It was a start for the year 2013 when Diya popped out an idea to visit Gua Tempurung at Perak. At first I thought it was just like a normal caving exploration, you know go inside the cave... walk through the platform, probably a bit of stairs involved and admiring the beauty of nature inside. Never did I expected when Fizah & hubby (Fairul) decided to join, they suggested us to take the most challenging amongst the other tours. There are 4 tours into Gua Tempurung depending on its difficulty levels. You may read about them HERE. THE GRAND TOUR, which is the hardest and strenuous will take about 3.5hrs to complete and the fee is RM22/adult. Dry and wet on the same time, it is such a challenge that we're looking for. Excited and anticipated, this is our story...........................
Gua Tempurung, Perak
Last Saturday on the 5th Jan, Diya & me departed from office around 7.15am using the PLUS highway to the north. We met up Fizah, Fairul and Diya's brother at R&R Sg Buloh around 8am. Had a quick breakfast then continued our journey to Gua Tempurung. Easy drive, not too much of a traffic however there were 2 things that made me a bit nervous that time. 1st was the time as we needed to reach there before the registration close which at 11am. Speed up a little bit (my speed indicator already reached 140km/hr). The other thing which was my greatest worry .... the weather.
It was raining all the way started from we left Sg Buloh and it's getting heavier once we exited at Gopeng. It's quite easy to locate the place from here as the signs were adequate. We reached Gua Tempurung successfully at 10am (as per our estimated time) however a bit frustrated as the rain still didn't show any sign to subside.
Holding to our "moto" that day, Alang2 menyeluk pekasam, biar sampai ke pangkal lengan.. we tried our luck. We went to the registration counter and asked the staff there on the possibility to enter the cave in heavy rain. A bit upset when they told us to wait as it all depends on the rain condition. Malu la dgn kawan2 lain yg tau kami nak gi sini klau x jadi masuk gua. Nevertheless, nothing much we can do except pray for our luck..
At the counter..
Gua tempurung map on the left. Right : Others xtvt available here and fees
After about 1/2 an hour of waiting finally the guide called and gave us both good and bad news. The good news was we were granted to enter the cave for the 4th level challenge, however it would be a little bit detour on the route as we cannot go to the lower part of the cave. The river was in high tide so it's quite dangerous takut2 ade yg lemas. Supposed there will be a crawling xtvt at the bottom of the cave, but since its already drown by water we will have a bit of climbing plak. Katanya lagi mencabar... so we'll wait and see ok.
Proceed.... We had a short brief given by the guard. Oh ya all the valuable items needed to be kept inside the locker. Camera was not advisable to bring, tp klau degil gak nak bwk, it's under your own risk ok!
Nampakkan arus sungai laju macam teh tarik kaler dia.
Bismillahirahmanirrahim, so we entered the cave.............
There were many many stairs, they looked kinda intimidating and some seemed to go on forever . But don’t worry, you may get a little out of breath but you don’t have to be superfit for this as the guide provide ample time for rest and catching your breath.
We saw various stalactites and stalagmites. The guard informed us on how precious these are – Its grow an inch in a hundred years and took million years to form entire cave. That is why it is important for us to preserve it... Our precious, our treasure. Imagine if it's been destroyed, we have to wait for another million years to get a new formation. That if we can wait that long, even this galaxy has it's time limit ok....
But still, ada jugak some uneducated people who just stupid enough to left their "marks" on the wall cave. The kind of people who didn't know how to value the nature. What they did was just bullshit even there were lots of notice and even warning from the guide to not scratching the wall...
Pathetic was it??
See, dustbin was available so do not litter!!
Some photos of the formation...
The lighting add colours to the rocks and its look so amazing!
This is where your imagination is highly required. The guide will show you a lots of formation that bears some resemblance to animals (fish, horse's leg, turtle) and even foods (bowl of ice kacang, drumstick etc ). We were like "owhh... ya...nampak..!!". Sometime I saw it, sometime my brain cannot process to imagine the thing. I tried to take some pics however it was dark and my little camera was just not powerful enough to capture the image also.
