Showing posts with label and. Show all posts
Showing posts with label and. Show all posts
Saturday, 18 February 2017
How to build a boat from cardboard and duct tape
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Saturday, 3 December 2016
Bird eating spiders and the Worlds largest air boat
"It will be fun Dexter, you might see 1000lb feral boars with tusks of death, spiders big enough to eat birds, poisonous snakes, and the place is really swampy." I note the incredulous look of polite disdain cross young Dexter's face as his somewhat odd uncle tries to pump him up about a day trip to Myakka River State Park. " And oh yeah, we are going to ride on the world's largest air boat, and see lots of man eating alligators," Okay that's better, I suspect he thinks, there might actually be an event here that will enliven what he already knows will be a dreary day with a bunch of adults talking about nature and other dull stuff.
As far as I can tell, and I have done some real digging, the Myakka Maiden is the world's largest air boat. It's 52' long with a beam of 16', and caries up to 73 passengers. Like its sister ship, the Gator Gal (50'), both are plywood flat bottomed West System-esque constructed vessels, and USCG certified. Despite the captain's very interesting, and informative dialog about the flora and fauna of the area, what most passengers really want to see is Florida's official state pet, the alligator, hopefully rending some poor victim into smaller bite sized pieces. Alligators are thick as thieves in the lake, and you will see many of them. Little toy dogs (I call these breeds generically "Kickme's") would last about 60 seconds doing their yipping on the banks of this lake.
The Myakka Maiden, and its sister ship are perfectly designed for this environment. The upper Myakka lake is very shallow, and in many places it is choked with water hyacinths. An air boat operates very well here, and the large propeller will never get clogged with the less than indigenous plant life.
The unique marine power plant is a circa 1975 500 cubic inch Cadillac engine belt driving a Sensenich three bladed aerospace grade carbon fiber epoxy propeller. The pitch is ground adjustable, and tuned to the engine rpm's. The end result is the drive system is surprising quiet. Now I don't want you to think you're sitting in the proverbial "Cone of Silence" when the boat is running, but you can hold a conversation with the person next to you without yelling. When the Myakka Maiden is operating at full throttle, I would guess we were achieving a blistering five or six knots, or translated, I didn't need any product to keep my diminishing hair in place.
The instrument panel is sparse, but complete, and contains the same gauges you would find in your car. The helm wheel is a marine hydraulic system, that is used to turn the rudders, and by that I mean the air rudders, along with the water rudders. A shaft hangs from the overhead, that operates the throttle. There is no GPS based chartplotter, because it is not functionally possible to get lost on the lake, so no business for the Installer here.
I asked a knowledgeable staff member, shortly after I was told I shouldn't be where I was when I took the picture below, "why the rudders were chained up", and the short form of the answer was "It seemed to be a good design idea at the time, but they didn't make much difference in the steering, and they dragged a lot of water hyacinths along with the boat slowing it down." Another item for the "Museum of Shattered Dreams" vast collection, and water rudders on air boats are a rarity.
One of the most interesting, and challenging aspect of captaining an air boat is docking. This activity is potentially fraught with adventure because an air boat has no reverse, and I would add, no brakes. The docking system is simple and ingenious. The captain creeps in at a crawl, and advises the passengers there will be a small bump, and there is. The actual brake is the substantial post seen in the picture below. In this case the captain nudges the post on the starboard side, turns the rudders hard to starboard, and guns the engine. The vessel gracefully pivots around the post 180 degrees into the dock. It looks easy, but I think doing it a zillion times does the trick.
I posed young Dexter at the helm, to provide him with thanks for being the source for this impetuous, (look it up Dexter) and fun expedition. He deserves these few milliseconds of fame. In spite of my light tone, this was a good adventure, and was most enlightening. I'm thinking next time Dexter, we will try to convince your mom we should go parasailing, it might work you know, sort of, oh darn, maybe not. I will try to come up with something else with the appearance of being fraught with danger next time involving boats of some sort.
Myakka River State Park is Florida's largest state park, and offers 39 miles of hiking trails, fishing, kayaking and canoeing, and much more. At $6.00 per carload for parking this is a good bang for the buck. The air boat ride is $12.00 for adults, and $6.00 for urchins and its also good value, very interesting, and you can tell everyone back home from Lake Woebegone you have really been on the world's largest air boat.
