Camping Blue Valley Camerons

A wish come true for Jo and Nel, to camp with their Co-op friends, and WW's family. Upon a recommendation of a friend we drove to Blue Valley...to some location that's not on the map. It was basically a dead end road, at the end of a farm, and an extrance via steep stairs to a water dam and high altitude farm. Weather was cold, it rained almost non stop! (thankfully light rain), and we didn't get to see the meteor showers which was our original intention for camping. Nevertheless we enjoyed the cool weather (14C) and great company.

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Endau Rompin again

Another beautiful trip to Endau Rompin. What makes a trip beautiful is the beautiful nature surrounding us, the sound of children's laughter and the fellowship between likeminded people.

 Jo spotted these beautiful caterpillars while on a short trek.

 While Nel was busy taking a leech off her foot, I spotted this spider going in for the kill. What great timing for some photography.

 A close up shot of the spider paralyzing and wrapping it's prey in web.

 To our joy, we managed to secure our favourite spot again, and the children as usual spent most of the 24 hours in the river or by the river, playing pretend games, building their own world with rocks and sand.

 This time WW brought PVC pipes and the fathers built a raft, which the children loved and spent hours on rowing up and down stream.

Night time is where the adults fellowship over some drinks....and we get to hear some interesting stories, while the children made their own campfire to roast marshmallows. I'm proud that the children are now able to chop their own firewood and start their own fire!!

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Scout CAmp

We had a nice three day camp with the HS Scout Group. This time the venue was a private cove in PD.

Setting up tents

First things first...digging a toilet. The girls did a good job, digging it about 3 feet deep, but a little too wide for the littlest scout girl. :/

Nel helping Scout Master Quek to set up the Tarp 

The girls' friend, ZE made this cute cute sign! :)

Loving the activity of digging, Nel decided to dig further. During the point of this photo, the hole was about 4 feet deep. She eventually dug it to about 5 feet, and found a source of fresh water!

During this camping trip, scouts had to chop their own bamboo, and find random pieces of wood. Then attaching used bottles, they made their own rafts.

Testing raft time. All the rafts floated well!

This is one of several shots taken after a day of work. Girl scouts playing while it was the boys' turn to cook dinner. This photo makes me happy. Perhaps it's capturing joy and carefree moments that makes the photo beautiful.

Enjoying some quiet time while having dinner by the gentle waves.

Though it was supposed to be two nights on the beach, we had to abandon campsite on the second night. Strong winds hit us on the second night, snapping my tent poles in two. Embers from the large bornfire blew towards our tents threatening to set them aflame. Some of the children panicked and about two had panic attacks...and it was truly a state of emergency when we evacuated the beach.

It reminded me of the scary experience we had camping on Segadas when storm and lightning demolished our friend's tent and flooded ours, while we literally fought against the wind with our hands so the tent wouldn't cave in on our children. But I told myself despite the panic that hit me, I had to remain calm for my children. So thank God, He gave me strength as I calmly gave instructions to my children to load our belongings and calmly unpeg our very large tent to evacuate.

We all ended up taking refuge in YL's house in PD...20 + of us. It was a "refugee"moment. :) But oh what a memorable trip! :D

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2016

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Revisiting Endau Rompin, Selai

We had a lovely week away at Endau Rompin, Selai. Since we camped there way back in 2010 we've been wanting to do a return trip but just never did because we were exploring other sites.

How blessed we were when we discovered that other campers for the days we were there had canceled their reservations and we'd be the only campers there for the week. We were just three families consisting of 8 children, and that size is just nice for a relaxing getaway. Good food, close company, shooting stars and peaceful river all to ourselves. What more could we ask for.

To book, email erselaijnpc@yahoo.com 
On day of arrival, head to the office in Bekok, sign in and pay.
If you have your own 4WD, you'll save money on transport.

**Sadly we discovered that the other side of the river has been heavily logged by illegal loggers. The forest rangers told us they couldn't do anything about it.  That's so sad to know! I hope enforcements will try to stop further logging before we loose this very very beautiful forest. Here's a video I took by our campsite. You'll notice the gaps between trees as the area behind has been totally logged.
Yet listen to the beautiful song of the gibbons. I awoke everyday at 5 am to their song which would go on till sunrise and then they'd stop.

Daily hangout area. The children especially would stay there almost the whole day singing, creating stories and chatting.

Our daily visitors

Each day we were there it threatened to storm. But God was good, each time we'd pray and then watch the storm clouds move away. We were blessed with sunshine for our entire stay. And finally it rained just as we left the place. God is good.

We paid for one rod. But it sure was tough....the fish wouldn't take our bait.

The kids' favourite rock...where they'd eat...write their journals...read a book..chat.

A resident got really brave. Looks like they're used to having visitors around.

