Perak Adventure 2007

Cave Adventure & White-water Rafting
Sunday, April 15, 2007

Introduction

In middle April 2007, twenty two people from Gas Malaysia looking for a round of adventure during the weekend ended up at Gopeng, Perak, where they had the opportunity to spend a day white water rafting and caving. Despite having their rafts capsize several times, slipping as they lost their footing while in the cave, and several bum-bruising lorry rides to and from the activity locations, they emerged with satisfied smiles, and more than eager to recount the exciting tales.
The journey start from various locations based on participants based. 5 cars depart from Klang Valley and one car direct from Perak. Those from Klang Valley met at Rawang R&R around 7:30 am and final meeting point at Gopeng toll plaza at 9:30 am. There, we met with the trip organiser - Nomad Adventure. The lead instructor was Mr. Claude Farlen, a Canadian that had seven years of experience in outdoor activities.

Gua Kandu Exploration

Gua Kandu is a multi-level and multi chambered wild cave that was a communist hideout during the Emergency. No crawling is involved, but participants will be challenged with scrambling though this little-visited cave. The highlight of the caving is to experience the one-of-a-kind 80m flying fox (developed by the experts) in the cave which gives an exhilarating bird's eye view of the main chamber.

The flying fox zip line cave is a complex, multi-level system of large chambers with ancillary passages. Most of the formations seemed to be dead, but dropping water all around proves that they are really just damaged or polluted from human contact. However, in several areas inside, one can find not only live formations, but beautiful white calcite flows that are as ancient and pure as the ones found in pristine caverns. You might have to look around a bit to find them. There was also at least one rimstone dam pool with clear water surrounded by several columns. Bats were definitely present on the ceiling, barely visible in small patches. Didn't see any in flight. Surprisingly there was little or no guano on the cave floor, and no nasty guano smell either.

Whitewater Rafting at Sg . Kampar

The river component of the program is on Sungai Kampar, one of the only rivers in Peninsular Malaysia where whitewater rafting is viable. This river trip has it all. From the excitement of tackling large rapids, to enjoying the serene beauty of a gentle paddle through lush rainforest, this will be an invigorating day spent at one with nature while learning some challenging skills.
The river journey had plenty of fun rapids to keep you busy, it was a well-chosen route with minimal flats to paddle through. Although recent rains brought questions of safety, the course was well clear and posed no hazards. I was impressed with the extensive safety procedures and pre-trip floating and rope rescue training exercise. Other outfits often do this after or during the trip - it makes more sense to do it right before put-in. There was capsizing incident, but it actually made the rafting a lot more fun, and since we had been briefed on raft safety, no one was alarmed, we just enjoyed the water !