Can you spot a woman face below?? Looks scary rite? That was the best and clear photo I managed to take.
Our group gathered here, tried to see what is the hidden images under this nature caused. In the darkness on the platform I cannot imagined how far we were from the bottom of the cave. All I knew that we were pretty high, top of the world as the package called it, anyone who fall will definitely got no chance to survive.
Now, the next part of our adventure was the moments that I've waited for! This was when all of us will get wet and dirty.... muahahahah!
We skipped the stairs & platform and started to walk and clambered over muddy paths until at one place we stop. Jeng....jeng....jeng...
Guess what waited us there...????? AN ALMOST 45deg SLIDE uolssss !!!
We were lucky as together with us was one group of college students (boys of course) in this trip. They helped the guide during the slide to hold our feet once we reached the end of the slope coz we might fell as it was quite high. Then, another guide also came to support us which made we have 2 guides already. Personally I don't think 1 guide was enough as what we encountered was really challenging and maybe because it was raining so the track was a bit difficult than ussual.
I passed the slide easily, ceh berlagak tp kesian dgn adik college yg nk kena menyambut kat bawah slide. Nasib baik x patah tgn support my weight yg "ringan" ini. Hahahahaha....
We continued to climb, crawled over rocky holes and slid down slippery stones on a physical. Kuar masuk lobang yg muat2 one man size until we saw a ray of light. Means that we already came to the end of the cave. Alhamdulillah....
Now you see why we cannot go to the bottom of the cave. The water level was high, and imagine if we have to crawl... we will absolutely 100% drown in the water.
More photo...
After about half an hour, we were called to continue our expedition.
Us...
Ok, I thought our journey back was passing through this path inside the forest... How wrong was I as we actually went back to the cave for more adventure!!!
Honestly I had enough with all the climbing and sliding xtvt. Plus my pants actually already torn at the back (so beware girls, xtvt sliding bole menipiskan seluar anda jd advisable to wear thicker pants).
We just climbed and slid in the cave which looks to be forever. Squatting along the path was really tiring and nearly got my leg cramp. More slopes that needed to pass through with others help, plus our wet condition and permukaan tanah yg licin, I fell few times. There was one unforgettable moment when I suddenly slipped at the edge of the cave while climbing and one of the guard quickly came in rescue and grabbed my hand. However due to the slippy muddy surface, he also fell. Luckily the second guard managed to pull us together. Imagine that time both of us dah berguling kat situ mcm cite hindustan. Cuma klau hindustan happy ending, my story tragic ending la jawabnya.
Dah penat2 panjat....
Kena slide balik pulak.... But the last one was the most fun of all. Slide smpai bawah sakit gak la my ass bila terhentak kt tanah tu... This time xde sape sambut2, gelongsor la smpai terlajak mana pun. Huhuhuhu.
Alhamdulillah, finally we were back to the stairs and climbed up to exit using the same route we entered the cave before which for me was just a relief.
By the time we went out, everybody was extremely wet, dirty and errr should I put.... STINK! Very glad to see the light at the end of the tunnel hehe.
Finally went out from the cave at 2.30pm. They will lock the cave everyday after the tour finished. We quickly took several photos before they closed the gate.
We went to clean ourselves and change our clothes... (Jenuh gile bilas baju n badan sbb lumpur tebal).
Then we took final photo at the signboard and replica of Gua Tempurung.
We headed back to KL around 4pm. Starving... we stopped at Tapah for lunch+tea, pray and straight home afterward.
Smpai rumah, baju tudung, seluar ngan underwear2 skali suma kena buang sbb even the stain dh hilang but the smell still ade. Ape2 pun no regret at all. Relief and satisfied as one of my target this year has been accomplished. Hope to involve in more adventure xtvt after this. Insyaallah. Till then, see ya in next post. BYE.
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