You never know what you will find unless you go looking. My prior sense of what air boats were all about has been driven by seeing ads for Everglades tours, and occasional TV clips, but these unique vessels serve a needed boating niche. The first air boat was built in Nova Scotia by a team headed by Alexander Graham Bell (yes the phone guy) in 1905, and was used to test aircraft engines and prop configurations. The first air boat registered in Florida (1920) was built by Glenn Curtiss (of Jenny aircraft fame) and was called the Curtiss Scooter (seen below).
Another interesting historical air boat is this sleek retro looking French built Farnam "Hydro Glisseur" circa 1924. This vessel isn't quite sure exactly what is. Part air boat, part car, part airplane, and part hydroplane. It was capable of about 60 miles per hour.
Jumping back now to the present, air boats play a large commercial role, and perform work boat tasks that can't be done by conventional watercraft, especially in very shallow waters, marshes, and other wetland areas. These jobs include power line, and oilfield maintenance, oil spill and storm clean up, all with a minimum of environmental impact.
In the video above you can watch a four engine, 2000hp air boat with a crane mounted on it come into a facility to retrieve a large piece of equipment. It is apparent, no other form of transportation is capable of performing this task. The air boat above was built by Ronnie Thibodaux, who has pioneered the use of air boats as commercial work vessels equipped with bucket lifts, cranes, drilling augers, backhoes, and other heavy industrial equipment.
I have spoken to Ronnie several times, and he is a guy who is certainly excited about air boats, and thinks on a grand scale. The hull pictured above was going to be the world's largest air boat, and at about 80', it would have been. But Ronnie has decided that wouldn't be good enough, so the design was modified to turn it into a very shallow draft work boat with a large crane mounted on it. It is powered by a large bank of outboard engines.
Ronnie is planning construction of a 100' air boat that will be powered by two Pratt Whitney JT8D series jet engines (he has them already) that can develop a whopping 30,000 lbs of thrust, augmented by two pairs of 300hp outboards to provide maneuverability for docking. It is nearly impossible to convert thrust to horse power (another one of those pesky physics things), so let just leave it as a huge herd of buffalo stampeding. Now that will be one bodacious air boat when it is finished, and I think it will be a very tough record to beat. I definitely want to ride on it when it's done Ronnie.
I'm not going to put the Guinness record people out of business, but here is my take on the current records for air boats. The largest existing air boat is the Myakka Maiden (52'), followed by Gator Gal (50'), and then in third place is Chain Electric's (45') four engine air boat, despite their claims it is the world's largest.
The winner in the category of largest "Dry Running" air boat (has the power to move on dry land) is Ronnie's Airboat's four engine 30 footer. (I think in the end he will win in both categories, I gar-on-tee.)
Thanks again Dexter, it turned into a really interesting meander.
Many thanks to Ronnie Thibodaux of Ronnie Airboats for answering my million questions, and you can read an article by Jeff Hemmel about his adventure with Ronnie in the "Super Mud Boat" he built for Governor Mike Foster of Louisiana. Quite the vessel, and story, jumping beaver dams and more.
The picture of the Myakka Maiden actually came from the website Airboat Afrika, It's a long story revolving around the lack of a battery in my camera, and thanks to Theresa (Dexter's mom) for letting me use her camera. This is an excellent site to explore air boats, and their uses.
Authors footnote:
Just tidbit I found after the fact. Below is a actual photograph of Alexander Graham Bell's "Ugly Duckling". I found an article he wrote for the National Geographic Magazine 1n 1907 that contained a photograph of the airboat. You can follow the Google books link to read his full text.
One of the most interesting, and challenging aspect of captaining an air boat is docking. This activity is potentially fraught with adventure because an air boat has no reverse, and I would add, no brakes. The docking system is simple and ingenious. The captain creeps in at a crawl, and advises the passengers there will be a small bump, and there is. The actual brake is the substantial post seen in the picture below. In this case the captain nudges the post on the starboard side, turns the rudders hard to starboard, and guns the engine. The vessel gracefully pivots around the post 180 degrees into the dock. It looks easy, but I think doing it a zillion times does the trick.
