Endau Packrafting

Worms bothered me now. I used to like them, digging up land chasing for earthworms which I then played with the whole day. Bored, I fed some of these worms to fishes or let them have a go at my garden. Those were the kampong days.

Those were also the times where television and video first arrived in Singapore. One of my rich neighbor had bought a set, and invited the whole neighborhood to watch it. I excitedly went along.

It turned out to be a hideous movie about a man afflicted with a worm disease. Once bitten by infected worms, they started to multiply in his body and eventually eat their way out his skin. The man was so traumatized that he started picking after the emerging worms and eating them.

I was 5 or 6. Since then, no more playing with worms for me.

So it was with utter horror when I saw 5 fat brown leeches latching on my ankles, as I took off my kayak shoes after a lunch break on the river bank. Fully bloodied, fat, and probably happy as well, they immediately felt the full force of my carom flick into the river.

It was much 'safer' on the river and I paddled out without delay. By then the leeches had provoked a frantic search of other parts of my body, to see where else were these creatures taking my blood. One more on my neck!

These bloody creatures!

For the next hour or so, the wounds bled into the packraft, which soon pooled red.

Until the leeches, it had been a pleasant float down. We were on a one day paddle down the Endau River. I was in my packraft, while Winnie an Nick were testing a prototype inflatable kayak for me.

It was their first time on the Endau River, and although it rained heavily, they love it.

Leeches or not, I am just glad to be back on the water.