- cal and I was weak and very tired. The distance we covered would probably more like 25 km X 3. It was not the end of a story for Jefri and Azman. When we cycled out Jefri’s chain keep coming off that we proposed for him to just use Azman’s bike to get his car to pick Azman and his bike later.

Click here for the pictures


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