pelf-ism is contagious

Remember the river terrapin in situ project that we were discussing with the Director and Deputy Director of PERHILITAN?

Well, we took the discussion a step further by visiting the Dungun River yesterday morning. The plan was to survey the nesting bank and further discuss the technical part of the project (read: who’s going to provide the water pump, who’s going to provide canvas sheets, what about microchips and other research materials, what about data sheets etc.).

Anyway, we started our journey at about 9:30am but due to the untimely road block conducted by the Road and Transport Department (JPJ), we finally met up with the team from PERHILITAN at Batu Buruk at about 11 something.

Check out the waves and the strong winds (coconut tree leaves). I took this picture in the car while the driver was speeding like an F1 driver because we were late.

This was also taken in the car (note the reflection). About an hour later, we arrived at Serdang (no, not that Serdang in KL). We took the road to the nesting beach instead of the boat because we thought it was hassle-free. Big mistake!

The nesting bank, Pasir Kumpal, was about a couple of kilometers from the main road. After about 10 minutes, we arrived at this:

A part of the road was flooded. Edley volunteered to check the depth of the water by walking across to the other side. Apparently, the PAJERO could pass the knee-depth waters, but we discussed whether there were other alternatives. Like, by boat.

We could take the boats, but to get to the boats from where we were would take another 30 minutes. But if we proceeded, we would arrive at the nesting beach in about 10 minutes. Hence we decided to get wet go ahead and cross the waters.

After crossing the 30-meter-knee-depth water (I had the priviledge to SIT in the PAJERO), we came to this:

Hhahahha! Distance: 100m. Water level: 2 feet. Decision: Wade Walk across. Slowly. So we folded up our jeans, kept our digicams and braved the waters! *sounds so bravo* But a few meters into the water, I was already shouting.

“No! Prof! Wait for me!”

Prof, who was about 20 meters in front of me turned around and ask, “What, Pelf?”

I said, “Wait for me! I’m hydrophobic, remember?”

“OK. OK. I’ll come back and get you.”

OK. I am sounding like a baby now. Sh*t.

That was not all.

After crossing to the other side, what greeted us was a few times worse than the flood (at least to me). There, in front of us, was a 500m stretch of mud-road and the only thing that I wished I had worn was my mangrove boots. We were not the least prepared for such a jouney that all of us wore only slippers. Hhahah, serves us right!

My slippers were stuck in the mud for a few times and I almost landed my butt in the mud. Thank God for the good balancing skills.

Anyway, after what felt like an hour, we finally saw the light sign that we had arrived at the nesting bank. *phew*

This is the hut that we would tear down and rebuild. In fact, this was the only visible man-made structure as far as our eyes could take us.

See how extensive the nesting bank was.

Yea, this was my first time to Pasir Kumpal, and I fell in love with it. The strong winds, minus the salt. The fresh air. The calm and quiet environment. Can somebody please build an open-air McDonald’s here? Then it would be perfect.

We walked further up along the nesting bank and discussed more of the project. Are we going to build toilets? Are we going to use a water pump to pump water from the river? How many 4-man tents would we need? How many volunteers should we take at any one time? How long can the volunteers stay? You get the flow..

We left when it started to drizzle. Yes, we had to carefully and painstakingly walk through the mud-road (my slippers were stuck in the mud for even more times) and get ourselves wet again crossing the flooded area (which by this time I felt the water level had risen instead of receded).

The river terrapins BETTER come to Pasir Kumpal to lay their eggs! See the trouble we had to go through just to ensure that your species does NOT become extinct?!

But then again, I am sure as soon as the rainy season slows down, those roads will not be flooded anymore. Then, it would be a hassle-free journey right into nesting banks.