As we set out on our boat journey from the Muda Lake Jetty close to the village of Gubir to the Ulu Muda Earth Lodge, I felt like I used to be residing in among the river scenes from Apocalypse Now. Our expedition had a a lot milder goal: to seek for wildlife (notably elephants) in Malaysia’s Ulu Muda Forest, the place nature is in pristine type.
It’s like time-travelling to a distant, plastic-free previous. An absence of telephone and web protection solely provides credence to the fantasy that you simply’ve arrived someplace that’s completely been deserted by the trendy world.
Within the nation’s northern peninsula state of Kedah, the 160,000 hectares of forest is contiguous with Thailand’s San Kala Khiri Nationwide Park, forming an unlimited tract of land.
The journey to the Ulu Muda Earth Lodge – a back-to-basics outpost in the course of the forest accessible solely by boat alongside the Muda Lake and winding Muda River – was by far probably the most daring a part of our tailor-made Intrepid household journey by Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Cameron Highlands and Penang. In fact, we had knowledgeable steering from our loveable native chief: Thinagaar Sanmugam or as we known as him, Thina.
My spouse and two teenage kids and I have been sharing our escape with three different friends – a British couple and their grownup daughter.
Earth Lodge founder and co-director Hymeir Kem operates his hideaway much less as a industrial curiosity and extra as an try to ensure the forest’s future. A former World Wildlife Fund (WWF) employee, he first got here to the area in 1997 to survey the forest, caves and waterways and discuss to individuals in authorities about its safety.
Whereas he left the WWF in 2004, Hymeir’s ‘coronary heart was nonetheless right here’ in Ulu Muda. ‘I started bringing individuals right here for eco-tourism actions, together with researchers, who have been discovering and mapping caves,’ he says.
He additionally took residents tenting to provide them an appreciation of the various atmosphere proper on their doorsteps. ‘This can be a crucial place for giant mammal conservation, particularly elephants.’
In 2008, the federal government gave the inexperienced mild for the development of Earth Lodge to draw worldwide vacationers to the area. Initially, Hymeir was sad with the plan, fearing the pure wonderland could be broken. Figuring out he couldn’t cease it, he provided to assist run it. Alongside the best way, he ensured the forest and its animal inhabitants would protected, serving to to scuttle plans to bulldoze a highway to the situation by insisting it ought to solely be accessed by boat.
Regardless of the lodge’s success amongst travellers and as an employment alternative for locals, Hymeir is candid when requested whether or not he nonetheless worries in regards to the forest’s future. ‘For certain. It’s beneath risk from logging. We have to assure the safety of the remnant forest.’
‘One factor we have to do is get public help. This isn’t a information story in Malaysia,’ Hymeir provides.
Ulu Muda is a vital place for elephant conservation.
Regardless of their abundance, the world’s animals keep principally hidden. The hothouse atmosphere means it’s a spot teeming with life, the place natural world develop into large in a single day. And regardless of this gigantism, lots of the inhabitants nonetheless handle to cover from clumsy guests.
Hymeir’s longtime good friend, Ahmad Zafir, whom he met whereas working for the WWF, is our information throughout our keep on the lodge. He’s additionally keen about Ulu Muda and its safety.
‘One factor I’ve realized from expertise is individuals don’t care in the event that they don’t know. I make it my private mission to tell individuals about our wildlife,’ he says. ‘Solely then will they wish to spend their time and vitality serving to environmental causes. That’s why I try to make individuals enthusiastic about seeing wildlife.’
We ventured on foot and by boat day and night time – checking saltlicks, bush tracks, scorching springs and riverbanks – however the elephants eluded us. They teased us with their footprints and dung in all places.
A couple of days after we left, 10 have been noticed. It’s the luck of the draw. Nothing in nature – particularly within the Malaysian rainforest – reveals itself except it needs to. In a timeless land, the machinations of nature don’t yield to anybody’s expectations.
We additionally noticed leopard footprints throughout our three days within the forest, however even they stayed properly out of sight. Ditto, the Malaysian tapir, sambar deer, barking deer, wild boar and gaur (Indian bison). The monkeys (macaque and dusky leaf monkeys) hanging by in timber alongside the river are much less shy, although they watch you with suspicion and hold a reproachful distance. Gibbons may very well be heard however not seen.
Maybe the shyest of all is a never-before-documented kind of lizard. Whereas individuals have seen the creature, they’ve but to have the ability to come shut sufficient to {photograph} or correctly establish it. The creature’s eggs, nevertheless, have been found within the Gua Labu 1, a big limestone cave a part of the Gua Kelem Cave Advanced.
On the second day, as we trek by the forest on our solution to the cave, Ahmad is in overdrive as an educator. Surefooted as a Sumatran serow, he glides alongside the bush monitor. He factors on the claw marks from a honey bear that scaled a tree to plunder a beehive, a large millipede, elephant tracks and different examples of fauna and flora (fungi are notably ample). He factors out that the scent of untamed boar is within the air. I believe I can scent it, however his suggestion could have triggered this perception.
Whereas some elements have been logged prior to now, the forest has made a formidable restoration. Within the secondary forest or ‘regrowth’ areas across the lodge, it’s difficult to identify indicators of human intervention.
It’s solely upon reflection that you simply really grasp the magic of the place. As we slip again into the trendy world, taking part in the a part of vacationers attempting to cram all the pieces we are able to into our remaining days in Malaysia, it’s not possible to overlook our journey to the pure previous.
My coronary heart stays in Ulu Muda.