Location : Kampung Ayun, Padawan District, Kuching Division, Sarawak, Malaysia.
After all the hard work put in by the KAMI team, we thought they deserved to play a bit by organizing a picnic lunch at Gona Cascade some 30min boat ride away from the village. Food had to be prepared and cooked right after breakfast by the village ladies. The volunteers took the opportunity to learn how to pack cooked rice with ‘marun’ leaves.
We needed 3 boats to accommodate 19 of us. The journey started with a slightly overcast sky and in just 15min, threatening dark clouds were building up over the Bungo Range.
As we arrived at the trailhead, the drizzle slowly turned into a downpour. Luckily, we had Joary’s shack in the jungle as shelter. That was where we had to settle for lunch too under the unpredictable circumstances. An event that we shall remember for a long time.
Some of us tried hiking to the lower pool of Gono which took another 10min. Upon reaching and within 3min the water level started to rise abruptly. It suddenly started to get murky too. Thunderous was the sound of the gushing water from the cascade. We quickly got across the opposite bank to escape a perilous situation, a common phenomenon in every mountain river or waterfall after a downpour. Many lives have been lost in similar situations. We hiked back to the shack using a safer route to inform our waiting friends of the bad news. The pool at the cascade was too dangerous for the kids. We had to be disappointed with a much shorter than expected picnic trip. Next……Final day in Ayun
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