A new word I learnt the other day was ‘glamping‘ defined as a ‘a form of camping involving accommodation and facilities more luxurious that those associated with traditional camping’(think large canvas, semi-premanent tents with running water, wifi, electricity and the like).
There are some people who get a bit sniffy about this sort of camping, just as they do about those who use caravans or go camping next to their cars . I am not among this rather purist crowd and, as far as I’m concerned, as long as people practice a ‘leave no trace’ approach and have respect for others, then they can camp however they please and their experience of being out in nature is as valid as anyone else’s.
These thoughts were going through my head on a recent trip I took up to Lake Temenggor. The lake itself is man made – a result of the Temanggor Dam – and another reminder that the environmental impact of governments and corporations far outweighs that of the jungle trekker who cuts the odd sapling or two to clear a path.
In some ways kayaking reminded me of my days camping with the off-road crowd – with both a kayak and a 4×4 you can afford to carry far more weight with you and that opens the door to bringing along luxuries (an ice box full of beer!) that, were you forced to carry the load on your back, you would sensibly do without.
Also, in both cases you are are both enabled and tied to that mode of transport – you can travel further and don’t have to fight your way through the jungle but it’s also difficult to simply leave the kayak/4×4 somewhere and head off into the jungle for any length of time for fear that something will happen to the unattended kayak/4×4 while you’re away. And, with both off roading and kayaking there is a greater amount of pre-trip organisation required, you can’t simply pick up your pack and go where you please.
Of course, the key difference between kayaking and off-roading is the environmental impact and it’s hard to imagine a mode of transport less damaging to the environment than a kayak (unfortunately the same can’t be said for off-roading). Also in a kayak you feel like you’re really out in nature whereas inside a vehicle it’s almost as if you’re cocooned from the outdoors and watching it through the TV-like-view of the windscreen.
Oh, and kayaks are silent whereas 4x4s most certainly are not!
There are certainly advantages in seeing the jungle by kayak vs jungle trekking – you get less dirty and sweaty, less scratched up by the rattan and thorns, there are less bugs and biting creatures to deal with, no slippy hills to clamber up or wild boar to worry about, no heavy pack slowly breaking your back either – and, at the end of the day, you still set up camp in the jungle and experience the sights and sounds of a night in the forest.
So, in this video I thought I’d show some footage from the trip as maybe kayaking is an alternative way of camping in the jungle that might appeal to you. If you live in, or are visiting, Malaysia and want to know more about kayaking and possible trips then I can think of no better person to contact than my friend Chadel (a nicer and more helpful person you couldn’t hope to meet) – he is passionate about kayaking and a great contact for anyone wishing to start kayaking over here – here is the link to his Facebook page where you can find out more (or you can email him at chadelsoon@yahoo.com)
For some reason, however, I have always liked to walk when in the outdoors and trekking is where my heart lies but, when I get too old and crickety to pick up my pack and walk over the next hill, then I think I’ll invest in a kayak.
catwalk:1 a step-by-step approach to saving the tiger; 2 a platform extending into an auditorium along which models strut.
I grew up in the north of England and did a fair amount of trekking in the Lake District; an area of outstanding natural beauty where the poet Wordsworth famously ‘wandered, lonely as a cloud‘. These days, however, you are unlikely to be lonely for long in the Lake District; the hills are strewn with long, snaking lines of fellow trekkers also out to enjoy the landscape. During the school holidays there are so many walkers on the hills that the path of the trail can often be seen from miles away, outlined by the garish colours of their waterproofs.
I used to wish that all these other walkers would spontaneously self combust and leave me to enjoy the Lake District in cloud-like peace and, just for moment at least, give me the feeling that I had escaped from the rest of the world and entered a real wilderness. It was a feeling amplified each time I came across litter strewn on the ground, or when I was stuck behind a line of slow walkers on a narrow path… aggravating.
But there is an upside to the irritation of having to share the outdoors with others – it means that there are more people who value these areas and thus more voices that will be raised in protest if governments or developers try to bulldoze over them.