I posed young Dexter at the helm, to provide him with thanks for being the source for this impetuous, (look it up Dexter) and fun expedition. He deserves these few milliseconds of fame. In spite of my light tone, this was a good adventure, and was most enlightening. I'm thinking next time Dexter, we will try to convince your mom we should go parasailing, it might work you know, sort of, oh darn, maybe not. I will try to come up with something else with the appearance of being fraught with danger next time involving boats of some sort.
Myakka River State Park is Florida's largest state park, and offers 39 miles of hiking trails, fishing, kayaking and canoeing, and much more. At $6.00 per carload for parking this is a good bang for the buck. The air boat ride is $12.00 for adults, and $6.00 for urchins and its also good value, very interesting, and you can tell everyone back home from Lake Woebegone you have really been on the world's largest air boat.
You never know what you will find unless you go looking. My prior sense of what air boats were all about has been driven by seeing ads for Everglades tours, and occasional TV clips, but these unique vessels serve a needed boating niche. The first air boat was built in Nova Scotia by a team headed by Alexander Graham Bell (yes the phone guy) in 1905, and was used to test aircraft engines and prop configurations. The first air boat registered in Florida (1920) was built by Glenn Curtiss (of Jenny aircraft fame) and was called the Curtiss Scooter (seen below).
Another interesting historical air boat is this sleek retro looking French built Farnam "Hydro Glisseur" circa 1924. This vessel isn't quite sure exactly what is. Part air boat, part car, part airplane, and part hydroplane. It was capable of about 60 miles per hour.
Jumping back now to the present, air boats play a large commercial role, and perform work boat tasks that can't be done by conventional watercraft, especially in very shallow waters, marshes, and other wetland areas. These jobs include power line, and oilfield maintenance, oil spill and storm clean up, all with a minimum of environmental impact.
In the video above you can watch a four engine, 2000hp air boat with a crane mounted on it come into a facility to retrieve a large piece of equipment. It is apparent, no other form of transportation is capable of performing this task. The air boat above was built by Ronnie Thibodaux, who has pioneered the use of air boats as commercial work vessels equipped with bucket lifts, cranes, drilling augers, backhoes, and other heavy industrial equipment.
I have spoken to Ronnie several times, and he is a guy who is certainly excited about air boats, and thinks on a grand scale. The hull pictured above was going to be the world's largest air boat, and at about 80', it would have been. But Ronnie has decided that wouldn't be good enough, so the design was modified to turn it into a very shallow draft work boat with a large crane mounted on it. It is powered by a large bank of outboard engines.
Ronnie is planning construction of a 100' air boat that will be powered by two Pratt Whitney JT8D series jet engines (he has them already) that can develop a whopping 30,000 lbs of thrust, augmented by two pairs of 300hp outboards to provide maneuverability for docking. It is nearly impossible to convert thrust to horse power (another one of those pesky physics things), so let just leave it as a huge herd of buffalo stampeding. Now that will be one bodacious air boat when it is finished, and I think it will be a very tough record to beat. I definitely want to ride on it when it's done Ronnie.
I'm not going to put the Guinness record people out of business, but here is my take on the current records for air boats. The largest existing air boat is the Myakka Maiden (52'), followed by Gator Gal (50'), and then in third place is Chain Electric's (45') four engine air boat, despite their claims it is the world's largest.
The winner in the category of largest "Dry Running" air boat (has the power to move on dry land) is Ronnie's Airboat's four engine 30 footer. (I think in the end he will win in both categories, I gar-on-tee.)
Thanks again Dexter, it turned into a really interesting meander.
Many thanks to Ronnie Thibodaux of Ronnie Airboats for answering my million questions, and you can read an article by Jeff Hemmel about his adventure with Ronnie in the "Super Mud Boat" he built for Governor Mike Foster of Louisiana. Quite the vessel, and story, jumping beaver dams and more.
The picture of the Myakka Maiden actually came from the website Airboat Afrika, It's a long story revolving around the lack of a battery in my camera, and thanks to Theresa (Dexter's mom) for letting me use her camera. This is an excellent site to explore air boats, and their uses.
