7/29/2019 An Extraordinaire Expedition to Buaya Sangkut Waterfall, Endau-Rompin National Park, Johor Darul Takzim

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An Extraordinaire Expedition to Buaya Sangkut Waterfall, Endau-Rompin NationalPark, Johor Darul Takzim

A cascade part of Buaya Sangkut Waterfall

On 29-31th May 2010, 10 comrades from Luarbiasa Photography group led

by dR Ali went for an extraordinary journey to Buaya Sangkut Waterfall within the

virgin jungle of Endau-Rompin National Park, Johor Darul Takzim. This trip is fully

sponsored by Perbadanan Taman Negara Johor.

Luarbiasa Comrades

1. Dr Jamal (flickr, blog posting)

2. Shahreen (flickr)

3. Jasni Muda(flickr)

4. Ali Tukiman(flickr)

5. Emran MT (flickr, blog posting,facebook)

6. Hisyam Rahman (flickr)

7. Abg Naim (Chef)

8. Abdullah Jones (blog posting)

9. Pahat (flickr)

10. Ali - Amir sahab (flickr)

Perbadanan Taman Negara Officials1. En Fakhrul

2. En Herman Riswan

3. Ms Nur Amira Abd Rahman (trainee from UPM)

4. Ms Neeny Wawa trainee from UPM

http://landscapeshutter.blogspot.com/2010/06/extraordinaire-expedition-to-buaya.htmlhttp://landscapeshutter.blogspot.com/2010/06/extraordinaire-expedition-to-buaya.htmlhttp://landscapeshutter.blogspot.com/2010/06/extraordinaire-expedition-to-buaya.htmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/2121studio/http://www.flickr.com/photos/pahat2009/http://abdullahjones.blogspot.com/2010/06/semasa-datang-bersama-rombongan-gaps.htmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/hisyamrahman/http://www.facebook.com/emranmt/http://landscapeshutter.blogspot.com/2010/06/extraordinaire-expedition-to-buaya.htmlhttp://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/sets/72157624062807147/detail/http://www.flickr.com/photos/muhammadaliphoto/http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasnimuda/http://www.flickr.com/photos/shahre2n/http://www.tembeling.com/blog/?p=1300http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamalrahman/http://www.2121studio.com/http://www.luarbiasafoto.com/http://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/4662241739/http://landscapeshutter.blogspot.com/2010/06/extraordinaire-expedition-to-buaya.html

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DAY 1 - SANTAI DAY @ KUALA MARONG (Kahang-Kg Peta-Kuala Jasin-

Kuala Marong)

First day went smooth when by 11am everyone is already registered at the PETA

office. By 12pm we started to venture into the national park with two 4WD hired

by the Perbadanan Taman Negara Johor for us. Both 4wd belonged to a family

business managed by Farid (Angah) & Fahmi. Good & punctual service. Our 4wd

is driven by Fahmi, the younger brother.

After few kilometers from Kahang town, we reached the main entrance to the park

through palm oil plantation. After a bumpy 53km ride we finally reach the Visitor

Complex at Kg Peta. An observation which is shared by everyone is the untarred

red road is far better than the tarred road. This is because the tarred road is not

well maintained therefore pothole is mushrooming like crazy (a friend make a

remark that the pothole is similar to the pothole at Upih Guling waterfall).

Whenever the 4wd reach a tarred road, the driver must be extra careful and drive

slowly throughout the damaged road.

After stopping for a while at the visitor complex, we proceed our journey to Kuala

Jasin, bypassing Pantai Burung campsite (a not so successful tourism project) &

NERC. At Kuala Jasin we stop for Zohor & Asar jamak prayer before continuing

to Kuala Marong.

The distance from Kuala

Jasin to Kuala Marong is

about 4KM which would needabout an hour of trekking.

After consulting with Fahmi

(the young 4wd driver) he

agreed to send us further to a

point before Kuala Marong

which would cut our trekking time from an hour to around 15 minutes only. After

crossing the Jasin river with rope assistance, we finally reached Kuala Marong,

our camp site for the night. A group from Singapore is already there greeting us.

And minutes after reaching our camp site, the rain started to fall quite heavily.

While few comrades preparing the tent, few others 'sneaked' to the bungalow

(which is an open wakaf).. hehehe.. somehow i prefer to sleep in the open while in

the jungle than inside a tent..

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wczRPrlw23E/TAhuAt9FgHI/AAAAAAAAAFE/kIV2K1yv3OI/s1600/PETA-EndauRompin-map.jpg

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Sungai Jasin stream @ Kuala Marong (IR)

Immediately after the rain stop, dR lead the group to Upih Guling Waterfall for

photography session. Abg Naim didnt follow as he already started to preparing

our meal for the night. While they were crossing the river, i decided to venture

alone to another part not far from Kuala Marong camp site.

At night, we were very pleased with the meal cooked by abg naim & hisyam..

fresh fish steam cooked, fried vegetable, and fried fresh fish..

