Weekend kayak to the sea
It’s always been my wish to watch the shore line from the sea. Last Saturday, I got my wish! Francis decided to take me on a kayak trip along the coast of Bako National Park, which is even much better. I have been to Bako many, many times, doing what I like most i.e. jungle hiking. Although I’ve always appreciated the sea from the beach, I’ve always been curious of what it’d be like to appreciate the coast from the sea.
At 9.30am, we paddled out of Bako River towards the sea. The further we moved into the river mouth, the more I felt the paddling became strenuous on my body. I thought to myself “Gosh! This is even harder than river kayaking!” Of course, I didn’t want to tell Francis about it because he’s almost in his 50s and casually paddled himself to a sense of contentment! What would he think of a supposedly fit, young man complaining of shoulder ache merely 10 minutes into the trip and have not even yet made it out into sea? I’d have been so embarassed!
But after a while, I seemed to get the drift. Fortunately, the sea was dead calm and the kayak just flowed smoothly through it. Well, it was the half-century old man who did most of the paddling while I had to stop once in a while. The tide was low at the time and we saw some women on the mud beach flaps collecting ambal, and decided to chat with them.
We went on our way to Telok Paku from there, stopped at the beach and talked with some of the Bako NP tourists. Well, he did the talking with the tourists while I did the…whatever. I was more concerned about the aching and getting a sunburn at the end of the day. After that we moved on to see the sea stack outside Telok Pandan Kecil, and proceeded to stop at Telok Pandan Besar. Any tourist may not be able to descend to Telok Pandan Besar because of the steep cliff and absence of trails. But with a kayak, one can! I’ve been on this trail, observing the beach and life below from a viewpoint located on the 100-meter high cliff! But on this day, I was able to be on the beach and observe the wonders of nature from below. It was a beautiful beach.
Telok Pandan Besar
After that, we paddled towards Tanjung Rhu, another spot that I’ve treaded on land and it was great to see it from the sea. Tanjung Rhu does not have a beach but the rock formation that substitutes the beach is stunning. Not far from Tanjung Rhu, there’s a small beach that I’ve never been to either by land or sea. It was the Telok Tajur beach. It’s a small beach but looked good enough for future camping plans. The time it took to leave our landing at Bako River and reaching Telok Tajur beach was about 3 hours. But that was because we stopped in two places.
Telok Tajor
On our way back, we stopped at Telok Assam, where the Bako NP headquarters was located. Had some drinks there and I met up with some friends who are working in the park. It seemed that everything changes, especially one’s perceptions, when taking a kayak. The detour into the mangrove forest was an absolute experience! Or maybe it’s just me being too excited. But it was great.
Mangrover forest near Telok Delima
When we paddled back, it rained as we almost reached the mouth of Bako River. It couldn’t have been worse as heavy raindrops shot into my eyes. And as I wiped them, my sea-salted hands stung my eyes, which made look stupid in front of Francis. But the rain and swell gave me a brief preview on how the sea could be like on a not-so-calm waters. I didn’t want to imagine going through that series of painful paddling…gosh!
But it all went well and it was as if I had regained some sort of enlightening experience going through the shores via kayaking. With my short memory of that painful paddling experience, I blurted to Francis that we should go further to Pulai Lakei and think about setting up a camp there for a couple of nights! He agreed.
One day, that would be another wish come through. Meanwhile, I need to get a massage…
