Kayak Adventure 080907

Started the day early (way earlier than a typical weekend morning); after a quick breakfast & rendezvous with our guides at Green Heights, we finally reached our kayaking starting point, Kg. Bengoh at somewhere at the foot of Borneo Highlands (I think).

Kayaks are cool; they come with bright neon colors too. Unlike the conventional type which, I figured, anyone weighing over 60kg with decent sized spare tire in the middle is going to have a tough time climbing & fitting into; this one you can just jump straight on & start paddling.

All smiles as we eagerly scrambled to get into our gears for some kayak action…

These 2; well, let’s call them the Rainbow Menace ~ the aggressor & provocateur that always gets into ppls way...

Ended up with the least desirable pinky one =(

Though my kayak mate seemed quite pleased with the girly color scheme. Yup, that’s my trusty kayak mate (That threat to ‘auction off’ her & swap with a stronger mate thingy must have worked! Heheh…) That’s the angle of action we’ll be seeing her in most.

Well, she turned out to be pretty good =)

Unlike…

when not busy negotiating tricky rapids (they were not many to begin with; just one class 3 stretch to get thrown around & drenched with); we're usually busy at bumper-kayaking (kapten takde lesen), trying to make the other vessel capsize.. heh =p

Into the tranquil deep interiors of Borneo’s rainforest…

A walkthrough through nature’s backyard waterways is truly a relaxing & refreshing experience ~ nobody seemed to bother with the heat from the high noon sun & paddling sure felt like breeze (partly coz we’re going downstream)

1^st stop at Kg. Danu. Had a short stroll thru the Bidayuh village before proceeding.

An ill-fated vessel from the other convoy capsized. The exact spot where our Rainbow Menace ran into the same fate half an hour later… ~ scenario: too much entry speed into the bend, strong current swept them right into the bamboo growth, flipping their vessel over in the process. yeh! =p

2^nd stop further down at a sandy bank along the bend with nice mountain back drop. A place to have a quick dip & bite (so long as your char siu pao haven't got drenched yet).

As the sky starts to fall, we sailed off again for our final destination.

Trying out the Tarzan thingy ~ a good way to get dunked in the river… to bad it was only waist deep at the spot, else I would have ventured further up.

Nature’s shelter from the storm (supposed to water-fall here if it were to rain any harder & longer). At this point it was already raining cats & dogs; though we’re still 1/4 away from our last stop.

Finally reaching our destination: Kg Semadang after 4 hours of paddling & covering a distance of roughly 15km (a non-kayak regatta pace by any means)

A refueling stop away at 3^rd Mile McDonalds, & I called it a day… =)