It was on Monday, April 7, at the ungodly hour of 5 am, that Stephen, Richard and I started our 3D2N trip to Taman Negara. As Khong and George were unable to join, the Gangoffour was halved, and it was good that we had Richard as our guest.
For him it was his first visit to Taman Negara, and he had prepared himself well, with Bygone, Mozzy Guard and survival food.
Why such an early start? Well, then we would arrive early enough to do some birding, because that was the main target of the trip.
We had breakfast in Jerantut and arrived in Kuala Tahan around 9:30 am. On the road we had a a sad encounter with a road kill, a beautiful Leopard Cat.
After installing ourselves in the Tahan guesthouse (rooms at RM 40/night), we took the ferry to the other side of the Tembeling river (now RM 1!) and registered at the park HQ.
We decided to follow the trail along Sg Tahan, and our reward came soon, when in front of us a family of Crested Fireback crossed the road!
We walked until Lubok Simpon, where we spotted several Straw-headed Bulbuls. Then it was time for lunch and back to our guesthouse for our afternoon nap.
We came prepared for rain, so it was a nice surprise that the weather was beautiful, with blue skies, and only some rain in the evening. Not one leech!
After dark we went out again into the oil palm plantation, to spot owls, but we were not lucky. Stephen saw one (while driving, he is becoming as expert as Khong in this), but when we stopped, it flew away.
The next day, after a breakfast of roti canai, we took the trail to the Canopy Walkway. We were lucky to see a herd(?) of wild boar, peacefully resting until Tarzan Richard woke them up. The canopy walk was interesting, but only half its original length, because recent storm damage had not yet been repaired. Back for lunch and a relaxed afternoon, life is not bad in Taman Negara..:-)
For the last morning we had planned to visit Gua Telinga, but unfortunately Richard did not feel well, so instead we decided to leave the park a bit early and visit a waterfall near Jerantut. This Lata Meraung was quite scenic and of course I had to take swim.
A nice trip, although Kuala Tahan is now so civilised that you do not really feel that you are in the oldest rain forest on earth.
[Jan]
Bird pictures and more added by Stephen.
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wrote on Apr 12, 2008:
Very sad sight |
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wrote on Apr 13, 2008:
Thank you early bird -you wasted no time in the quick posting. |
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Liz wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
>a herd(?) of wild boar,
For pigs it is litter, so I guess for wild pigs it is the same! |
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wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
Let's just say a dirty dozen. Yes, there were 12 of them. We counted. /stephen |
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Liz wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
does he eat roti canai? |
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Liz wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
Very sad. I've also got a similiar photo, taken in Kelantan some years ago. |
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Liz wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
Found the correct term, its a sounder of boars !!! Isn't English language difficult :-) |
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wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
Why do you call them itchy fruits ?? |
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wrote on Apr 15, 2008:
Glad you had a good trip. Where is the fish ?? |
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Kwai Loh wrote on Apr 17, 2008:
According to Stephen the juice of these seeds is very itchy. |
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wrote on Feb 26, 2009:
so sad :( looked like it just got hit.. beautiful fur.. |
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