Trekking around Teluk Rubiah

With the International Award For Young People

As you recall I wrote already several pages about trekking around Lumut. Few of the trekking were as impressive as this weekend. This time, we got a group with a serious assessment. The requirement was to camp two days at the beach and do two serious treks in the jungle in between Teluk Rubiah and Teluk Batik, each of 5-6 hours.

We first crossed the golf course

Recently we had done a very nice trek on a trail which apparently had not been used a lot in the last years as much of the trail was overgrown. I have written about the trail on this page.

The group of 21 student of 15-16 years old arrived on Friday afternoon. The students were from an organization "The International Award For Young People"

Trekking with a heavy backpack

The International Award is an exciting self-development program available to all young people between the ages of 14 and 25. It aims to equip them with life skills to make a difference to themselves, their communities and the world.

Launched in the UK in 1956 as The Duke of Edinburgh's Award, the Award has now spread to 126 countries. Of course we were excited to see these students coming.

The assessment

The group had several goals in the 3 days/2 nights. Their first task was to set up their tents under the trees of the Teluk Rubiah Resort. They would spend the 2 nights in their tents. Other parts of the assessment were to provide themselves with cooking one breakfast, one lunch and one dinner. Explore the Wilderness would provide the other meals and water supply.

The first evening the group was briefed about the second day trekking we would do. The idea was to have a jungle trekking of about 5 to 6 hours where the students would carry their whole backpack, including clothes, tent, food, drink etc. They would be provided with info where to go to they would be given a compass and a map.

There were two advanced groups and one beginners group (who would not be required to carry their whole pack the first day).

We had set out a nice trail in the hills in between Teluk Rubiah and Teluk Batik. The two advanced groups would go one way, the beginners group would do the same trail the other way around. The groups would have a guide and a teacher although the role of the guide (me in the case for one group) would be limited to give clues and correct if necessary.

On the second hill

My group had the task to sort out their way through the hills starting with a warm up walk through the golf course of Teluk Rubiah. The group was still chitchatting and singing. However, at the end of the course, we climbed up to a rock formation and then we went into the jungle.

In this part of the jungle there are no real paths. A few weeks earlier, Mr. Goh, John, one of Mr. Goh's friends who knows every single square centimeter in this area and me had explored this trail and found it very useful. The trail had hardly been used and we had to open it partly for our use today.

The group started to climb on the first hill, a steep slope that immediately sucked a lot of energy out of the group. Although the jungle is cool, the climbing made us all sweat.

We had to stop a few times. One of the girls had some stomach problems which slowed us a bit down. I feared she may not be able to continue but again these students show me how strong the mind can be.

Once up on the first hill we went to the second, which was partly even steeper. At last we reached the top of the third hill. It was absolutely amazing how fresh the students still were even though we had several stops on the way up.

Once up the trails are reasonable graduate for awhile before we came to a long ascending.

Just before we were back at sea level, there was one part where the group had to work together. The path drops down very steep and is not without problems. The students solved their problem. One of them, Edwin took the lead and talked the others down.

Teluk Pengerang

Once down, we got our refreshments from Mrs. Goh who had brought us water supplies. We had walked now for about 4 hours. It was another hour back to Teluk Rubiah but there were no more steep climbs because we used the lower path through the canyon.

Back in the resort, the group assembled their tents, had a shower and started cooking, almost as if they were not tired at all. I could see plenty of tired faces though they all knew their tasks.

It rained shortly that night but in the morning everyone was fresh and after a breakfast, they were ready to continue their second, and easier day. Again we walked to the end of the golf course and went into jungle only to take the small trail to Teluk Pengerang.

Unfortunately the high tide had brought a lot of garbage to the beach. It was still high water and on some points, where normally we could walk on the beach, we now had to climb on he rocks. A path we would have wanted to use, was blocked by a swarm of bees who attacked Mr. Goh who got stung seven times.

Thus we took a slightly longer way around and back on the hill. From here we walked again in the Canyon, now on the higher part.

It may not be the Grand Canyon but it was "grand" enough. At the end of the canyon waited the last short piece of jungle and we were back on the golf course. It seemed no one was very tired.

Back at the resort, the students got some time to have a shower and eat the lunch they had prepared before the bus would bring them back to Kuala Lumpur.

They may have learned something about themselves during this trek, I had learned something from these students, something I knew already for a long time but sometimes overlook: "where there is a will, there is a way".

The trekking we did may have been hard, but these student proved what I usually tell people: "if you want something, you can do it". Congratulations! You all have my gained my respect.

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Here is more about jungle trekking in that area and an alternative trekking

Back to teambuilding in Pangkor and Lumut

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