Sg Weh waterfalls | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
What about a waterfall trip, visiting Batu Hampar, Tebing Tinggi, Lubuk Kawah and the Rainbow fall, with an overnight stay at Batu Hampar? That sounds like a crazy plan with one fall in Selangor, one in Perak, one in Kedah and one in Pahang! Until it is explained that actually there are four falls in one river, with those same names. The river is Sg Weh, and the location is in Pahang, 15 km nort-west of Maran. Four waterfalls in the same river, interesting! So I accepted with pleasure Siang Hui's invitation to guide me to these falls, and on 19-3-2011 we started our trip, with Nick, another waterfall friend. We parked the car in Kg Kuala Sentul and started trekking, first through palm oil plantations before entering the forest. It was quite some time ago that I had been carrying a backpack with tent, sleeping bag, gas cooker etc, so I found the hike of about 2.5 hours to the Batu Hampar campsite quite tough. We had originally planned our trip one week earlier, but when we heard that a big group was planning to camp there, we decided to go one week later, as I am rather allergic to groups. So it was quite disappointing when we found on arrival, that another group had put up camp already. Nice friendly people, dedicated nature photographers, but you can not enjoy the peaceful surroundings of the jungle with the sound of falling water and chirping cicadas, when there are many other people around. No weekend camping trips for me anymore! The campsite is beautifully located near the Batu Hampar cascades. And it is only 50 meter downstream, that the water falls down in a spectacular waterfall, the Tebing Tinggi. To go to the base of this fall requires some scrambling down a steep slope. But it is worth the effort, because you can actually walk behind this vertical fall! We explored the river further downstream, found nice cascades, but no more waterfalls. Back in the camp, Siang Hui proved that he is an expert angler, within minutes he had caught a number of (small) fish, good for our dinner. In the meantime I watched the photographers and even used my small compact camera to shoot some nature pictures myself. We had our dinner, away from the group, near to the edge of the Tebing Tinggi, a perfect location. The next morning after breakfast, we started river trekking to our main destination, Jeram Pelangi. After half an hour we reached the Lubuk Kawah fall with a huge pool. Another 1.5 hour more and we arrived at the Pelangi fall, a really impressive vertical fall. Here too it was possible to scramble behind the falling water, where, surprisingly we found a small cave. The geology of the region is quite special. Back to the campsite, which was now deserted. But we too had to leave for the 2.5 hour trek back. It had rained, so the path had become very muddy and slippery. I was quite exhausted, when we arrived at our car, but also happy that I had managed to make it It was a useful (over)dose of waterfalls before I start my next trip to the Netherlands...:-) Click here for a Google map of the region. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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