Authors footnote:
Just tidbit I found after the fact. Below is a actual photograph of Alexander Graham Bell's "Ugly Duckling". I found an article he wrote for the National Geographic Magazine 1n 1907 that contained a photograph of the airboat. You can follow the Google books link to read his full text.
Tuesday, 11 October 2016
With Pancho and Lefty
I delay my start by 15 minutes talking with a goose hunter who is about to go out on the last day of the season. He knows the area well and understands the terrain. We have a good talk.
I head up the Neck River, the tide nearing high, with a good flood current aiding my progress and making the land swiftly pass by. The Sneak will be an easy passage if it is ice free. We had a recent snow of a foot or so that was followed by rain. The weight has finally crushed the spartina flat and the marsh takes on a tired and worn look. This is of course, just a pause in the life of the marsh before it grows green and lush and provides a place for the birds that will come with the spring migration.
The tune of "Pancho and Lefty" plays in silence in my head. It is a good tune for the canoe, even if I don't know the words. I read water as I paddle, tracking on bubbles and bits of plant material, watching it swirl or cross the channel, watching it shift direction to avoid some well submerged obstruction. My favorite read is the delicate thin line, so fine that it could very well be a loose fishing line, a strand of spider web that shows the discontinuity between two currents that differ by almost nothing. The lines can be 20 or 30 ft long and I try to steer clear of them in hope that they will go on forever.
There are a good number of geese in the center of Ox Meadow, the lower marsh now having a name...that I learned the name from one of the locals on one of those stream side chats. Some of the geese flush and some of them stay. I'm never closer than 200 yards.
I turn at Foote Bridge with a quick greeting to two women setting out for a hike in the forest. The tide is almost slack, hard to tell if it is ebbing or barely flooding...so it makes no difference.
I retrace my route back to the sea having experienced one of the most beautiful days of the winter.
Tuesday, 4 October 2016
The Yogattorney and the Kerala houseboats of India
Nancy, is a yogattorney. Yes it's spelled right, sort of, because she is both an attorney, and a Iyengar yoga instructer. The yogattorney makes frequent trips to India, and on her last trip, she had the opportunity to take a trip on one of the famous Kerala house boats from Cochin to Kovalam Beach in the Indian state of Kerala. So playing the game of "Where in the world is Nancy?", I have constructed a little map to show you where Kerala is.
The state of Kerala, is located on the very southwestern coast of India facing the Arabian sea. It's bounded to the east by the Western Ghats mountain range, and then transitions to low coastal plains, and the Kerala backwaters areas on the coast. The climate is tropical and it lies just north of the equator (8 to 12 degrees north latitude). Millions of tourists are drawn to Kerala for its lush tropical backwaters, biodiversity, and 370 miles of beaches.
In the late eighties Babu Varghese, an Indian entrepreneur and tour operator spearheaded an effort to take the traditional kettuvallam, and transform it into a houseboat suitable for ecotourism, and at the same time reviving the art of building them. The first "Kerala house boat" was launched in 1991, and ever since this specialized floating tour business has flourished, with hundreds of these vessels built, and directly, and indirectly employing thousands of workers.
Despite the simple tools, and lack of mechanized boat building technologies, the Kerala kettuvallam houseboats are beautifully executed, and finished. They have all of the amenities one would expect to find on a modern boat, but with a traditional, and hand crafted elegance, that comes through the clever, and skillful use of all natural materials. Unlike the original kettuvallams, most of these house boat versions are now engine powered, and still, in many cases often oar steered. In some locations in the backwaters, poling is required to maneuver in some areas.
The Kettuvallam's primary building materials, are all local, and sustainable consisting of white coir rope, and brown coir (both from coconut husks), bamboo, anjili wood for the hulls, palm leaf thatching, and a caustic water proofing oil derived from boiling cashew shells. With these few simple materials, a gorgeous boat is built.
Coir rope is made by soaking the husks from immature coconuts (white coir) for many months in a process called water retting uses micro-organisms to dissolve the plant matter around the fibers. The remaining husks are then beaten to loosen the fibers which are separated by hand. The fibers are spun into a yarn used make rope typically with the aid of a spinning wheel.
