Stuif's Adventures
| Ampang Expedition 3-8-2008 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ever since I found out that the Kemensah waterfall in Ulu Klang is actually a waterfall in the Sg Ampang, I had a dream about trekking along this river from Taman Rimba Ampang all the way up to Ulu Klang. Careful study of the top map showed that this should be feasible. The river flows here in a wide valley, with a gradient of only 150 m over a distance of about 7 km. Discussing the plan with my friend Ash, we agreed that it would be best to do some recce first. On 10-6, we went to Ulu Klang, where I knew a trail leading to the river. From here we followed the stream to the Kemensah Fall. No problem , but of course the going was slow, as there was no trail. A month later, on 9-7, we went to Taman Rimba Ampang. I had been here many times for bird watching. The tar road ends at the gate of a Water Reservoir, and at first sight it looks like the river is fenced off here and out of bounds. However, we found that there was vague trail just outside the fence. After passing the installations, the fence ended and we could just start following the river. As was to be expected, the water flow was larger here due to several tributaries, joining the Ampang river after Ulu Klang. But the going was even easier, as there was hardly any gradient. After these two successful explorations, it was time for the real McCoy! I estimated the time needed for the river trek to be 6-7 hours. And there was a transport problem, as we would start in TRA and finish in Ulu Klang..:-) The solution was to go with two cars, first to Ulu Klang, leave one car there, then to TRA, park the other car there and start trekking. Unfortunately Ash was not free on the planned date, but two other friends, Richard and Rani were eager to join me. We started at 8:00, but with all the logistics, it was only at 10:30 that we started trekking. The weather was fine, although a bit hazy. After 45 minutes we passed Recce-2, from where the Terra Incognita started. No unexpected surprises, the going was smooth, although slow. Sometimes we could use wild boar trails along the river. There must be a huge number of wild boar here, looking at the dug-up earth everywhere.We saw only two and we also heard a hornbill nearby. Often it was easier just to wade in the river. We were intrigued by the remnants of walls here and there. Who has bult those walls and why? Amazing that you can find such beautiful, unspoilt jungle so near KL. Here and there we saw remains of Orang Asli shelters. And we passed three tributaries with small waterfalls. About halfway we paused for a lunch break, with hot coffee! The second part of the trip was slightly more difficult, because there were more rocks and boulders in the stream. Of course we got very wet...:-) Finally after about six hours trekking we reached the Kemensah Fall. We felt very happy! After a nice shower at the fall, we walked back to where we had parked our car. One of my most rewarding adventures in Malaysia! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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