I was not confident in
taking Raider on a 2.5K km journey into the far interiors of Sarawak
into the Borneo Highlands and make it back again in ONE piece. Somehow
it is still in the back of my mind that Land Rovers have a tendency to
play up with little silly things going wrong like CV joints that can
wreck the whole journey.
Raider, my '94 200 TDI Defender. It now has a 1KZ 3L powerplant. It's pictured with cargo on the roof rack that made the expedition 'interesting'. To see complete list of preparation, please click this link
I bit my lips, started the engine, and went. There was an issue with the power steering box that was worn and had too much free play in it. But I was brave (and silly) enough to do the expedition after hearing Laurence relating his story of how he did the Borneo Safari in his BJ with the same problems. Well, I can trust a Land Rover to perform better than a BJ, can I?
We left Kuching at 3 a.m. and headed for Miri. My son discovered a container of semi-synthetic motor oil stuck between the body and the rear wheel of Uncle Chai’s Hilux. We emptied the rest of the semi-synthetic oil into my reserve container. So, we set off and did the to 60 km leg Serian without any problems.
I had packed 2 jerry cans of fuel and two pieces of 2X6 hard wood timber pieces to be used as ‘sand ladders’ on the roof rack of the car. With the power steering the way it was, it became one full swaying affair after the smooth roads to Serian. When ever I wanted the car to tow a straight line, by turning it into any one direction, it would sway and countering it made matter worse and I received rude and scary stares form passing cars.
My only remedy was to brake hard and ‘turn’ the sway of the car to the line I wanted to head into.
At almost 70% of the way to Miri we encountered a massive series of pot holes before Tatau. Then I sense something not right. The front left shock was coming loose making the swaying even worse and on popping the bonnet I saw that the radiator hose had sprung a small leak – hissing out hot water. Not too serious problems…
This was CNY eve and there was no workshop in sight. Laurence driving a BJ 40 broke his hydraulic brake line through the pot holes. Both of our cars were limping over the bridge at Tatau when we caught sight of Eddie. He had left us hours ago due to the different cruising speeds, his Hilux could go much faster.
As we slowed to find a workshop,
we found Eddie’s Hilux parked with his left side up on a shop kerb. He
was flushing his car with water and on the ground was a lot of oil. Upon
hitting a giant of a pot hole his drive shaft went it’s full travel and
hit and dislodged the connecting hose between his main fuel tank and his
‘long range’ reserve. Alas, the three of us needed mechanical help.
Video capture of Raider's shock turret being welded.
Eddie found a mechanic shop run by Petrus Sakai from Ba’Kelalan! We found that another Hilux had wrecked his clutch when he hit the pot holes. So I got the front shock turret welded and fixed, went looking for a radiator hose but the shop that was opened only carried ones for passenger cars. Laurence got his line replaced and Eddie sealed his fuel tank and removed the long ranger. After an hour, we were well on our way again.
After Eddie took off his tank and blocked the outflow to the reserve tank we were set to go. My problem was easily rectified by cutting the hose a little shorter and reattaching it.
I sang a prise for Raider (my Land Rover) as it had the ‘least’ problem in the three cars.
We arrived Bintulu hours late and met up with JD and Omar and met Tony and Mustapha. We went on to Miri and stayed the night at Park City Everly Hotel. It was a long and tiresome drive with the stress of the swaying and breakdowns. My family decided the Chinese New Year Taiwan buffet was best and I attacked the fresh sea prawns, muscles and roast.
On CNY we headed through Brunei to Lawas. Eddie took us on an 'unexpected tour' of Brunei and finally found a massive queue at the Brunei-Limbang border. Eunice managed to get hot boiling water and we ate cup noodles and hot coffee killing time before we got our chops.
We arrived Lawas just after six and Malaysian Immigration was closed. We had to get the passport checked the next morning. I checked my engine oil and found that it was at a very low level. Thanks to Uncle Chai’s spare, I managed to top up to the correct level.
Being quite tired after the long
drive to Lawas, we opted for a late start. After a sumptuous breakfast
we headed to Ba’Kelalan – convoy of 8 cars. 5 Kuching, 2 Bintulu and 1
KK, 2 Filipinos and 6 Malaysians.
One of the many hills from Lawas to Ba'Kelalan
The drive from Lawas to Ba’Kelalan consisted of hills and mountains. I never saw flat ground until we reached Ba’Kelalan. Everyone managed the rolling hills well. By this time I had off loaded the reserve fuel getting Uncle Chai to carry my reserve, return one jerry can which I borrow from Eddie and only had the timber ladders.
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