The houseboat Nancy traveled on is in the local parlance a kettuvallam, an ancient form of watercraft that has been plying India's waters for centuries. The kettuvallam is historically a double ended cargo vessel used to transport goods such as rice, and spices up and down the coasts, and into the more remote backwaters. They are by design shallow draft, and can also be poled when needed.
With the advent of the modern world, the automobile, the backwater areas became crisscrossed with roads, and bridges that steadily reduced the areas the kettuvallams could access. This coupled with less expensive transport of goods by truck made shipping by kettuvallam less viable. Over time the numbers of larger kettuvallams, especially the sailing versions were dwindling away, and more importantly the pool of skilled artisans who knew how to build these vessels were diminishing with them.
With the advent of the modern world, the automobile, the backwater areas became crisscrossed with roads, and bridges that steadily reduced the areas the kettuvallams could access. This coupled with less expensive transport of goods by truck made shipping by kettuvallam less viable. Over time the numbers of larger kettuvallams, especially the sailing versions were dwindling away, and more importantly the pool of skilled artisans who knew how to build these vessels were diminishing with them.
What's so fascinating about these very graceful, and elegant watercraft is that they can be upwards of 100' long, and they are literally tied together, hull and all, using a rope made from coconut husks. These boats are completely made of local indigenous raw materials, using simple hand tools, and techniques that have been used to build them for over two thousand years.
The mature coconut husks (brown coir) are treated in a similar way, but it does not require the very long retting periods of the white coir. Brown coir is used for floor mats mattress stuffing, and other utility purposes. Coir is relatively waterproof, and is one of the few natural fibers that is resistant to damage by salt water, making it ideal for boat building use.
The word "Kettuvallam" comes from the Malayalam word kettu, meaning to tie, and vallam, meaning boat, and hence the literal meaning "tied boat".
The unique aspect of kettuvallam construction is the hull planks are physically tied together. Planks are spiled, and shaped just like all wooden boat builders have done for centuries, but the difference here is the hull planks have holes drilled in them at the edges allowing them to be stiched together. Larger vessels have plank edges cut in a tongue and groove shape to provide additional interlocking strength to the joints.
White coir rope is used to lash the planks together encapsulating a bundle of brown coir that is being hammered to reduce its volume as the coir rope is being tightened. The brown coir acts as the hull plank crack filler, and serves the same role oakum does in traditional western boat building.
The stitched seams (kettu) are then coated with a paste of charcoal powder, lime, and fish oil for water proofing, and the hull is then over coated with cashew nut shell oil/resin, and charcoal powder. The charcoal powder gives the hull its distinctive black color, and the caustic cashew resin coating makes the hull resistant to wood boring molluscs. There are regional variations in the recipes of these natural coatings that vary somewhat from builder to builder.
The vessel you see being tied in the photo above is a smaller kettuvalam referred to locally as a "1/3 load" kettuvallam, that is used for mud collecting, sand mining and the ilk. (See the link to Dr. Ransley's project synopsis below to see how important this function is).
In the photograph, you can see the gunwales are made of scarfed planks that have been secured with large copper rivets, and or roves. The same system is being used to secure the primary framing structures to the inside of the hulls. We are looking at the sterns of both boats. I think I see a drive shaft hole on the left kettuvallam, and I can clearly see it on the right one.
The finished hull gets decked, and a curvaceous frame of split bamboo is tied together with coir rope to make the superstructure. Thatched/woven palm leaves are tied onto the frame, and additional split bamboo frames are again lashed over the structure.
Although the superstructure appears to be flimsy, you can see in the photo there are now three people now sitting on the partially finished work. When completed the structure will be very strong and waterproof. Interiors are finished with locally available natural materials, fabrics, and carpets. In the end, it's striking how such graceful, durable, and watertight vessels can be constructed out of such very basic materials, and with so little modern boat building technology being utilized. These vessels are truly testaments to the skills of their artisans and a time proven design.