Coming to Malaysia I was gratified to find that the forests are generally free of other trekkers and my wish for solitude in the wilderness had finally come true. It is perhaps unfair to compare the Lake District to the staggering biodiversity of the rain forests of Malaysia, but to see a leopard cross your trail in the early evening, or hear a siamang ‘whooping’ at dawn, or watch troupes of dusky leaf monkeys sweep through the trees just hands-down-beat the sight of a cold and miserable looking sheep on a wet English mountainside. I genuinely found it astonishing that more Malaysians weren’t spending every possible free moment enjoying the forests they’d been blessed with.
Over time I began to see the downside of this – many Malaysians don’t value the forests because they’ve never had the opportunity to really enjoy them or see for themselves the beauty that lies within. As a result these majestic forests were (and are) being cut down to make way for oil palm plantations and a seemingly endless tide of concrete without the public outcry that I would have expected. The rain forests, a national heritage that belongs to future generations as much as this one, seen more as a resource to be exploited in the short-term rather than a jewel to be guarded.
Talking to Malaysian friends over the years began to shed some light on why so few venture into the forest – scared from a young age by stories of spirits and ghosts that, for some inexplicable reason, are believed to be found in greater numbers in the forest (surely there’d be more in the cities, right? after all that’s where most people die), tigers waiting to pounce, venomous snakes with deadly intent… the jungle nothing but a dangerous place waiting for the unwary to step inside.
But, above all, what had put most of them off the jungle was that they’d had a bad first experience (often on some sort of school outward bound type course) that had convinced them from an early age that the jungle was a nasty, leech filled, wet and uncomfortable place that they had no wish to revisit… ever!
The truth is that the jungle can be a hostile environment for the unprepared – but with the right attitude and gear it can be as comfortable as home. This, for me, is the key to junglecraft – not learning hard-core survival techniques, or roughing it rambo-style – but simply learning how to get comfortable in the jungle and enjoy your time there.
For those Malaysians wishing to take a first, tentative step into the jungle there is no better place to start than on one of MyCat’s catwalks. These two days walks at the Sg Yu wildlife corridor near Taman Negara will give you the chance to see if you like the jungle or not – led by experienced guides and volunteers you don’t need to worry about getting lost or what to do in an emergency and, if you don’t feel up to camping just yet, you can always stay the night in one of the dormitories at the Ranger Station.
Even better, these Catwalks are free, open to anyone in Malaysia (including visiting tourists) and, as they run over weekends, don’t require you to take time off work. The pace of these walks is very gentle and the distance covered no more than a few kilometers a day; so you don’t need to be a super-fit, gym freak to go on one.
Although you don’t have to camp, I would encourage you to do so as it is a great experience (even when it rains!) just make sure you are familiar with how to set up your tarp/hammock or tent before you get there (and make sure your tarp is leak proof!)
Most importantly, however, you will be doing a service to the wildlife in Malaysia….the Catwalks visit easily accessible areas at the outskirts of the park that are ‘soft’ target areas for poachers. A lot of poaching and snaring is opportunistic, done by poachers who want easy access to animal trails and often don’t have the time (or energy) to trek deeper into the forest. More often than not they have full time jobs and use poaching as an easy way of supplementing their income. Such people are easily put off if it becomes difficult for them to operate and having groups of Catwalkers in the area is a good way to deter this type of illegal activity.
With members of the public acting as the eyes-and-ears in these easily accessible areas at the borders of the national park, the wildlife rangers are freed up to patrol deeper into the forest where the criminally organised gangs of hard-core poachers hunt for tigers and elephants.
Time is quickly running out for wild tigers and yet we only need to ensure three things to reverse the trend: enough habitat, enough prey and effective protection from poachers. The hope is that if populations can reach healthy levels in Taman Negara National Park this will lead to tigers dispersing through the Sungai Yu Wildlife Corridor and into the Main Range.
Is this happening? It is difficult to say as tiger numbers in Taman Negara are only estimates, however, one thing is for sure; in Taman Negara tigers have the ‘habitat‘ and they have enough ‘prey‘ so if, as some believe, their numbers are actually falling, then the reason can only be that the poachers are gaining the upper hand…and if the number of tigers drops below a critical level their populations will become unsustainable and they will become extinct.
