Jungle trekking with little children

Jungle trekking is one of my more favorite ways to spend free time. Last week I had the pleasure to do some amazing things in the jungle around Teluk Batik. My agent for the Pulau Pangkor website, Nazlina was guest in Sitiawan to set up connections with local businessmen/women. While here she asked me if it was possible to do something different then "just go to the beach", as her children love to do.

Nazlina had read my pages about Mr. Goh's Teambuilding activities, see for example his student adventure program. Was it possible to do a short jungle walk? Maybe even see some animals? I gave it a thought, as it was quite an unusual request. Why? Nazlina wanted to bring her two children, 5 and 10 years old too. Would they be able to follow?

For Nazlina and her son Johan, 10 years old I had no hesitation. Johan and I had done a 4 days cycling journey. We had cycled from Pangkor to Penang. At the time of the journey he was 8 years old and had no problem. You can read the report here.

Johan at the 2nd part of the lower rope course

With Nazlina's 5 years old daughter I was less sure. But whatever, if you don't try, you don't know. We hiked up the hill to the rope course of Mr. Goh of Explore The Wilderness. The hike up is quite steep, especially in the first part were recently we had to create  whole new path. Lightning had blocked the original path.

To my surprise Johanna had no problems to follow the path, which, at some parts was really difficult. She enjoyed it very much. Johan, with his 10 years of age was already way up and waiting for his mom, sister, Mr. Goh and me.

On top of the hill Johan was very eager to start the rope course. Although 10 years old, Johan is quite small build. He had to stretch his whole body in the first part of the course but found soon his comfort and finished the course without problems. His mom followed without problems too.

It was for me a good opportunity to try the high rope as I had not done that so far. To give an idea how high you are in the trees I brought my camera too. Nazlina did the high rope too but the wires were too high for Johan, so he has to wait until he is grown a bit taller.

The Jungle trekking

Johanna was enjoying herself with searching for butterflies and other things. However, when the next day we did the obstacle course she joined in. She again had no problems to climb up the hill (a different one). Johan didn't wait for anything and tried the climbing rack and balancing logs.

The obstacle course has a huge climbing rack. In no time Johan was high above us looking down and enjoying himself.

Johan high on the rack.

We followed the paths to the canyon. Johanna was walking with a big smile, as if this was a normal exercise for a 5 year old girl. The whole trek takes about one and a half hour with a visit to two very quiet and hard to find beaches. Here the two kids enjoyed the water, which was quite rough that day.

Johanna experiencing the long rope at the Obstacle course

 After some time we went back to Teluk Batik. The normal path was blocked by a swarm of wasps, so we had to take a different path. Again Johanna did a great job though by the time we arrived at Teluk Batik, she was exhausted. Johan on the other side was still full of energy which he needed as we had to ride our bicycles back to Sitiawan.

Johanna, front and Johan in the canyon. In the back you see the Teluk Rubiah beach

My biggest surprise was however the 5 years old Johanna who easily did the almost 4 hours, including time at the Obstacle course and a long swim at the hidden beach Teluk Pengerang, just south of Teluk Batik.

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