First trip to Endau Rompin

I finally got the opportunity to go to Endau Rompin. Mr. Abdullah Mohammed (now Dr. Abdullah Mohamed of UPM) asked me to follow a group of wildlife rangers into Endau Rompin for map reading. However, I have a problem as I don't have a haversack to put all my stuff. So I decided to use my sling bag instead. The trip to Labis was ok. I met Ranger Mat Rashid (now retired) in Labis and start trekking to our first destination, from Kg. Air Tenang( if I can still recall) to kem Selai. The walk was not bad, no steep terrain except for the many river crossings. The forest was still in its prime state, no signs of encroachment or logging. The ground layer is clean, no undergrowths at all as the canopies were touching each other. No direct sun and this made walking easy. However, my sling bag started to give me problem after a couple of hours. The sling kept on entangling with the rattans and branches. Finally, Che Mat Rashid cut a couple of vines and tied them to my sling bag, turning it into a makeshift haversack. Amazingly, the makeshift haversack managed to last until I went back to KL. We finally arrived at the first base camp after eight hours of walking. (The site of our first base camp is now accessible by car). The first group of rangers finally arrived around 6:00 pm while the last group arrived around 9:00 pm. Apparently, they lost their way after being stung by a colony of wasps. They deserved my respect and admiration as they depended solely on their map reading skills and ability to use the compass. I wonder how many of our young staff can do this as most depend on GPS. Although GPS is easy, I still feel that map reading and compass reading skills are important.
My next destination is Kem Segenting kura, around 4 hours away from Kem Selai. We walk in shallow stream most of the time. By this time, signs of rhino presence were everywhere, old wallows, foot prints, and dungs. This is the area where Prof. Tajuddin (UNIMAS) started his study on the Sumatran rhinoceros with Rodney Flynn (American Peacecorp) if I am not mistaken. This time I followed one senior ranger En. Abdullah. When we finally reached the camp, I decided to remove my shoes and dip my feet in the pool. A few minutes later, to my horror, I felt something nibbling on my toes. When I pulled up my feet I saw a school of fish right under me in the pool. Apparently they have never seen human toes before. That was my first time having my toes nibbled by fishes in a pool. Nowadays some spas provide fish therapy.. and you have to pay for it. For me, I got it free, it comes with my job.