It would be a sad story indeed if the tiger, one of the national symbols of Malaysia, were allowed to become extinct because we stood by and did nothing while a selfish few hunted them down for their own gains.
On a positive note, it seems to me that the younger generation here in Malaysia are genuinely concerned about protecting their environment and more-and-more are revisiting the forest and questioning the handed-down belief that a trip to the shopping mall is more fun that a swim beneath a waterfall in the middle of an emerald forest.
We can only hope that they have time and opportunity to make a change…
If you want to join a Catwalk, click on the Mycat logo:
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“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing”
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If you come across any illegal trade or snaring of wildlife, report it to the Wildlife Crime Hotline: 019 356 4194
Last week I was in Taman Negara (Peninsular Malaysia’s main national park) with Perhilitan (the wildlife department here in Peninsular Malaysia). This was on a programme known as the CAT TRAILBLAZER organised by MYCAT who are an alliance of NGOs in Malaysia focused on protecting wild tigers.
We spent four days in the jungle checking the border and remarking it as a deterrent to any illegal encroachment or entry by poachers.
The CAT TRAILBLAZER is an ongoing programme and is a truly marvelous opportunity for anyone in Malaysia who wants to go into the jungle and help conserve her forests: the organising is done for you; you get the opportunity to enter parts of the forest closed to the general public; you trek with members of the wildlife department who are skilled in junglecraft (and at spotting signs of wildlife and identifying tracks), and, most importantly, you can do your bit to support the conservation of Malaysia’s greatest natural resource.
…and, MYCAT are looking for more volunteers for future trips.
I had an absolutely fantastic time and would thoroughly recommend this programme to others….so, if you are interested in getting off the beaten track, contact MYCAT and volunteer for future CAT Trailblazer excursions – your rainforest needs you!
I took along a newly purchased Olmpus TG 610 point-and-shoot camera to record the trip. The video gives you some idea of what a typical extended camping trip is like in the jungle (perhaps a bit wetter than most, but not much) and, for people thinking of volunteering, will hopefully let you gauge whether this is something you would enjoy or not.
I apologise for the poor quality of the video – the Olympus had a couple of irritating problems (a recurrent ‘clicking’ noise on playback and an inability to maintain focus!) and my hand is not as steady as the tripod I usually use, but it should give you an impression of what a longer trip in the jungle is like.
I thought it would be useful to cover some more general aspect of junglecraft related to this trip – namely how to enjoy being in the jungle when it is at its most uncomfortable (we had persistent rain throughout the trip). This is partly a psychological aspect of junglecraft and partly to do with the kit you take in and, in some ways, also applies to survival situations.
Travel light
I made a rookie mistake on this trip – I had been told that we would be making day treks from a permanent base camp and decided to take along my Berghaus Vulcan rucksack and fill it with just about everything bar the kitchen sink (intending to use the side pockets as a day pack). But the plan changed and, to my dismay, we had to lug everything from one campsite to the next.
A lesson relearned – always travel as light as possible – because plans may change but your rucksack will weigh the same!
Have something to look forward to
Trekking in the jungle can be wet, unsurprisingly hot (and, when wet, surprisingly cold!) and tiring – however, at the end of the day I know that I have dry clothes to change into, a comfortable hammock to lie in, my Snugpak sleeping bag to get warm in and I can fall asleep listening to an audio book on my ipod….all of these items safely stowed in a heavy duty dry sack that will keep them dry even if my rucksack gets dropped in a river.
…this is very psychologically important as it means that any discomfort during the day is easily shrugged off by the prospect of total comfort at night – I sleep better in the jungle than I do at home!
Have a luxury item with you
For me, a cup of a coffee (and, I am sorry to say, a cigarette) sets me up for the day ahead. These are important to me and make a big different to the start of my day, so I take in sachets of three-in-one Nescafe and enough cigs to last the trip. Could I live without them? Yes. Do I want to? No.