After the dinner, En Herman

& En Fakhrul discussed with

dR ali about the 2nd day

program... this is because in

the original itinerary we intent

to camp at Buaya Sangkut..

the last proper camp site

before buaya sangkut is Batu

Hampar campsite which is 3hours journey to Buaya

Sangkut.. En Herman explain

that at Buaya Sangkut there

is no level ground suitable as

camp site.. he cited few risk

such as fallen tree (its inter-monsun season-lots of rain) and wild animal (such as

tiger) .. therefore he request that instead of camping at Buaya Sangkut Waterfall,

he suggest that we camp at Takah Kunyit. Takah Kunyit is located about 2 hours

journey after Batu Hampar. From Takar Kunyit we only need an hour to get toBuaya Sangkut Waterfall so if we started our final push before/after subuh it

should be ok to get the slow shutter picture. Takah kunyit is the camp site used

by Taman Negara renjer/officials and not actually for public use.

After dinner and taking bath, everyone started to sleep to prepare for tomorrow's

adventure.

DAY 2 - THE ADVENTURE TO TAKAH KUNYIT (Kuala Marong-Batu

Hampar-Takah Kunyit

As early as five o'clock in the morning few people already wake-up. I wake up

quite early as i would to cook few things from my backpack to lessen the burden

a bit.. four kampit of nasi himpit with two rendang ayam tesco.. nasi himpit take a

while to cook.. about half an hour.. while the rendang ayam tesco only need a

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_wczRPrlw23E/TAdIqFaYcnI/AAAAAAAAAE8/2eOI6zoJnj4/s1600/kualajasin-kualamarong-batuhampar-takarkunyit-buaya-sangkut-trailmap.pnghttp://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/4668799766/

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minute or two to heat it up.. a very practical option for future trekking/travelling

needs.

Immediately after Subuh prayer and breakfast, majority of the group went to Upih

Guling again for slow shutter session. Me and Shahreen went to Tasik Biru which

is 500m only from the Kuala Marong camp site and need only 10 minutes

trekking... Tasik Biru is indeed a very beautiful place with calm and peaceful river

stream and school of kelah.. After a while we backed at the camp and eat thebreakfast (mihun goreng) prepared by abg naim. After breakfast, we started to

pack to go the our next camp site which is Takah Kunyit.

At about 10am we started our journey. After 40 minutes the first group arrived at

Batu Hampar and after an hour everyone safely arrive at Batu Hampar. As it were

raining, we waited for a while. Few minutes before 12 o'clock its still raining

therefore En Fakhrul request that we proceed regardless of the weather condition

as it is very unpredictable.

From Batu Hampar to Takah Kunyit is where the gruelling adventure begun..

Majority of the group carry their own backpack including me which packed

around 22kg of item. The main culprit is the camera equipment which is more 8kg

(2 body - one of it 5D MKII, 3 lenses - MPE 65mm macro lens is the heaviest, 1

flash and sling lowepro bag). Being a photographer its always a difficult decision

whenever we need to go trekking/hiking as the camera's load would make the

journey more difficult. But not bringing or stripping few important item/lenses

would mean compromising on the final output... I'm for instance decided not to

bring the tripod as my Benro 550 is quite heavy. I simple need to rely on other

method to take slow shutter picture such as 'building a tripod' whenever i need

one.

The heavy rain make the journey more difficult as we need to negotiate steep and

slippery track. Along the way , rope is provided at every difficult section. Most

people would do only daypack to Buaya Sangkut Waterfall either from Kuala

Jasin (5 hours one way) or from Kuala Marong (4 hours one way) or from Batu

Hampar Campsite (3 hours one way). We would instead bring our heavy

backpack which include the photography equipment.

After a gruelling 2 hours and 20 minutes, i managed to reach Takah Kunyit. There

abg naim and the guides are in the midst of preparing our camp site and two large

tents using fly. Feeling relief i went to the waterfall and clean myself especially

from dozen of ferocious leeches. since it were raining daily when we came here..

this creatures is everywhere... whenever you open your cloth/sock/long pant

after a long trekking.. expect to see dozen of them hanging around partying like a

drunken thug... even if they are fully loaded they won fall down volutarily...

After a while everyone reached the campsite with exhausting look in their face..hehehe...some already start calculating the next day journey including me..

hehehe..

