Amoi rides in the kampungs: Kaki Explorer : Unfinished Business (18 October 2020)

The Team checking out Cam Plutus

Lock gates at Sg Tempayan

Chooi and Claudine checking out the view from the top

Sg Tempayan's trail

According to the locals, Jetty Kampung Parit Jerman was initially built by a German soldier. The jetty was build with a viaduct to bypass his tomb.

Somewhere near to the JB-Pontian bridge construction

Sungai Boh

Wan, a local boatman says you can hire his boat for RM350 to tour the river estuary up to PTP, short of the open sea. Boat takes 10 passengers including the boatman and his helper

Sg Boh's old and new jetty

Another tyre puncture on Amy's bike at Sg Boh

Tanjung Bin power plant

At the start of the 3.5 km trail

When the going gets tough...

...and tougher!!!

Victory is when you see the river again!

Note the start of the tarmac...Yippee!!!

Coming out of our first failed attempt

Power grids along the way

Approaching the galangal farm

Second failed attempt

Third failed attempt

Yesterday was super hot. Hoping for the dry spell to continue, the reverse happened today. It started pouring heavily just as Claudine and VT stepped out of the car in Pekan Nanas.

Holed up at Yi Sheng kopitiam together with us were Yanlin, Chin Po, SK, ET, Miki, May Hiong and their 2 boys. They were on an expedition to Gunung Pulai 2 and had to detour because of the rain.

Catching up with long lost friends was good but soon we had to part ways as lady luck decided to shine favours upon us! At approximately 8 am, the rain clouds finally dispersed, giving way to a cool day.

Taking the back roads of Pekan Nanas, we made our way to the lock gates at Sungai Tempayan. Of course, finding it didn't come easy and after a few misses, we were finally rewarded for our perseverance. Besides the interesting structure of the lock gates placed at the head waters, there were interesting pathways leading to both sides of the gates. We decided not to venture into the abyss without the presence of our senior Bush bashers, Mr Lim and Mr Liew, who were missing from today's ride.

Kampung Parit Jerman's jetty was our next exploration. Located at yet another river estuary of Sungai Redan, we were charmed by a rustic wooden store house by the river banks. Right across it , is an abandoned charcoal kiln.

Making our way along the Jetty, we were initially impressed by the sturdy fences built alongside the concrete jetty. Sheltered rest stops, strategically placed along the long walkway allows physically challenged persons to take a breather while enjoying the natural surroundings of the mangrove swamp.

As we ventured further inside, some of the metal poles supporting the fences had rusted and collapsed into the river. The state of disrepair appeared to be some time already as more and more poles snapped, weighed down by the fallen structures.

Nearer to the river, a school of monkeys were fighting over a bag of bread heads, possibly thrown in by a good hearted person who works in a nearby coffee shop. They were a good distraction...Cameras started to click...Then suddenly, Amy began to scream! Her scream turns to wails. Wasps were attacking her!!!

Panicked, we clamoured to escape! Back in the open, we assessed her situation. She suffered quite a few bites; too many to count while Henry had one on the leg and another one on his butt!!!

We had no choice but to make her ride back to Kampung Belokok where Claudine managed to get some ointment from a patron in a coffee shop. This helps to relief her pain but what finally took her mind off the stings were the campervans parked nearby.

Striking up conversations with the caretaker, we were thrilled when invited to view the unit! Surprisingly more spacious than it appeared from the outside, the campervan sleeps 3 to 4 pax comfortably.

Next on the agenda was the elusive new bridge connecting Pontian to JB. Third time lucky for Claudine, she finally found the site though disappointedly, it was still unaccessible to public. A boom gate manned by security at the entrance of the site was all it takes to send the signal to the group to ride on.

After so many attempts, finding the location of the bridge felt like hitting a milestone! Throw back to a few years ago, Claudine and VT's accidental bid was accompanied by a mild crash when hubby rear ended the wife at the start of the road works. Back then, they were on a recce for alternative routes to Kukup. The more recent mission was on September 12 which had to be abandoned midway due to heavy rain. Surprisingly, the team had trudged through the site without noticing the bridge!!!

Feeling triumphant after our discovery, we decide to finish where we had left off from Sept 12....a 3.6 km dirt track circumventing the river near Tanjung Bin. This was only possible after a quick tuck in and a stopover at Tanjung Bin Power Plant.

We were collecting so many trophies today by the time we got to the last challenge, we had completely ran out of luck. Egged by the locals at Kampung Belokok, we attempted to find the route connecting Belokok to Sungai Tempayan. The said route was neither visible on Google maps nor komoot.

We were relentless in our search, trying different approaches. A galangal farmer pointed out to us a trail near his farm which was nought. We went by the power lines, circled the palm oil estates and even got lost between the galangal shrubs that grew taller than an average man’s height. The ground was soft and Claudine felt disorientated amongst the undergrowth of the palm oil estate.

Finally, we found out why we had failed so miserably..... Kelvin and Amy had forgotten to pay for their drinks at the stall in Kampung Belokok!! Cursed, we knew we had to call defeat and eat the humble pie of shame.

Taking the long way back, we finally reached Pekan Nanas at 4 pm. No beers for celebration but a healthy concoction of fruit juices at Auntie's stall. At the same time, no overweight, past middle aged ladies with beer sash to greet us but the genuine, warm greetings from Auntie and her staffs.

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