It was McDonald's
for breakfast again this morning, after which we went back out to the
supermarket near the hotel to pick up supplies for our next
destination – Gunung Gading National Park – where again there is
nowhere to buy food but there is a kitchen in our 'chalet'. Then,
after dropping the shopping and the girls off at the hotel, Kate and
I went back out and then split up – she went to get some bread and
cash, and I went for a haircut. My stylist was a very sweet young
local guy who waved away my instructions and proceeded to shape my
hair into a close of his own style – very short at the sides and
rather 'sculpted' on top.
After meeting up
again back at the hotel, we all went back out and picked up some
barbecued pork from a little Chinese restaurant then some slushies
from the 7-Eleven across the road. We then went back to the hotel,
where our driver (and he is now 'our driver', this being our third
journey with him) was waiting. We chucked our bags in the taxi and
then set off for the more than an hour long journey to the park. When
we got there, we checked in and got the exciting news that there was
a Rafflesia in flower next to the path that ran up the mountain
behind the park headquarters. A parasite that grows on lianas, there
are more than 20 species of Rafflesia and they all produce very
large, foul-smelling flowers – in some cases, the world's largest.
There's no set season for flowering, so although we knew that Gunung
Gading was a very good place to see them, we had no idea whether any
would be in flower during our visit.
We dropped our stuff
in our 'chalet' – a three-bedroom wooden building with a kitchen,
two bathrooms (with cold showers), and a big communal living area
with sofas, an eight-seater dining table and very high ceilings. I
gave the kitchen a once-over and discovered that it didn't have a
toaster, a fridge or any saucepans or frying pans, just a simple gas
stove, a rice cooker and an extremely large wok. We put the girls in
the only room with air conditioning and Kate and I took a room each.
We then headed out
for a quick walk - up the (pretty steep) main trail to the first of
the three waterfalls that it connects. As has been true in the other
parks we've visited, the term 'waterfall' is used pretty loosely –
it's really just a spot where a creek flows down over a larger than
usual rock. There was a small pool at its base, but we didn't really
feel like swimming – although Kate and the girls still managed to
find a way to get their lower reaches wet, slipping and sliding and
falling into one pool or another while I was away photographing
frogs.
On the way back
down, we took a slide trail that led to a boardwalk through a
'Rafflesia research area'. Near the junction, Sarah spotted a dead
Rafflesia flower by the path – a strange black-brown shrivelled up
thing. Where the boardwalk exited the forest, a swimming area had
been constructed – much like the one at Kubah National Park,
created by damming a stream that exited the forest at the same place
– and the girls and I stripped off and went for a quick swim in it.
There was also a very basic fountain nearby, with a single jet
shooting up from the centre of a small circular pond.
After dinner (pasta cooked in the rice cooker; sauce cooked in the enormous wok), I
walked back up the main trail but didn't see much – just a gecko or
two. I came back down the Rafflesia boardwalk, but saw even less
there. I was about to head back to the chalet when I heard a
desultory croak from the fountain near the swimming area. I went over
to investigate and managed to find four different species of frog in
the little pond, including a gorgeous orange and black example.
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