JKR in the jungle?	@oodummbu making its way carefully down	Alyna handcarried this cake through bumps and potholes for this moment in Martins life.

Two recce and a birthday party in a month. 27^th May, 2000

-Shah Alam SS, Commonwealth Park recce

Luis, Joey, Baskaran, Rate, Vicky, Alyna, Shah, Ah Choong, Liz and Martin.

28^th May 2000

-Bamboo Trial

With dark clouds hovering us in the morning at our normal gathering for our 2^nd day recce and this time to Bamboo Trial in Gombak.

This time with two vehicle Old Man and Red Indian we make an earlier move at about 10.oo am after some breakfast at Sri Gombak.  R.I had a first morning sickness with the same old problem of fuel so we have  our first break down near University Islam in Gombak. 

Once reaching the Quarry site it was a sight of total destruction of nature compared to the original beauty of lush greenery. Now what we see is only heavy machinery and long steep hills in front of us. Our previous track was hidden among some man made wall to prevent erosion. We  had no choice but to look at the steep hills a muddy and slippery ground all the way up hill. The sight of the steep hill from far gives us the horror as whether we really need any winching to do. The place will no longer passable once the place is converted to a catchments area after completion.

Now it is normal for all off roader to get some kind of permission to enter privately own land. A quick look around for the Manager Mr. Chua was mounted to inform him about our mission. He doesn’t seem to have the confident on us with our LR as he said that two Hilux couldn’t make it at all.  His worker said that it is not passable so we informed them about our mission and we are familiar with the tracks. After much explanation we had the green light and that we might need some help with their bulldozer if need arises.

Since Old Man had a Volvo axle we let Old Man go first and it was a real show on for LR with the labourer there and us as spectators. The sound of spinning tyres attracted the rest of the worker who stop their work just to watch us. The rest of us walk up earlier to wait and the excitement of watching LR going up hill in that kind of situation was a proud moment.  Some betting was on at the down hill among the workers. R.Ind had a easy climb with a little help of winching on the starting as the axle sits on a boulder and Luis was so impress with LR performance on that track.  Another obstacle was a fallen tree towards the second climb up hills which we clear in no time. It took us 45 minutes for us to attempt this steep hill and since we are running out of time we proceed towards the jungle part.

The place was overgrown and parang was needed to clear the part. Nobody had use the tract since the Quarry started. After going about 100 meters in front we received CB that Old Man was in serious break down with the wheel coming out. It is 1230noon now, and we waste no time to get Old Man back on his wheel while we had our refreshment of lunch which we had planned to had it at our camp site in Sg. Sili.

While the repair works was going on Martin and me try to clear some overgrown and he was a bit shock to come face to face with a Green Snake while clearing the trees.

Luis have the idea of taking all the 35 cars up hill in a short transport stage with the help of bull dozer as winching point on the event day. There’s no way all the vehicle can go through the hill especially with so many cars and big tyres damaging the track.

We reached the Swampy area by 2.30p.m. and a discussion of what to do on Event day  and SS to be held with testing the winch and making their way out of that area instead of building bridge. A track was open for us to cross and another uphill to go. The clearing takes much of our time and we make another dash through to the Bamboo maze and come across some fallen trees that bring down some bamboo as well. So here we had some quick clearing with the chain saw and swinging Parang party going on.

We reached the Y junction towards the last camp site so that we can have a quick look at the place and where to have another SS. The track was quite good and no heavy rain yet for us to get stuck. So the two vehicle proceeds to the river with the burn out bridge at the right side after crossing the newly bridge we did on the last trip. Attempting the rocky uphill was a bit of difficulty as the RI couldn’t climb even Old Man was having a little bit of difficulty. We did some winching for R.I and with the help of Old Man too. The rut was a bit hard core and after some time we manage to get the vehicle back at his track again. The rut become even worse with Old Man digging and again the boys have to repair back before RI can move on. The whole track will be a maximum damage and a long time to recover possible not passable after the event day.

The last serious down hill of leaning wall was not so bad compared to the last trip , so we make a slow easy descend downhill and some bouncing off road down to our camp site. We reached about 5.20 p.m. and stop to rest some planning was jot down for the event day. A convoy of 35 – 40 cars will camp there at Sg. Sili while some SS will be on the side of the river.

6.00p.m. Luis decided to make an earlier out of the jungle before dark. Old man takes the led and in no time we cross the bridge and after two downhill we came to the uphill leaning wall track. Old man had no problem while R.I. make it half way and fuel pump problem came again so we were stuck there for about 5 hours trying all sort of way to keep it going. The problem cannot be solve so I suggested that we put on the direct fuel with a 4 little container to make our way out or we will be stuck here forever. But luck is not with us as Old Man battery worn out and another repair job again before we finally make a rush out of the jungle back to civilization. We reached the back after a quick meal at 33 around 2.00a.m. Everybody was so worn out after a long day doing planning and recce for the whole Selangor Challenge event.