Exploring the upper Sarawak river ( Sungai Sarawak Kanan )
Nov 15, 2004. Written by Michael Lo.
Today Andrew & I decided to explore the upper part of Sarawak river. Most of the people in Kuching consume the water from this river but there are not many people know where the water comes from. One of the main water sources is from the Bungo mountain range near the Kalimantan border.
In the late morning, we reached a small town called Pangkalan Tebang, near Bau. From somewhere there, we started our journey. It is a remote area and vehicle is inaccessible, so we had to hike.
Map: our exploration area.
Below : Banjaran Bungo or Bungo mountain range.
We by passed a small Bidayuh village and stopped at a bamboo bridge. This is a little bit challenging to me because I'm scared of heights! There is no supporting material below the bridge....the bamboo is hanging in the air with some ropes tiding to the trees above. Below is the fast flowing river about 15 meters wide. An old man was curious to see us and asked what we're doing there. He told us that we can find a very tall waterfall but the journey will take us 2 hours if we know the jungle trail. He also told us that white men did go there before but he doesn't know what they were doing inside the jungle.
Pix below: Bamboo bridge. I'm so scared to cross it.
After crossing the bridge, we're facing some difficulties to find the trail to the foothill of Banjaran Bungo. I used the compass but still couldn't find the right way to the trail. Therefore I went down to the river & hiked along the riverbank towards the direction of south. The water is tea colored and I believed that I can find blackwater stream in the waterheads.
There are so many rapids in that area !
As now its the raining season, the water level is a bit higher and we found it too hard to walk fast to our destination. We were crossing the river for so many times as certain areas of the riverbank are too hard to walk over. We're so tired but ours spirit were still high.
The tea-colored water.
Around 1.30pm. The sky was getting dark. We're still very far away from our destination. This river is longer than our expectation. I decided to explore a small stream before we turned back. Nothing was found there except a few species of common fish & half aquatic plants.
The hill paddy field.
Pictures below: some aquatic fauna found there:
Rasbora caudimaculata
Rasbora sarawakensis
Rasbora volzii fasciata
Macrognathus maculatus (spiny eel)
Gastromyzon ctenocephalus (Borneo sucker)
Puntius sealei (barb)
Hemirhamphodon kuekenthali (forest halfbeak)
Freshwater shrimp
Freshwater crab
Half aquatic plants:
Piptospatha grabowskii
flower of P. grabowskii
Unidentified species
This is our last exploring spot:
On the way back, its started to rain. We hardly could see anything on the water surface as the rain fell down. We had to move very slow because we didn't want to step on the deeper part of the river. At last we found the Kampong trail built by the villagers. That trail saved us a lot of time to travel back to our starting point. On the way back, I found a species of carpet moss which I never seen before.
We will come back again to find that waterfall. Next time I'll bring my tent to over night beside the waterfall !
Below: A species of millipede which hunt on snail !
Butterflies sucking the mineral water at the sandbank.
A species of moss found near the plantation.
Some caterpillars may cause intense pain to human if accidentally touch it.
The Kampong (village) trail.
