Stuif's Adventures
| A new waterfall! 6-9-2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| My friend Siang Hui is even more addicted to waterfalls than I am. He is an experienced user of Google Earth, and he has found several "new" waterfalls by careful study of the high-resolution imagery in GE. See for example the Ulu Gedong report about the discovery of the Tigok waterfall. Last week he told me that he had found another waterfall, near the Simpang Pulai - CH road, and he gave me the coordinates. When I checked GE, I found that this region was still in low-resolution, only blurry features, no sign of a waterfall at the given location. Actually there are a few known waterfalls along this road. See map. The left part is high res and Lubuk Tima is clearly visible (see below). But he was sure of himself, had studied contour lines etc. So, still a bit doubtful, I went with him and Rani on a recce. With the promise that, if there would be a waterfall, we would name the fall after him, unless the locals already had named it. The Simpang Pulai road follows closely the Sg Raja, which after recent rainfall was swollen with a teh tarik color. At the location predicted by Siang Hui there was indeed a tributary flowing into the Sg Raja! But how to follow that stream. There was a nearby Orang Asli kampung where we asked around. Yes there was a waterfall, the Kait waterfall, and they could guide us there. First it looked like two young boys would go with us, but then an old man appeared, the grandfather of the two boys. And old he was, NINETY he said, his IC mentioned 80. It must have been a hilarious sight, this old, bent man with his stick, guiding two young guys and a senior Kwai Loh. However, he turned out to be quite fit, although he needed a rest every now and then. It took us about one hour to reach the fall, the last part was real river trekking. It was a spectacular sight, a tall two-steps fall in a narrow gorge. So powerful that there was a spray of water all around, making picture taking difficult. On our way back we took a different route, at the end we even had to cross the Raja river, not easy, but no problem for our guide...:-) Halfway the kids joined us, maybe their mother had told them, go, have a look how granddad is doing...:-) A very rewarding experience. Thanks, Siang Hui, sorry that we could not name the fall after you. It was still early, so we decided to have our lunch at the Chelik waterfall. This is a very tall fall, easily accessible. But no pool to take a bath. And we were very sweaty and covered with leech bites. So we went to a third waterfall, Lubuk Timah, for our bath. Recently this fall has been in the news, because two people drowned there. The first time I visited this fall, the water flow was not very big, so I did not see how this fall could be dangerous. Now, with a lot more water, it was clear that you have to be very careful here. What a day! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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