Tasek Kenyir 2014 (Sept 2014)

 Last month I got an email from KC Foong who stays in New Zealand that he might be coming back for a couple of days . Then another email says he will be coming home and would like to visit Tasek Kenyir.   Ok... no problem I will organise that trip. I have been camping quite a few times in the lake and enjoy going there. The size of this lake is about 250 sq miles which is bigger than the island of Singapore.

First of all I do not know the adaptability of the ladies on a camping trip so the idea was to hire a houseboat so that we have a comfortable platform. What I did not realise is that the dates we had chosen were a long weekend in Malaysia and most of the houseboats had been booked much earlier on. Only one boat is available and that is a huge 14 berth boat so we can almost have a double berth each (there are only six of us). So on the appointed date 13 Sept Heng Yuen and wife , KC Foong and Soon Peng started driving from Kuala Lumpur in the early hours of the morning  while I and Cheong started at 0700 hrs from Chukai. By 1100 hrs we were at the Power Station jetty offloading things to the houseboat.

 

I took along my Boosese Scout sit on kayak to enjoy some paddling in the lake. KC Foong is also another keen kayaker so I have company. Too bad I could not bring along one more kayak otherwise it will be good fun .

 

Our first destination is Langsir waterfall . Going at 3.5 kts it took us about 2 hrs to reach the waterfall. While on the way the avid and hopeful fishermen were preparing their tackles in the balcony of the boat. (I had declared I am not a good fisherman from the start!)

 

There were three other boats near the waterfall and they were very noisy so after a good swim at the waterfall we decided to continue our journey to Petang Island.

KC was having good fun with the kayak . He tried fishing but it must have been the bright signal yellow colour that were scaring away the fish so we have no fish for the cooking pot.

 

However the baotman En Karem was kind enough to put in a net and we got some real good eating lampang jawa for food. 

The second day was a trip to the Kelah Sanctaury. In fact this is always the highlight of my trips to Kenyir. I must say the sanctuary is well managed and there are strict enforcement on the protection of the kelah fish that breeds in abundance naturally in the clean water of the Petang river.

Plenty of kelah fish here to give you a massage !

The water here is really clean and unpolluted. There is a ranger assigned to each group and the sanctuary only accepts 80 guest per day. It closes from Nov to Feb every year.

En Karem our friendly boatman.He hails from a village that is now submerged by the water of the lake. When not at the helm of his houseboat he collect wild honey. All of us ended up buying a few bottles of really good wild honey from him.

Somehow we did not manage to get fish here . It could be our baits were of the wrong type or the fish are scared of strangers!

 

However, I managed to get a 5 kg Patin fish when I used the correct bait. This bait has the Bank Negara governor's signature on it !.

On the third morning I kayaked round the island of Petang and it was good fun. I hope my fellow friends will come back to the lake for another visit soon....this time a strictly kayaking and camping  trip!