Almost Lolo day trip with the kids

Of course a retrospective entry.. haha

Sometime early March Fiqar asked me about having a short trip in the jungle to introduce to kids about such activities. I thought it was a good idea; an introductory trip fro Qayyum. Of course, i've always missed those wonderful time during my school days camping and trekking.I had the thought of bringing Qaisya as well but only for 1 second... naaah.. she would just complain probably on the first minute of the trip hahaha budak tu mmg banyak complain :)

That last Saturday in March, me fiqar ilham and qayyum made the trip. I went to see Azad the night before for his mobile stove because we were thinking of doing bbq as well.. worth the trip instead of the typical maggi and sardine to some! BBQ was our gold standard:) 

We started early, Fiqar picked us up at 730am and we were off to Ulu Pangsun.We arrived at the starting post at about 830am. The last time i was here maybe 5 years ago! A lot have hanged but somehow there were not many people around. The combination of the weened before school starts and the hot drought must have contributed to this. I remembered seeing lots of enthusiast along the river bank either picnicing or camping the last time around.

Interestingly, there was a new trek leading up to Lolo. The usual trek to Lolo would be the big trail for the big balak trucks up the hill. I've never went up Nuang using this trek so i thought why not have the kids to experience it. The trek was fair but after 2 hours i thought it was a bit too hard for the kids! haha but then i guess this is part and parcel of jungle trekking because it can never be straight forward!I still remember Ilhan's expression:

"Uncle.. why are we going down? " after a significant uphill climb which was tough.

"Oh. we're going down because we'll be climbing up again.."

"Haaa??? " he was shocked listening to my answer.. haha

"Yup.. thats how it goes in the jungle.." and i could sense his demotivation. To his credit, he was a fighter and managed to complete the trek.

Why i called this the almost Lolo trip because we did not make it up to Lolo but perhaps the last waterfall before the camp. The reason why i decided to step and camp up was due to the time and also the weather did not look too promising as it was drizzling. We were crossing the same river at least 7 times before reaching the waterfall and i  feared for the "bah" if it rains heavily and having to bring them across. Mind you they are still small therefore it was impossible for them to follow how i tip toe on the stones to cross the river! hahaha

Of course we had our BBQ and maggi. I set up the camp and cooked. It was such a nostalgic experience and i really loved it. I am sure Qayyum saw me in a different light of how i transformed from being the normal dad to an outdoor person handling everything while we were there. 

"Walid masak?" he asked in astonishment :)

Overall, it was a good trip. We somehow came out through a different way and we saw the dam. And damn... the dam was really in dire straits. I guess seeing the emptiness of the hulu Langat dam made me understand why we had to ration our water use daily.

Thanks Fiqar for the suggestion and I am sure i;ll do this again