Sungai Pusu Desert Ride and Fellowship.
Little village off the Genting Karak Highway. All quaint , quiet and peaceful for most the weekends. Chickens and children play n the streets oblivious to traffic. Old folks having hot coffee on their wooden house verandah. Very soothing to watch and puts smile on your face as you drive by slowly.
The kampung folks probably felt the same watching a convoy of 40 cars driving into their village at 8 am. I can imagine their amusement and grin when they see these bunch of clowns coming to explore their village. Kids and goats were grinning at us as we parked our cars. Some kids hung their tongue out when they saw old people getting out of their wearing only spandex. Poor kids.... how many would wake up screaming tonight?
Today's ride was initiated by Tailook, CH, VC and Eddie. The boys came and laid out the tracks a few weeks ago. We were invited to hop in and see we would enjoy their version of a Pusu run. Everyone gathered in front of the local school hall for the ride leader, CH to give a ride briefing and sing the national anthem.
CH said good morning and thanked those who contributed the RM10 to Maybank over the week. Then he let out a cough and wished everyone a good ride.
That was that. Rider started pushing out.
Ride started only with a 2km tarmac climb up a 36% gradient. I was totally confused for 16 minutes. Nobody said a word. Like good citizens of the state, we just went ahead and laid our trust in the leader. Even at half doubt knowing this may lead us to some godforsaken trail. We keep our eyes on the ground and continued grinding.
Finally arrived at what looked more like a right and proper mtb trail. Into the bushes we went. Sweet grassy single tracks for a few clicks. Up and down we went. For a good 30 minutes or so.
Then we arrived at Tattoine. To ride in the little sand canyon, you can't help but grin like a child. That was an unexpected bonus. Most everyone stopped to have a photo. The sand and the clay wall was mind boggling. Getting to ride inside it was simply breathtaking. We never came this in all our years of riding Pusu. The beauty of MTB riding, you can never stop discovering when you go off road.
Up we climbed on to a flat sand packed clearing and all of us stood in awe of the sight. Sand and more sand as the eye can see. We also saw King Kenny taking his 17th selfie of the day. Somebody farted in appreciation. Nobody admitted to it but we could tell that person was really impressed with what he saw. More photos and some chattering then we rode of into the single track right across.
It was a 20 minutes downhill run towards what was once a lake. Today, it was a dried out patch teeming with grass. Waited as King Kenny took a few mores selfie before the group rode backwards towards the first apple break point.
A cooling and shaded single track ride towards the waterfall where we will have our first break. Mostly silent except for some insects and cameras clicking as you ride past other cyclist. Borky kept pointing his groin at riders going past him. I was also surprised by his obscene gesture. After catching Borky pointing his groin at Pat Liew the fourth time, i had no choice but to stop and put things right. Turns out Borky doesn't have a preference for men. He had a GoPro discreetly hidden near his groin and he was taking photos of riders as the ride past. Please do not ask Borky why he kept his GoPro at his groin. Some men like chubby women, some men like goats...to each his own. I don't really care or mind.
Our new guest rider Alex decided to take an early break as we approached the rest point. He took out his chain breaker and broke his bike chain. Unker saw it and stopped me. Unker was lost for words and asked me to approach Alex in a civil manner. I gave Unker a pat on his shoulder and shoo'ed him off.
"I'll take care of this Alex fella. You go ahead. Have your apple... No need to get all worked up."
Chain was put back in place within minutes. I politely warned Alex never to do it again. Unker returned to check on us and gave a thumbs up when he saw Alex squatting in regret. I could only watch. Unker brought Manta and Krankster for support, just in case things got ugly. To put things in perspective, that's a combined total age of 160 years against 55kgs. Thankfully, the old folks forgot what they came back for.... I was never more pleased.
Now the climbing starts.
Single tracks climb up for almost 45 minutes and we appeared at another sandy clearing. King Kenny took his 45th selfie of the day.
Now, the roasting starts.
It was almost 11am. We were not told there would be 5 clicks of open unrelentless climb up towards some pondok. Like all obedient dehydrated rats, we rode in a single file towards our pondok. I saw a few riders squatting by the grass talking to pebbles. Another rider was quietly walking in circles searching for his helmet. It was painful to watch. His helmet was on his head all the while. King Kenny stopped to take a selfie with the dude...
Finally arrived at the pondok and had our obligatory chit chat and apple.
View from the pondok was spectacular. We could see Bukit Tabur and KLCC in the distance. And the greenery surrounding it was gorgeous. You could see the village and little streams running beside it.
Well, that's what they kept saying. I didn't bother getting up to look. It was too damm hot. I was trying to find some shade under the pondok and tried not to overheat and blow my internal radiator..
Finally after 30 minutes of resting and cooling down. We continued towards our car. Another 3km only according to the ride leader. That's alright eh?
He conveniently forgot to mention the 3 km was under a full raging sun....
I wilted.
Manta was like a fish out of water.
Unker...well, he was quiet.
Krankster stopped grinning.
Somehow, the old folks and the bunch of half dried mutts managed to drag themselves back to the car and finally get some shade from the scorching sun. Never been more grateful to find some shade...
Lunch was decided within minutes and the entire gang packed up and headed off for post ride carbo loading.
All in all. It was a fun ride. Trail was smooth and flowy.
Happy Sunday indeed...
'Unbelievable.
Arrived at 0730 and the entire place is devoid of people. Got me a wee bit creeped out for awhile. Stayed in the car and pretended to play with my phone. Then the herds started to trickle in slowly. Pat Lew came and we managed to sort out his flat tyre within minutes. Turn out he had a tiny wire stuck to the tyre causing him to keep getting a flat. Problem fixed and we got ready for the ride to begin.
Off we went, more singletracks again till we appeared at the little village called Sungai Buaya for water refill and more selfie wefie thingy... Gave the group a good 20 minutes to do their phone and photo update before we continued into the trail again. A bunch of them found a pile of durians and started feasting on it. They enjoyed it. A few continued on towards the desert.
Like obedient lemmings, we waited at the river bank. Staring at the muddy murky water. Unsure if we should proceed now or wait. Finally after 2 minutes of intense discussion, we managed to convince Peter Wong to let MJ go first. Its always best for the herd to sacrifice the young and gullible ones. Seeing MJ still complete and alive across the river, the rest followed and continued with the ride.
