TRIP REPORT
www.borneo4x4.com
Liew's car needed to be held down as it approached the descend into the stream.
1
May 2006, what a day to remember for Wilfred aka Aboy... It started by
Liew (the trail leader) saying that the trail was hardcore. It was going
to be a Special Stage trail - just like in a competition.
The convoy at the trail head.
After
a lengthy wait because of Benedict's double puncture, we finally arrived
at the end of the asphalt road, at the foothills of the
mountain range between Malaysia and Indonesia at Sapit- Padawan. Whilst,
Liew was manually locking his hubs and some having lunch, Octaviouss and
I went on ahead to survey the track to see if our 'street cars' could
hack the competition trail. We just had to walk 50 meters to know that
the best thing to do was to leave our car at the trailhead and walk.
Lau
at the crux of the descend into the stream
As soon as the engines were cranked, the heavens opened - not just rain, but high mountain thumb size droplet rain. Liew being the guide ventured first and was met with long steep 40+ degree descent. It was hard dried up clay-mud with black dried up algae coating. Walking it was extreme...Hitting the crux of the descent which ended in a stream, he stopped and had a safety line hitched to his rear and was belayed down into the river. Off with the line, and he successfully made it up the other side.
Aboy
in his high powered 2JZ MkII, went second and churned the banks, not
quite treading lightly. He finally winched himself out on a ground
anchor. Finally, Lau (the belayer) went. He made driving over the
technical bits look easy and just droved in the through the stream. One
by one the cars went repeating the same. This took about 3 hours.
Aboy's 'inner secret' (click image to know why)
Again, Oct and I went ahead to survey the track and we were sure that we won't be missing out on the day's action as just 30 meters ahead the trail was hit by a landslide, and its' width barely enough for a Suzuki jeep to make it through. So the three Suzis went ahead and pass that section. Then it was Aboy's turn. He managed to get his front wheels in the washout area only to find that his back wheel had slipped and half of his rear left was dangling over a fifteen foot ravine. Aboy's attempt to reverse was met by a unanimous shouts by all the onlookers. It was decided that 3 cars, all with winch were to hook their lines on 'Inner Secret'. On Lau's signal, all three pulled. Aboy and another brave soul held onto the car for counter balance. As the car inched sidewards, Aboy found himself alone, like a ship's captain going down with his boat. No panic, everyone just held their breath to see how far the roll would go- which was not really far. Aboy then climbed on his rig to switch the engine off.
The
Serian boys then took out extension cables and helped rig a side anchor
where two snatch blocks were attached and Liew pulled on one and Lau on another
while the other two cars winched Inner Secret out of the ravine. As In Sec
rolled right side up, the two winches slowly pulled it our of the ravine
and
soon enough it was back on level ground. While Aboy went about sorting
out his engine - draining the block of motor oil, the narrow trail was
being widened by a couple of hoe welding strongmen. One must remember
not to stand too close to an engine that's being flushed to rid off
excess motor oil in the block as it kicks up a lot of oil in the air as
seen on the picture on the right.
At
this point of the drama, seven hours and three rainstorms had
passed. No further dramas were necessary and everyone turned around and
headed back for the repeat of SS1, now going up a slippery algae ascend
of more than 40 degrees. Liew attempted to be the lead car, but failed
in his attempts to climb out of the stream. Come Lau in his Daihatsu
jeep, making it look pretty easy.
Lau making a hard drive look easy- lockers doing all the work.
Lau got up and found himself a hole to anchor his car and then the winching show started again. At this juncture, it started to pour again and having parked my car on level ground at the trail head, we headed out for a cold beverage. This was one of the shortest trail ever- but the drama was quite sweet. Was it worth the ride? Yeah... this is Borneo and this is where the heart of the action is.
Malcolm Jitam