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Camping Hutan Lipur Lentang

Together with friends from the HS scouts group we went for a one night camp at Hutan Lentang.

It was one that was activity packed for the children. Building their own bamboo table, learning to weave their own ropes, swimming at the river and waterfall, carving their own swan out of apples and lots of fun games. They were supposed to have a survival night, but alas, it rained. So they ended up singing songs and telling tales.

Jo, K and a new scout, An shared a tent, while Nel slept with us in our larger tent. 

The girls had their own territory, and they made the boys dig a large trench around their territory, and paid the boys in form of twigs! :p   haha..

All in all a short but really enjoyable trip!

The girls built their own campfire, which was just right for marshmallows so in the end...almost all the kiddos who went formed a tight circle around the fire, roasting their own marshmallows.

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Outdoors

We've been outdoors a lot, mainly for our survival project...(mentioned two posts before), scouts, and archery.

But for relaxation...we've only done two this year.

1) Our favourite picnic spot with Uncle W!  Honestly nothing better than BBQ by a stream...soo relaxing! Need to do  this more often.

2) Camping- Genting with friends/scouts.
Lots of fun for kids, followed by a heavy rain at night! I tell you, nothing like trying to cook over campfire under light rain....followed by heavy rain that drenched most of the kids' tents!!

Not camping related....a Bulbul nest on our tree again. Precious!! :)

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Camping on Perhentian Again.

Two years ago, we did a road trip east and camped on Perhentian Island. (Blog Post Here.) That trip remains fresh in our memory because it was so memorable. This year we decided to return to Perhentian, but to camp on Perhentian Kecil instead of Perhentian Besar.

But first a stop at Kuala Terengganu for delicious lunch, and a revisit to Turtle Alley, which we first visited on our road trip east 4 years ago!! While walking along China Town, we also discovered, a really tiny museum...mostly photographs, of Baba Nyonya heritage. I hope they grow that display.

 

We also revisited boat making workshops on Pulau Duyung

After  hearty lunch of Sambal Sotong dan Petai (yummmm) and nasi lemak for the kids, we made our way to Jerteh. I never knew there were padi fields in Jerteh.

Our GPS brought us to this vast expanse of padi fields and announced, "You Have Arrived!"  Hmmm!!!   

We eventually found our room for the night, a room above some shops, Emma Guesthouse . Very reasonably priced, and most importantly, clean and non smoking.

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Early the next morning we met up with our camping buddies at Kuala Besut Jetty and set off for the island!! The boatman called himself Schumaker of the sea, and true to his word, he drove like crazy, making the speed boat bounce way up high, causing our butts and head to ache with each "Thump" on the waves, and cracking most of the eggs we brought!!

First sight of our camping spot! Rainforest Camping Perhentian. The main tent belongs to Wak Lan, the owner of this camping resort. Wak Lan is extremely hospitable and a humble man. He told us that we were the first Chinese family to camp on his ground and he was surprised we wanted to camp.

Path to campground, some steps uphill about 100-300 meters away depending on location of tents. Not very suitable for the elderly I think. 

Tents were provided. We were privileged to have brand new tents and airbeds! Campground also has toilet facilities and running water. However,bath area is open so no naked bathing! :P 

Cute sign, but necessary....coz a trail of HUGE black ants. A bite from these ants sting like crazy! I know coz I got bitten. 

See the little kitten next to Nel? It bounded after her when she went to check out the blue waters. The beach here is secluded and private, which was lovely. However, our previous campground on Teluk KeKe had better corals, right where we camped.

Wak Lan our kind host provided the children with an inflatable mattress which they played with hours on end.

We also borrowed a Kayak from the next beach

Snorkelling was awesome as usual. I think the children were most excited at seeing rather large sharks (Blacktip sharks). However, we did notice that in some areas a large part of corals has been destroyed. Swimming there, my husband found and collected beer bottle and cans, which we discarded off properly after. I felt sad for the fish. :(

Sunset was beautiful......and at night we lay on the rocks and watched a sky filled with stars. It was MOST awesome, that while we were there, we saw a really big bright shooting star, travelling quite a distance over the dark sky. Mesmerizing!

Meals are provided and campers are not allowed to cook own food on this campground. Most meals cost about RM 10 per person, and drinks RM 4 and above.

Total Cost:

Boat Ride 70RM per adult (round trip), 35RM per child (round trip)

Camp Site - Two Men-Tent  - RM50/tent

Snorkelling - Adult RM50, child RM30

Food on campground est about 90++ per day for a family of four.

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After three days, reluctantly we left campground and headed back to KT, where we spent a lovely day with close friends. What a change to have delicious Austrian food instead of camp food (although camp food was pretty good too!)

Goulash and baked Wild boar, followed by delish Ricotta Mango dessert.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2015

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