Sunday + 2 Girls + Paddling Action

... and throw in a pristine river in one of the oldest rainforest in the world, you get an equal = A-what-else-can-you-ask-for paddling day !

But...the Curse of the Expedition (CE) is always around:

A parking ticket for unauthorizsed overnight parking at my parent's place. "Just write in to say some emergency, no problem" Winnie said. OK, sounds good if that's all the CE we gonna get. Just after we entered Malaysia, the "only 2 years, brand new car" rented at equally new rental company, showed up the "check engine!!" and the engine spluttered...we decided the good news was that the car was still moving... and the worrying news was that we had a 2 hrs highway drive plus a 50km isolated dirt track to reach Endau River.

But as it happens so far with CE each time, we reached Endau River safely albeit with the warning sign still on.

It was a good day of paddling fun at Endau River for the girls, who were packrafting for the first time! As it was the girls' first time at the rapids, I could not emphasized the value of safe paddling more. All of us wore helmets and proper PFDs. We took turns running at the Class 2+ rapids along Sungei Jasin.

And not even the 1-hr afternoon forest showers dampen our spirits, as we just paused for lunch under the shelter. When the rain lightened, we floated down from Kulau Jasin to Kampong Peta. The skies cleared and we saw a couple of hornbills flying over the canopy.

The rain did reminded me of the "once in a century flood" earlier this year. Looking around, I could see that much of the facilities (4 chalets and the big balcony) at Kulau Jasin were washed away. Currently electricity was still not restored to this area. It was said the river rose more than 10 meters during the flood.

To round off a wonderful day, Encik Yusoff whipped up a delicious dinner for us at his Kahang Resturant. The special was the Endau river prawns, one of the largest freshwater prawns in the water, which can grow to 30cm. I have heard about it but did not have the chance to try until now.

What a yummy end to a Sunday!