Well its taken 5+ weeks to organise from a little posting I stuck on the ORS 4x4 forum in Malaysia "25-27 March Charity Trip to Kampung Rekom" the most remote Orang Asli Village in West Malaysia at 970 Meters up and 52k from the blacktop into the jungle and they have a blindness problem with 30% of the 40+ inhabitants of the village suffering hereditary blindess.
The guys on ORS got the order of goodies needed in Bahasa from the village using the jungle telegraph. My goals were to collect 1,500Kg of rice, + cooking oil, clothes and tools etc.
7 ORS vehicles answered the call and people freely donated goodies to my house and to their friends.
Suddenly we had a group called MLM (My Landy Malaysia) offered to chip in and help they also had a contact for goodies little did we know how much and who from and it was just awesome.
4-5 last minute vehicle pullouts leave us with 10 vehicles and 23+ people still going. We still have 2 cubic meters to pack in NO WAY its going to fit and its left in my house for next trip.
Anyway suddenly its almost the day - I have NO TRUCKS. I'm supposed to be taking GREEN (1KZ LJ77) and Kantha will drive it and the customers and the VOLVO C304 - However Volvo still does not have the promised new front windows installed so its discarded and the ever reliable DEATSHTAR (BJ75) steps in. Both have rego expired so one day before the trip I get it all organised and they are prepared the night before with a marathon 2.30am pack and prepared and checked. For the mighty BJ75 TROOPY (known as YELLOW or DEATHSTAR to fellow offroaders) it's an awesome request.
We stuff into it 710Kampung of RICE, 20 Kampung of Sugar and SALT, 100+ liters of cooking oil, 100kg+ (3 boxes at 48kg) of SARDINES, other boxes get tossed in and then 2 boxes of camping kit and the rest, spare battery and my personal clothes are tossed in GREEN along with the fridge. Deathstar sits visibly lower on the road and a test run proves MAN IT'S HEAVY. We work it out to be carrying some 1100+Kampung of kit including the two passengers and fuel amkeing it gross out over 3,400kg.
Anyway round comes friday morning and I have too much to to so a day off work is called for.
6pm and i'm back home waiting for everyone to arrive at 8.45PM. They never arrive and all arrive 9.30PM we are going to be so late. 6 4x4's at my place craming in the last of the kit damn it still 2 cubic meters of stuff left on the floor. Finally 10.35pm we leave GeckoAdventure HQ heading toward Gua Musang in Kelantan some 279kilometers from here. ETA now 4.30am 4 hours late and it also means we miss camping at the cave yet again.
Next RV is Gomback toll and 4 landies scoot past us at the RV and keep going. We catch them in time to have a meeting 100k up the road at RAUB were we all get to meet for the first time and say HI.
Damn the convoy is now
1 TROOPY (DEATHSTAR) 13B-T
1 Pajero modified L047 to fit V series 3.5 petrol and running gear.
1 Diahatsu/Hilux mongrel - god help it- it has a 3L in it.
1 Stock 22R LC II
1 1KZ/Auto powered LJ79
1 D110 Defender
1 D110 two door defender
1 D110 Defender
1 DISCOVERY - AUTO
1 XJ JEEP
The pic is the first meeting at RAUB - yes stop laughing I am a driver a Landrover.
After a long slow drive I arrive first in Gua Musang and refuel at 4.30am then we have a meal and wait.
Refueling at Gua Musang 4.30am in the morning and we decide to camp at the restaurant and not GUA Cha some 35k away. So its sleeping bags out on the tables and we fall asleep for 3 hours.
Yup DEATHSTAR is very heavy.
Why are these guys laughing at 4.30am - hahaha we are 4 hours late.
Oh yeah a couple of carpet commando's also along for the ride.
The 7.30am scene outside the restaurant. Notice all the bonnets up on the landrovers hahaha.
The early morning cloud hangs over the limestone hills at Gua Musang.
In the distance the cloud is so low its gotta be raining.
Air down point 25k along the dirt track after this we cross the mighty Sungai (River) Perias and the serious stuff starts.
GREEN and one of the Bangalore brothers from India who were back for more non IT adventure.
Then it rained on the way in making the track slippery and "FUN" to drive. Several long sections of mud raise concern as to how far we will get.
The convoy snaking its way to Kampung Dandut the 3rd obstacle on the trip so far.
Rambo's rare 2 door defender
In the clouds at 450 meters 1k from Kampung Dandut.
Pajero climbing the last slope to Kampung Pendat Baru (new). This obstacle too us almost an hour to clear the 10 4x4's.
By this time we were 4hours behind the rough timetable and losing time at every obstacle. A 3 hour drive had so far turned into 6.
DEATHSTAR waiting as the ANCHOR point.
Adnan's LR about to get stuck on the rear diff protector.
1pm Kampung Pendat Baru (new) the village at the lookout with no water supply we dropped of food and clothes here.