For others it might be sweets, or a tot of whisky at the end of the day or some favourite food item – as long as it isn’t too heavy, a luxury item or two can make a big difference to your feeling of well-being.
Go slow
Parts of the jungle can be hard to walk through – swamps that try to suck your boots off, vines and rattans that catch you and pull you off balance, muddy slopes that are a real struggle to climb (or descend, for that matter) – and it is easy to lose patience and try and fight your way forward: to ‘get out’ of the area as fast as you can, This is almost always a mistake – if you find yourself rushing, force yourself to slow down and you will trek more safely, conserve more energy and find everything less aggravating.
…never fight the jungle, it will win!
Stay hydrated
It is surprisingly easy to forget to drink water as you trek and become dehydrated. Before leaving camp I drink about a litre of water and then keep my water bottles handy to top up as I go. If you are sweating heavily, hydration powders (1 or 2 a day) can really help as well.
Keep some water purifying tablets handy so that you can refill from streams as you go along.
Don’t use a tent
Long ago I converted to hammocks and would never dream of using a tent in the jungle but, in case you are considering using a tent, here are some of the (many) disadvantages: 1) the jungle floor is a packed with tightly knotted roots close to the surface which will dig into your back at night, 2) the jungle floor is also host to leeches, centipedes and other insect that will bite you – you will want to get off the jungle floor, 3) in heavy rain the jungle floor turns to mud and often forms water pools where you’ve camped (no problem in a hammock, big problem in a tent), 4) often you will camp on sloped ground and, in a tent, will wake to find yourself slowly sliding towards the entrance, 5) tents can be claustrophobic and too hot for a tropical climate, 6) you will need to clear more of the surrounding jungle if you want to pitch a tent.
Early to bed, early to rise.
The best time to trek is early in the morning (while it’s not too hot) so don’t miss this opportunity by sleeping in late.
I also prefer to camp early (by about 4pm) which gives you plenty of time to set up camp, wash, start a fire, cook and relax. In the tropics night falls quickly (at about 7pm) and everything is more difficult to do in the dark.
In a survival situation the same principles apply – if you give yourself time to start a fire, make a comfortable (and waterproof) shelter you can look forward to a reasonable nights sleep, and it will give you a huge psychological boost to face the challenges of the next day.
Only clear when necessary
There is temptation when using a parang to hack away at the undergrowth and ‘take revenge’ on the jungle rattans and vines that impede your progress. Learn to cut only when necessary – if you can side step the rattan, or push that branch to one side instead of cutting it, then do it. Why waste energy slashing at the jungle when you don’t need to?
Be flexible
This last point applies particularly to the CAT Trailblazer programme – remember that you are there to help the wildlife department: they have a job to do and their own way of doing things, you are there to help them and the onus is on you to fit in with their plans rather than the other way round.
Just do it!
If you are not a hardened jungle trekker don’t be put off by your lack of experience – the only way to learn is to get out there and try it for yourself.
As long as you are fit enough to trek with a heavy pack (to give you an idea, the longest trekking we did in a single day was 9 hours), don’t mind getting wet or being bitten by leeches and have a positive and flexible attitude, then the MYCAT programme offers a fantastic opportunity to go into the jungle with seasoned trekkers, see it for yourself and help with MYCAT‘s tiger conservation efforts.
…so don’t delay, get in contact with MYCAT and apply for their next CAT Trailblazer trip.
These thoughts were going through my head on a recent trip I took up to Lake Temenggor. The lake itself is man made – a result of the Temanggor Dam – and another reminder that the environmental impact of governments and corporations far outweighs that of the jungle trekker who cuts the odd sapling or two to clear a path.
Of course, the key difference between kayaking and off-roading is the environmental impact and it’s hard to imagine a mode of transport less damaging to the environment than a kayak (unfortunately the same can’t be said for off-roading). Also in a kayak you feel like you’re really out in nature whereas inside a vehicle it’s almost as if you’re cocooned from the outdoors and watching it through the TV-like-view of the windscreen.
TRAILBLAZER