Although the superstructure appears to be flimsy, you can see in the photo there are now three people now sitting on the partially finished work. When completed the structure will be very strong and waterproof. Interiors are finished with locally available natural materials, fabrics, and carpets. In the end, it's striking how such graceful, durable, and watertight vessels can be constructed out of such very basic materials, and with so little modern boat building technology being utilized. These vessels are truly testaments to the skills of their artisans and a time proven design.
I want to leave this little vignette with this photograph and a few thoughts that struck me about this smaller kettuvallam. The first is that if you rolled the clock back a thousand years, the ancestor of this boat would likely be very similar to this one.
Looking closely at the construction details as a boat builder myself, I recognize many of the construction elements and I believe much of today's modern wood boat building techniques owe their beginnings to this ageless craft, and the many generations of talented artisans who have crafted them. Although this boat building approach has been used in India for many centuries, we didn't get around to adopting it until 1964. We were a little slow out of the gate.
Many thanks to Dr. Jesse Ransley, Archaeology, University of Southampton, UK for the use of her photos showing the tying of a kettuvallam hull as well as the one above and her cultural insights. You can find her project synopsis "The Back Water Boats of Kerala (2005-2009)" here.
The photos of the "stitch and sew" canoe is from Wikipedia, and was taken by Kevin Saff.
The first kettuvallam photo is from Wikipedia, and was taken by user Ramesh NG.
The photo of coir yarn spinning is from Wikipedia, and was taken by user Bricaniwi.
The photos of the kettuvallam bamboo framing, and hull construction are from Wikipedia, and was taken by user Challiyan.
The photos of the "stitch and sew" canoe is from Wikipedia, and was taken by Kevin Saff.
All other photos courtesy of the Yogattorney. Her Iyengar yoga organization website is here.
The map is by the Installer.
This is a good video of a kettuvallam being repaired, and showing the hull "stitching" technique.
If you're interested in a Kerala houseboat trip, Tourindia is a good place to start.
Wednesday, 7 September 2016
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Monday, 29 August 2016
Here Easy rider canoe and kayak co
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Saturday, 20 August 2016
KL and the Cameron Highlands
4 – 13 November 2011
Despite being a little gun shy about Malaysian bus travel we really had little choice but to give it another go if we wanted to move on from Melaka. So with trepidation we found ourselves back at the terminal faced with a confusing array of over sixty ticket windows of different companies all competing for our money.
Looking outside we saw a particularly new looking bus amongst the thirty or so parked along the row of bays. We then headed for that company’s ticket window with our series of questions. Do you go to KL? Yes. How much? 34 Ringgits ($11 Aus) Are your buses no-smoking? Yes. Are your drivers allowed to smoke? No, bus no smoking. (accompanied by quizzical facial expression as to why we would ask) Having made our huge investment we were soon on board for our quite pleasant but uneventful trip to Kuala Lumpur.
One question we should of asked however was where in KL they go to. We had booked budget accommodation in the centre of Chinatown two blocks from the central bus terminal. Unfortunately our bus went to the big new terminal on the southern outskirts of the city and we then had to catch a train four stations into town. When travelling, these are the lessons you can only learn by experience unfortunately.
The platform was filled with people waiting so we hoped the train wouldn’t be too full when it arrived. No such luck. The trains only have three carriages of which the middle one is reserved for women and children only. Karen and I joined the throng literally squeezing into the rear carriage. It was a case of clinging onto to whatever handhold we could find with our backpacks between our feet and a human body pressing in against us from every side.
Halfway to the first station Rob came to the realisation that a crammed train like this was the perfect set up for pick pockets and felt down to make sure his wallet was still happy deep in his shorts pocket secured with Velcro fastening. All good.
As the train pulled into the next station an Indian guy in his mid twenties pushed through from behind us to get off. Unfortunately we subsequently realised that Rob’s wallet went with him. Despite being aware of the risk and on the lookout, Rob never felt a thing untoward. These guys are very skilful, unfortunately. As a precaution against such an eventuality, our credit and debit cards were spread between Rob and Karen’s wallets and Rob’s backpack so at least we weren’t stranded without access to money. However it was particularly galling that Rob had just topped up our cash with an ATM withdrawal at the bus terminal. But for that our thieving scum would of scored all of about $20 Aus. Instead he is probably still smiling widely to this day.
 |
| Unfortunately we saw this scrolling sign in KL too late |
When we reached KL Sentral Station we joined a cue of people at the Police office making reports of stolen wallets and started making the calls to cancel credit cards. Also gone were Rob’s license, Australian phone sim card, business cards with contacts for a number of the yachties we’d become friends with and a photo of our kids he’d carried in his wallet for over twenty years. All bits and pieces worth nothing to the thief but invaluable to us. Bugger!
