Tuesday 17 December. A Night at Kubah
After breakfast and an unhurried packing, I left my main bag with the hotel, checked out and took their car up to Kubah National Park. My three nights seemed to have flown by and frankly it seemed a bit soon to be on the move. However it was only for one night before settling back into Room 409.
The journey up to Kubah seemed a bit longer than I remembered and took about 40 minutes. It was now plain to me that the park was actually the hillside (mountain would be an exaggeration I think) that one can see in the distance from the town - often surrounded by stormy looking clouds!
On arrival, I was immediately struck by the forest symphony the moment one steps foot out of the car. It's an incredible hypnotic sound of unseen activity.
At the entrance hut, I went through the quite full check in - deposit for key / park permit / signing in / handing over booking forms and made my way to my accommodation - A huge Lodge with three bedrooms. Two were stuffed full with bunk beds but Room Two seemed the better option with just a double in it.
Anyway, having settled in and taken a photograph of the trails I set off on the relatively straightforward Belian Trail that goes along the Park's boundary.
Named after the Belian Tree which is noted for its remarkable hardness and durability, the trail contained various educational boards along the way. Unfortunately, these were so covered in lychen as to be nearly unreadable. A shame as all it needed was someone with some hot water and a cloth to make them educational again.
Also a shame was the clearing and develpopment on the external side of the walk. This served to shake one out of the feeling of being immersed in nature and featured the sad sight of felled forest and the intrusion of palm oil trees.
That aside, it was a great first walk and I offered my thoughts on the cleaning of the boards to the rangers when I got back. They seemed to take the point but I felt somewhat unconvinced that the cleaning would happen anytime soon.
Kubah is famous for its frogs and a nightime frogwalk is very much part if the visitor itinerary. This evening, there did not seem to be any frog experts available but a youngish member of staff was booked to take me to the frog pond at 7.00. He came round and we set off at quite a pace to the sound of thunder in the distance. I commented on this and he said maybe we'd be better driving up. I leapt at the suggestion as climbing the hill was really quite taxing - I still wasn't used to the heat and humidity. Off we went in his car passing a group of walkers on the way. We started round the pond and it soon became clear my torch was not up to the task of homeing in on frogs. Ezekial was pretty good at spotting them and I took a few pictures with the help of his torchlight.
Once we had been round the pond in about half an hour I felt I'd seen enough. By now the walkers had arrived and I think were giving it more serious contemplation - apparently a couple of hours is normal. Anyway we headed off in the car just as the rain stated. I'm so glad we left when we did for the rain truned into a four or five hour downpour complete with massive lightning and thunder. It was cosy enough back in the Lodge until one mighty thunder clap was cue for the electricity to fail and I fumbled about for my torch. Fortunately, power was restored soon after and I decided to head off to sleep with the rain as backdrop.
The journey up to Kubah seemed a bit longer than I remembered and took about 40 minutes. It was now plain to me that the park was actually the hillside (mountain would be an exaggeration I think) that one can see in the distance from the town - often surrounded by stormy looking clouds!
On arrival, I was immediately struck by the forest symphony the moment one steps foot out of the car. It's an incredible hypnotic sound of unseen activity.
At the entrance hut, I went through the quite full check in - deposit for key / park permit / signing in / handing over booking forms and made my way to my accommodation - A huge Lodge with three bedrooms. Two were stuffed full with bunk beds but Room Two seemed the better option with just a double in it.
Anyway, having settled in and taken a photograph of the trails I set off on the relatively straightforward Belian Trail that goes along the Park's boundary.
Also a shame was the clearing and develpopment on the external side of the walk. This served to shake one out of the feeling of being immersed in nature and featured the sad sight of felled forest and the intrusion of palm oil trees.
That aside, it was a great first walk and I offered my thoughts on the cleaning of the boards to the rangers when I got back. They seemed to take the point but I felt somewhat unconvinced that the cleaning would happen anytime soon.
Kubah is famous for its frogs and a nightime frogwalk is very much part if the visitor itinerary. This evening, there did not seem to be any frog experts available but a youngish member of staff was booked to take me to the frog pond at 7.00. He came round and we set off at quite a pace to the sound of thunder in the distance. I commented on this and he said maybe we'd be better driving up. I leapt at the suggestion as climbing the hill was really quite taxing - I still wasn't used to the heat and humidity. Off we went in his car passing a group of walkers on the way. We started round the pond and it soon became clear my torch was not up to the task of homeing in on frogs. Ezekial was pretty good at spotting them and I took a few pictures with the help of his torchlight.
Once we had been round the pond in about half an hour I felt I'd seen enough. By now the walkers had arrived and I think were giving it more serious contemplation - apparently a couple of hours is normal. Anyway we headed off in the car just as the rain stated. I'm so glad we left when we did for the rain truned into a four or five hour downpour complete with massive lightning and thunder. It was cosy enough back in the Lodge until one mighty thunder clap was cue for the electricity to fail and I fumbled about for my torch. Fortunately, power was restored soon after and I decided to head off to sleep with the rain as backdrop.
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