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Ferocious Terrorist of Endau-Rompin

And here abg naim cooked for us 'ikan kelah dalam tin' and also the delicioussteamed fish again.. at night.. everyone sleep soundly with generator working

tirelessly.. hehehhe

DAY 3 - FROM BUAYA SANGKUT TO KUALA JASIN (Takah Kunyit-Buaya

Sangkut-Takah Kunyit-Batu Hampar-Kuala Marong-Kuala Jasin-Kg Peta-

Kahang

The final & most important day.. instead of start trekking before subuh, we start

trekking after subuh prayer... around 6:30am a total of 14 people including the

guides & taman negara official started to trek to buaya sangkut.. hill after hill..

ropes after ropes... after an hour we finally reached the destination..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/4668254268/

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Part of the cascade at Buaya Sangkut Waterfall

while its still early when we reached the destination (7:30am)... the sun is already

out and part of buaya sangkut waterfall is already lighten up directly by the sun's

light (very similar situation with Tanglir Waterfall @ Bukit Tinggi) .. which mean it

quite impossible to do slow shutter without having part of your picture totally

washed out.. nevertheless we enjoyed our stay here.. few of us including me

crossed the river with the help from the orang asli guide to have a close look at

the waterfall..

According to the legend... once upon a time .. a young girl has a dream that a

crocodile (buaya) want to eat her.. when she tell about the dream to his parent,

his parent decided to go to higher ground , a place where the any crocodile wont

be able to reach. Feeling relief, somehow the crocodile appear again in the girl

dream saying the same thing... so the family move to a higher ground with large

waterfall which is impossible for the crocodile to reach due to the steep rock

along the waterfall.. but suddenly one morning they saw the crocodile tried to

climb its way at the waterfall.. but then somehow suddenly it turned to a stonewhile climbing.. thats why the waterfall is called Buaya Sangkut (loosely

translated as stucked crocodile )

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/4665212580/

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The Buaya Sangkut Waterfall

After refreshing ourself with the maggi mee cooked by our guide and glass of

milo... we returned back to our Takah Kunyit campsite.. packing our staff and

headed home to Kuala Jasin..

After several 'discount'.. i still didnt see the front group.. i thought i would stumbled

upon them resting in any point waiting for the rest of the group.. with Jasni & Ali

muar beside me.. we finally regroup with the front group at Kuala Marong.. while

we set about 2 hours and 20 minutes.. the front group led by abg naim and the

girls (nuramira & neen) managed to do it in 1 hour and 30 minutes only.. which

mean they are almost an hour in front of us.. fuuhh... good thing about it is that

they already cooked some maggi mee and milo for us to eat while waiting for the

rest of the group... :D

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/4665259359/

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Ironlady of Endau-Rompin

Less than three hours everyone already reached Kuala Marong.. some managed

to repeat swimming with the kelah @ Tasik Biru.. then we continue our journey to

Kuala Jasin.. throughout the journey we passed through the newly constructed

jambatan gantung and need to cross the river again before Kuala Jasin. At KualaJasin, everyone clean themself before heading to Kahang town in 4WD with nice

memory and hopefully good photograph. :D

Major Point to note

- All waterfall/stream there is very beautiful.. each is unique in its own way ..

definitely worth a revisit

-3D2N is too short for a photography trip if you want to cover Upih Guling,Tasik

Air Biru,Batu Hampar & Buaya Sangkut.. if we ever repeat i would prefer to do it

in 4D3N so there will be more time for photography instead of trekking

-porter should be considered next time .. but if 4D3N then it would be less tiring

and might not need any porter..

- Its time to start planning for other Taman Negara trek.. Selai.. Bekuk.. and Ulu

Kemapan

- The best time all year round is March-April ..

- Adidas kampung is the best shoe to wear here.. only RM 6-8 per pair

- Leech sock is a must... unless you want to collect a whole load of them....

Below is the GPS trail simulation recorded by one of our trip members , Dr Jamal

using his Garmin 60sx.

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=644731

Endau-Rompin National ParkKahang Office (Tel/Fax) : +607-7882812/+607-7882813Kg Peta Visitor Complex: +607-7021111/+607-7021100

Website: www.johorparks.comEmail: info@johorparks.com

Campsite facility guideKuala Jasin - Electricity, chalet, toilet,cooking area with gasKuala Marong - Wakaf, toilet, cooking area with gas, camp siteBatu Hampar - Cooking area (no gas),camp site,toilet

Takah Kunyit - Camp site onlyGPS PointKuala Marong N230.831' E10321.282'Batu Hampar Waterfall N230.261' E10320.645'Takah Kunyit N229.563' E10319.951'

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=644731http://www.flickr.com/photos/drziner/4668412270/

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Buaya Sangkut N229.841' E10319.201'

Trekking duration (estimation only & excluding rest)Kuala Jasin - Kuala Marong : 1 hourKuala Marong - Batu Hampar : 45 minutesKuala Marong - Upih Guling : 15 minutesKuala Marong - Tasik Air Biru: 10 minutesBatu Hampar - Takah Kunyit : 2 hoursTakah Kunyit - Buaya Sangkut: 1 hour

Extra bitGPS trail recorded by Dr Jamal : http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=644731

CreditThanks to En Bakar from Perbadanan Taman Negeri JohorThanks to abe We Jaseim who sponsor the fresh fishThanks to dRali for giving the opportunity to join this expeditionThe utmost important.. thank to Allah

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=644731