Sunday, August 15, 2010

FRIM - Canopy Walk in the tree tops 14 August 2010

Saturday 10am
The walkway(D5) is open from 930am to 230pm. Closed on Mon and Fri. Purchase ticket at One Stop Centre (D6) Adult RM5 Child (6-12) RM1.  Tel- 03 6279 7575
The beginning of the canopy walk (Left), the first walking trail is a paved 500 m gravel road. We saw a japanese woman with her baby strapped in front of her. (Right) What a strong woman!

En began her leaves hunting - came ready with her basket.

We took a stroll and hunt for bugs. Left-  a big extraodinary spider.
Right- Few of these insects were spotted on this plant.

All sorts of leaves and plants. A baby-fern sprouting -Right.

Left- Tai - Chi.  Right- I am glad that both enjoyed the walk, spotting bugs and hunting leaves. 

Left- a white worm trapped on the web. Right- Lots of 'this fruits' found on the area we stepped on. 
Hui spotted this red-bodied lizard.

We finally completed the first trail. Phew! The second trail (Left), also 500m, is on STEEP terrain with sandy steps. Right-  There is a resting area with benches in the midst of the second trail. This area used to be a village of the 'Temuan'. These inhabitabts moved out in 1970s. The had planted rubber trees and fruits orchard, and return yearly to harvest the fruits.


When En touched the leaf, the tiny bugs stopped moving. A moment later, they moved busily again.

Water! And walkway entrance hut ! YAY, we have reached the canopy walkway. EnHui washed their hands and it was cooling. At this hut, you need to produce your tickets. 

EnHui were much much braver than their parents. En stepped on the chengal narrow plank without must hesitation. Dad followed by. Hui went after and me..  whoosh so high. 30m above ground. Looking in front, sheesh.. there are few more to go. My knees were wobbly ! I walked on with uncertainty of mind and fear.

I think there are about four walkways (too scared to remember!). Hui was tired on the last leg and dad carried her on the narrow plank (Left) !  We saw gigantic bunches of bamboo and Hui, the baby panda (so she said) munched the bamboo leaves (Right)..

Then, we descended more paved steps and reached this waterfall area (Left) that we have never seen before! FRIM is huge.  From here, we followed  "picnic area" sign (waterfall trail) to get down as it's much shorter, 400m. It is an unpaved path, very steep (right), rocky and lots of tree trunks and leaves along the way. As we climbed down, we saw numerous waterfall.   

Huge ant. (Top) One stretch of the rocky steep path ! (Bottom) so strenuous.


There! We finally arrived the waterfall area that we used to go.


Dad put the leech on his leg, to show EnHui how it moves and sucks blood. eeyyykkkk.
When we were home, I found En did some craft with her leaves.
Overall, I felt that it was a great walking exercise on all sorts of terrain.  

1 comment:

Jack Ng said...

I love this outing and I thought it was a good outing for the girls too, even little Hui at 3 years.

En was an "independent" climber and walker. She did all the climbing up and descending down all by herself, most of the time with her pink basket, in which she collects samples of leaves. I am feeling bad now, as I write, because I was telling (more like stern directing) not to bring along the basket as she will find it hard to hold it and climb at the same time. And I was thinking that she will give that basket to me or Shannon, halfway and that will inconvenienced us. I further thought that when that happens, I will let her know ...."told you so, and bla bla bla". The whole trip covers about 2 to 3km worth of terrain. And...yes, she was holding the basket 95% of the time and all the leave samples in it. So, I felt like 5 cents now. And well deserve to be so.

She was also an independent canopy walker, if there is such a phrase. They say, the board walk is suspended like 30m from the ground - honestly, I don;t know. What I know is I nearly pee in my pants, with my first few steps. En went first, and I followed 2 planks behind.

Along the plank walk, she was asking what if the strings and rope snaps and in her typical malaysian chinese family lingo added "then, what happen ah?", "will we die ah?", "if we fall down and hit the trees, what will happen to the trees ah?". And in my typical chinese malaysian authoritarian father figure fashion "no...it won't happen, the ropes are very strong, NOW MOVE ALONG, because we are making people wait at the back".

She was obviously taking her time. Exploring the net at the sides and the ropes, the planks and the aluminum structure that forms the plank-walk. Believe me, I could not see this then. I was busy shutting out, falling 30m below scene playing out in my mind at the time.

After the walk, Hui needed carrying downhill. I carried her down. Maneuvering the rocks, roots, tree trunks, puddles of water, and the likes. It was tiring, but it was certainly great fun. My shirt was thoroughly wet and we grabbed lunch after that.

Not sure who enjoyed more, the kids, the wife or me.