My Maiden Trail Race (or My Excuse to hatch a 10km Poke-egg)

(Contributed by Esther. Well done, for both the run and the post!)

Trail racing is not pretty. It's wet, muddy and bloody. Plus, it has the tendency to culminate in overly liberal swearing. But it's fun, if you like your fun, dirty and sweaty. 

This is an account of my first ( sort of) trail race.  In theory, there was a Langkawi race and MSIG prior to this. But both were flat-ish of terrain and the first was mostly tarmac roads. Check out the elevation profile from the first graphic as well as the provisions at the checkpoints for this race. It looked pretty promising, almost like a picnic!

Do note some of the actual check points were not as described on the profile.

Tahan Trekking Club

I was teacher in-charge of a CCA (school interest group) known as the Tahan Trekking Club! Yes there was a club named after the mountain. Apart from other smaller mountains such as Ophir and Stong, summiting Gunung Tahan was seen as the milestone in their club experience, a graduation climb. These young men and women, 17 years old, would scale Gunung Tahan after just 6 months of intense training, the mountain that strikes fear even into seasoned trekkers. And they would only take the Classic Trail, Kuala Tahan to Kuala Tahan, all 110km. 

The tradition of the club dates back to 1976. Then, the new Hwa Chong Junior College wanted to set itself apart from the rest and make a name of itself and decided to send a group of 8 boys 2 girls to scale the highest peak in Peninsula Malaysia. Led by its founder Dr Quek Jin Jong, who was Assistant Head of Physical Education, they embarked on a 7-day journey into the unknown. None of them had any trekking experience, they weren't even sure what kind of shoes to use. In an interview with Dr Quek many years later, he recalled a moment when the trek almost didn't happen. As the team camped in the Taman Negara national park, just near the start point of the trek, some of them encountered a man whose upper body was covered in leeches. The blood on his body was enough to stun them into thinking twice about setting foot in the forest. Dr Quek recalled, "At that point, if I had said, 'Let's go back', I think the rest would have readily gone back home." He didn't, so they stayed, to complete the trip and started a legacy. 

Clockwise from top left: 3rd batch, 1978, 3rd batch crossing log bridge, 29th batch in front of minimart

Expedition KaBiReTian Part 3 - When we are not paddling

So what (sometimes crazy) things we do when we're not paddling? Here's a sneak view.

Take in the magnificent sights that Mother Nature has to offer while resting on the kayaks....

Beautiful rock formations.

Expedition KaBiReTian Part 2 - The Longest Day

Day 2 was the longest paddling day at 27Nm (approx 50km), from Pulau Kapas to Pulau Bidong. Going by our average of 2.7knots, that would take 10hrs. To survive such a long journey, the best chance is to set off early and hopefully end before sunset. 

Apart from the long distance, the other challenge was the 2nd half of the journey would be through the open sea without any visible landmark to guide our navigation. This is a rather daunting task as you can only rely on your compass to guide your direction, but not knowing how the wind and current might have affected your course of travel. 

Combine the 2 challenges together, we will be setting off before sunrise at 430am, pitch dark, and without any landmark in the later part of the journey, taking at least 10hrs. Well sounds exciting, here we go!

Paddling in the dark wasn't too difficul, as long as you keep the fleet close so you can see one another. The navigator also has to know where he/she is going. Most important is to be able to see the sea compass in front so you can stick to your bearing; and having sight of landmarks on land helps to confirm your location. Plus no issues with heat as the sun was still sleeping behind the horizon. Actually the biggest problem was the constant glare of the spotlight from the motherboat.

Best thing about pre-dawn paddle.... eventually the sun will rise and you get beautiful sunrise pictures of you and your kayaks.

Expedition KaBiReTian Part 1

Expedition KaBiReTian.... what the @#%@# is that?? Starting from Marang, Terengganu Malaysia, the expedition brings us to Pulau Kapas, Pulau Bidong, Pulau Redang, Pulau Perhentian and finally to Kuala Besut in Terengganu. String the names of the islands together and you get KaBiReTian. Total distance 95Nm (roughly 180km) over 6 days of paddling. Epic journey.... as some people say, paddle until stupid. 

Life on Mabul island

Life on Mabul island, specifically Sphere Divers Lodge, is an interesting experience itself. I said that this trip is an expedition, actually it's worse (or better, depends on how you look at it). I mean, which expedition will allow you to have nothing to do from 10am onwards?? On average we clock 2 dives a day, sometimes dawn dive at 6am, followed by 2nd dive at 830am, and that's it! Nothing else for the day, no wifi, no electricity until evening. Killing time was a learnt skill. Survival skill.

Some of the things we did.

Top left: play guitar. Bottom left: waiting for meals. Top right: having meals. Bottom right: sit around and chit chat. Oh, we also did PT before dinner. That was usually the non-diving highlight of the day. Best way to kill time was to nap. But not in the room, too stuffy. On the benches, sometimes there are sea breezes.

Diving @ Mabul Island part 3

The first part of this post is dedicated to the last dive, which personally was the best amongst the 11. There were too many fishes sighted to put everything into this post. 

Top: unknown. Bottom left: blue streak cleaner wrasse. Bottom right: emperor angelfish

Diving @ Mabul Island part 2

The first few dives in Mabul were ok, average. Things started to get interesting from the 5th dive onward with many new sightings. Here's some photos taken by the 4 of us, we took turns to shoot underwater. 

Clown fish (aka anemonefish) is a joy to shoot, because they will stay in an corals and not swim away when you approach them. The corals themselves also form a beautiful natural frame for the fish. And thanks to Instagram for their surreal filter effects! Clown fish is made popular by the movie Finding Nemo, a computer-animated movie about the adventures of a clown fish ....so much so that some people call them the Nemo fish! 

Diving @ Mabul Island part 1

Mabul island, located south east of Sabah Malaysia, sister island of the world famous Sipadan island. It is not too far from the Philippines, which explains why the water and marine life resembles that of my Bohol trip 2 weeks ago. Waters are clear and turquoise, just like in Bohol. Our dive operator and accommodation, Sphere Divers Lodge.

That's me, Fong, Nad and Sham. A weird combi, some might say. 

Kayaking Endau River (Day 4 & 5, end)

The 4th day was the longest paddling day in terms of distance. Just one simple direct rapid in the morning and it was flat water paddling all the way.

Sometimes when you are in the outdoors you can be too caught up with the tasks at hand, be it paddling, trekking or sailing. Then you fail to appreciate the simple beauty of nature around you. And it's free! It's good to be out there and doing nothing. Just float.