So, moving on, our strategy of booking accommodation in budget motels and hostels just above the normal backpacker level continued to pay dividends. Our room in KL was located right in the middle of the famous Chinatown street markets and despite being only a few dollars dearer than backpackers was air-conditioned, nice and clean, had its own bathroom rather than shared facilities and was surprisingly quiet despite being only three floors above the mayhem of the markets.
 |
| Observation deck of KL Skytower |
We had spent time in KL a few years ago when we managed a drag racing demonstration at the city’s famous Sepang F1 track and had seen many of the main sights then so we only spent two nights in the capital this time. You can’t help but love the vibrancy of the night markets and despite not intending to buy any ‘stuff’ we still managed to part with a few Ringgits on a couple of things we then had to squeeze into our already bulging backpacks. Sampling the range of food in the markets was also fantastic. We did take the opportunity to go up KL’s Skytower which we’d missed last time and really enjoyed seeing the whole city laid out before us.
After our brief stay in KL we were on yet another bus, this time four hours up to the town of Tanah Ratah in the Cameron Highlands. We had been able to exchange a week’s timeshare we own on Bali for a two bedroom apartment in a four and half star resort in the highlands. We’d been in constant contact with crewmate Marc, and while his infection had proved stubborn he was now expecting to be out of hospital able to join us on the Monday and make use of the second bedroom for at least most of the week. Our idea was to spend seven days kicking back doing nothing, a week’s holiday we needed so badly after all the strenuous business of sailing, travelling and touristing. Life’s tough.
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| Highest peak in Camerons viewed from our suite. |
The Cameron Highlands range between five and six and half thousand feet elevation and were named after William Cameron, a British government surveyor who stumbled across a plateau in 1885 during a mapping expedition on the Titiwangsa Range. Cameron must not have been too brilliant a surveyor as he failed to mark his discovery on the map, so the location of the plateau was finally confirmed by subsequent expeditions. A narrow path to the highlands was then cut through the dense jungles of the highlands.
Nothing much happened after that until 1925 when Sir George Maxwell visited the highlands and decided to develop it as a hill station to take advantage of the mild temperatures. Cameron Highlands became a haven for the British who were stationed in Malaya as it provided relief from the hot and humid tropical climate of the lowlands.
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| We visited the original Boh Tea Plantation |
Once the road was constructed, wealthy residents and British government officials started building retreats on the slopes of the highlands. Later some settled here permanently and a business community developed. Farming was the main activity here at that time. In 1929, John Archibald Russell, who was the son of a British administrative officer started a tea plantation which is now the famous Boh Tea Plantation.
The highlands developed successfully until the outbreak of World War II when the Japanese invasion in 1941 forced the British troops and civilians out of the highlands. When the Japanese troops retreated from Malaya in 1945 the British gradually returned to the highlands until the independence of Malaya from the British in 1957.
When we checked in to our resort we were informed they didn’t actually have any two bed room apartments available so they had given us two adjoining suites instead. Typical of the trials we have to endure. The resort was located high on a hill overlooking the town but only a simple five minute walk down to the huge range of restaurants. Even if it was most certainly a ten minute walk back UP the hill, the exercise had to be good for us, didn’t it? . After many months in the tropics a pleasant change for us were the temperatures. At these high elevations we actually needed to wear jeans and often our spray jackets were definitely required.
An increasingly depressed Marc reported each day that his arrival was to be further delayed as his infection continued to resist the strong anti-biotics being pumped directly into his veins. We’re not sure whether sending him photos of the suite that was sitting empty awaiting him free of charge really did cheer him up or simply made him suicidal but it was the thought that counted.
