International Rescue ?

[RPR]

A group of us from Land Rover Owners of Malaysia - and possibly a J33P or two - are heading out on a recce up in the mountains in an area of Pahang called Sungkai this weekend. It is an area that was partly covered by the Rainforest Challenge about 4 years ago and to the best of our knowledge nobody has been back in there since, although there seems to have been some logging activity in the interim. The plan is to see how far we can get and whether there are any log bridges left (if not, how many we can build!) and where any good campsites are for potential future trips.

These recce trips are a little hairy because once you get deep into the jungle, if the vehicle is rendered inoperable/unrepairable and cannot be pulled out by another vehicle (which they rarely can) you're fawked. Strip it for what you can and there it stays. This chiefly happens in gully rolls or collapsed bridge falls. I have seen 4 such vehicles out in the jungle while in Malaysia so far. I would prefer that the Tonka did not become a jungle feature. Thunderbird II, a Volvo 6x6, may come along as a rescue and bridging vehicle which would be a bonus.

Anyway, it sounded like a great plan, but unfortunately it has been raining for the past 4 days and it is going to be very nasty out there. Hopefully, the rain lets up some so we don't have to worry about river crossings.

We are planning two days and one night so that we have a spare night and day for repairs or high water. My last big outing in the Cameron Highlands we got trapped on the wrong side of a river for about 15 hours waiting for it to go down enough for a crossing, so this seems like a sensible plan.

Anyway, hopefully I'll get some good pics of the deep jungle. There have been elephant heards (small families compared to African heards) in the area so we may see some which would be great. Otherwise it's just leeches and bugs

Anyway, if I'm not back on Monday/Tuseday, send in a rescue party with more beer and cigarettes....

[lwg]

Wow, makes wheeling in NA sound very tame. Never even considered what if I couldn't recover my vehicle. Definitely give us pics.

[CTA586]

Im jealous.

Best of luck, enjoy yourselves safely.

[RPR]

Here's a preview based on some shots from recent trips:





And the Tonka

[MikeH]

Very Cool! Pics and story please!

[RPR]

The good news was that it didn't rain during the trip or I wouldn't be on the board now, the bad news was that the logging activity was on-going so the off-roading was less technical than we expected. Accordingly, the logging the tracks were much wider than we had expected although I still managed to bend both ends of the bumper in tight spots and kiss a fallen tree branch with a big ding on a new door top. No major damage to any vehicle. Had it rained while we were in there, I'm not sure when we would have gooten out. Th tracks were in very good shape, but had it been wet, 35s would have been the minimum and even then there is no way we would have gotten down a number of the the climbs made on the way in. Unfortunately the photos cannot give scale to the grade on some of the climbs. I can only say that there were some climbs that a standard SIII just would not have gotten up even in 1st low. As usual, couldn't get photos in any of the really hairy spots because it was all go, so the photos are only from beer stops and easy bits, but here are some shots from the Malaysian jungle:

The sprawling metropolis of Sungkai where we bought provisions:


The trail head with "Two Blue", a custom 110 crew cab V8 that started off life as a St. John's Ambulance, in the lead.
[i

Bending the left side of the bumper on the way in - bent the other side on the way out. The picture doesn't do the placement justice. There was a nasty 4m drop on the left (looking at the picture) with two inadequate logs to span the gap and a rocky bank on the right. Very tricky and a potential roll if you lost the back end:



Nice camp site, but at 2100m, the river was bloody cold by Malaysian standards! Messy night but a good sleep in the cool weather...



Again here, the photo doesn't give scale. The hump at the bottom was a tall bank in the track. It was 1st low to get up this and slick even with a light mist. But the jungle is pretty:



Now THAT's a winch!:



As my 2yo daughter explained it: "Tonka is smiling". Curls on both ends of the bumper but no real panel damage so a lucky trip:




Lot's of fun. Not nearly as difficult as we had expected but even with the Extreme Trekkers, had it rained, we would not have gotten out - it was slick clay-like mud and steep slopes the whole way.

Hope these pics are a bit different.

P.S. - Only three leech bites, so a very light tribute to the jungle this trip!