Failing to find Chengal Besar!

 Chengal besar means big Chengal tree. chengal tree is a type of exotic hardwood in Malaysia.Someone just told me it was the Chinese who came from China that gave this specoies of tree Chengal which comes from the word Cheng (meaning expand ) and hai (sea). Hence this species was on4e of the favourite species that boat builder sought. A couple of years ago some forest rangers found the biggest Chengal tree in the country (and world) in the vicinity of Kuala Jengai area. It takes about 15 men to join hands and hug the tree. Accessibility to the tree is via an old timber track which had been abandoned and it is in very bad condition. So from the word Go I have decided to use my mountain bike instead of driving my 4WD. Some hashers decided to take a Toyota Hilux fitted with a winch to go in.

This is the start of the trail. It is supposed to be ONLY 18 km.

 

There is a warning at the start of the trail. RESTRICTED AREA...NO ENTRY and YOU WILL BE PROSECUTED!!!. No problem lah..We are not stealing timber.

 

Hasher Itchy Kok and Rothman came prepared. They carried several planks to cross the obstacles.

  Of course my brother in law and partner in crime Cheong came along for the trip. I gave him my best Offroad bike while I used my newly built military foldable paratrooper mountain bike.. The terrain is tough and muddy. No problem for us. we just push and carry the bicycle wherever we cannot cycle. Quite the opossite for the Hilux..There was a lot of digging and hard work just to travel a short distance!

 

The ruts were deep, hills steep and muddy. after 5 km, it was almost impossible to drive so the whole gang had to hike.

 

The river was very inviting. Clear water....rapids and almost can imagine the fish in the river.

 

After another 10 km (total of 15 km) of hiking and cycling we came to the river. From here there was suposssed to have some signage guiding us to the Chengal besar. 

The gang decided to have lunch before searching for the trail.

 

We decided to hide our bicycles in the bush and join in the hike to locate the Chenagl Besar tree.

 

There were several trails and our guide could not recognise the correct trail. After searching for about 2 hrs we decided to back track. By then it started to rain.

 

Having a bicycle really helped as compared to walking but nevertheless there was a lot of pushing too.

 

These seasoned hashers are fit and can hike pretty fast

 Because of the rain, the Hilux cannot be driven out. we had no choice but to camp the night at the spot where the car got stuck.Myself and Cheong were prepared for the night so we accompanied Rothman and Itchy Kok while the rest walked out.

 

There was plenty of food. We had a good makan and a dip in the cool stream nearby.

 

As usual I had my hammock and also brought along another one for Cheong. Cheong slept very well and his snores could be heard a hundred meters away!

 We will come back for another trip. someone suggested using Honda cubs with modified tyres for the trip!