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| That's our room way up there. |
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| We let Marc (Meerkat) know what was waiting for him. |
We broke our rule of doing nothing but eat, drink and slack off only once to do a tour around the sights on Wednesday. It was well worth it. The first stop was a huge tea plantation and processing factory. We were amazed at the steepness of some of the slopes under cultivation and marvelled at how the pickers and pruners could possibly work on them. We were also surprised to find out the actual tea plants are simply a variation of the camellia bush so common in Australia. They are constantly pruned to waist level for easier picking and it’s only the small, newly sprouted leaves which are used for processing into tea.
Next stop was a lookout on top of the highland’s tallest mountain. At 6,600 feet elevation the views are incredible, so they tell us. We found there wasn’t a lot to see when they cloud cover extended down to 6,000 feet but that’s the luck of the draw. On average the mountain is only clear one in three days.
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| Click on any image to see larger version |
Just below the peak we then trekked through what is referred to as the mossy forest with very good reason. A few years ago in New Zealand we had done a five hour trek through an amazing high altitude rain forest but this was something else again. Everywhere you turned it looked like something straight out of a movie set because surely it couldn’t be real. With high rainfall but consistently low temperatures, decomposition is an extremely slow process. As a result the leaf matter etc on forest floor was more than a foot deep and literally springy to walk on, unless you stepped on the wrong spot and sunk to your calves. Yuk! Good news though, it’s way too high and cold for leaches to exist.
Vegetation was so thick that seeing more than two metres off the narrow path was simply impossible. Every tree trunk and branch, live or dead, every rock and anything else you can think of was coated in thick green moss. Insect catching, carnivorous plants hung from the trees while beautiful wild orchids clung to host plants at every turn. A number of species of spice plants grew wild and by peeling off a small section of the bark and rubbing it between our fingers we were able to release the strong scent and taste of cinnamon for ourselves, no bottle from a supermarket required.
There is an elevated boardwalk that was closed for repair during our visit but I can’t imagine it would be anything like actually immersing yourself in the living forest on a narrow, little used track like the one our guide took us on.
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| The Mossy Forest has to be seen to be believed. Unreal! |
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| These plants eat insects. |
While the Mossy Forest is well named it could just as accurately been titled Mystical Forest because it is truly the most amazing vegetation we have every experienced. Neither words or our photos can accurately portray what you see and feel surrounded by this centuries old forest.
On the way back to town we stopped at an excellent butterfly aviary where we were able to stroll around surrounded by thousands of colourful butterflies and see some absolutely amazing examples of natures camouflage in a range of insects, frogs, snakes and even chameleons. Looking at the leaf frogs in their pond you would never ever think they were anything other than a dead leaf floating on the water until they began to swim.
A final call into a strawberry farm for a huge feed of strawberries, icecream and waffle washed down with a milk shake made out of cold fresh milk and strawberries, no flavouring syrup used, saw our one strenuous day come to end. Time for sundowners on our balcony and then the stress of picking somewhere to eat anything and everything from Indian to Japanese. Good thing we had another few days to get over it before we moved on to Panang.
Unfortunately Marc finally had to run up the white flag of surrender and admit he wasn’t going to make it up to the highlands. What started as a simple insect bite, scratched enough to become a small open wound, progressed into full blown septicaemia which cost Marc ten days in a Panang hospital on an IV drip. If left untreated it would of almost certainly cost him his leg and possibly his life.
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| Karen enjoying breakfast in bed Cameron Highlands style as she works hard on our strategy of doing very little. |
His experience was a perfect example of the dangers of tropical infection and the need to treat quickly and thoroughly any cut, scratch or bite we had spent the whole Sail Indonesia Rally warning, American, European and even some Australian crews of. Amongst the Rally fleet we are aware of at least five cases of serious infection that required extensive medical treatment. Marc was now not going to get out of hospital till the Friday and it was hardly worth a six hour bus trip up for one day before another six hour trip back. We would meet him in Panang on Sunday.
That settled we got back to the serious business of doing not much. Life is good!
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| Rob expected the Butterfly Farm to be a bit boring but check these photos |
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This Rhino Beetle was about six inches long. Good thing our son wasn't around.             |
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
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