From the top, we climbed downhill to explore our first cave. Just in time when the yellow shining sun started rising from the ground. It filled the sky with mighty colors of red and splashed the clouds with endless rays of pink. We witnessed the bright red scarlet of the morning penetrating the deepest forest. Then we reached the Percik Cave— a small cave which was in the form if S-shape. If you’re wondering how this is possible, we were wondering that too. The only thing we realised was that sometimes nature has a funny way of creating things because this remarkable cave is a definite proof. Also there’s a big hole in the cave’s ceiling that was large enough for the sun rays to pass through. It actually offered a good source of lighting and warmth inside Cave Percik.
When we went out from Percik Cave, we happened to pass by a calm lake. We expected to see some fishes there but unfortunately we couldn’t see any. However not far away there was a local fish farm, so yeah, the disappointment didn’t stay very long. Then, we took the path to our second checkpoint and we actually ran across a rubber plantation. There was this auntie who worked there that kept on greeting everyone who passed by. It felt nice to receive this kind of politeness and warmth from the locals. Next was the river trekking. The current of the 100-meter long river trekking wasn’t that strong. Some participants took a minute to swim and to enjoy the water. We held back our temptation and continued on with the race.
Trekking the river led us to Gua Hantu Menari or some locals called it “Dancing Ghost Cave” as the silhouette resembled a friendly ghost dancing. From the way we saw it though, it looked like a vase. The cave stretches to 100-meter long and the water was running knee-deep. We were awed by the cave’s natural and the unique rock formation, as if someone intentionally made it to be this way.
INTO THE MOVEMENT
The weather was humid. As we moved on to our third stop, the organizer told us that the temperature would be 40 degree Celsius during the day, so it had gotten to be very hot. We needed to reach the third checkpoint within six hours or else we will be declared as DNF or “Did Not Finish” participants. Luckily, we finished the 30k within 5 hours and 45 minutes. Since we still had 15-minutes to spare, we decided to take a bit of rest first, enjoy some durians and took some pictures of the surroundings before proceeding to the 40k point.
We literally walked from point 3 to point 4 passing villages and walked along the railway track. It would have been nicer if the train passed by as we walked along the track but it was a bad timing for us as we missed the train by nearly 2 hours. Nonetheless, we still managed to relish the run—or the walk perhaps.
After such a race, we tend to ask ourselves, “How far are we willing to run to save our environment? 30K? 60K? or 100K?” In a fast-developing world, where everything seems to be advanced, from the construction of buildings and factories everywhere to provide employment opportunity within the community–our environment on the other hand is deteriorating slowly, that’s the price that we have to pay. The main objectives of this trail run event are to increase public awareness on the beauty of Merapoh and help protect it from diminishing.
After tracking this place ourselves, we are convinced that the wonders of this hidden paradise is worth saving.
