17th - 25th November 2004
From the Cameron Highlands we retraced our tracks north to the new west-east main road. Once on it we headed east and quickly lost much of our hard won height as we descended a 15% gradient with lots of tight bends.
The road had been cut through the jungle and had very little habitation near it and no cafes. We camped late in the afternoon in the shade of an embankment and cooked ourselves a gourmet dinner of Cameron Highlands vegetables. Next morning we were woken by the calls of jungle birds and watched a beautiful sunrise:
That day was the best day's cycling we had in Malaysia, the road was very quiet, the views were superb and we heard the calls of gibbons in the forest.
 |
Once down in the valley joined the a big road heading south towards Kuala Lumpur. It was the last day of the national holiday marking the end of Ramadan and the road was busy with people heading back to the city from the countryside. Sadly, where the road was near the National Park we saw a lot of road kill, including this beautiful leopard cat (it is a domestic cat sized animal, not a leopard). |
Apart from the traffic noise and the ever present heat, we had a pretty uneventful ride south via Kuala Lipis to Jerantut, where we left our bikes and took a boat upriver to the Taman Negara National Park. In the park we climbed a walkway through the forest canopy and also saw flying lizards, monitor lizards, hordes of bats, butterflies, deer and leeches!
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |