Isuzu Duramission - Day 3 & 4

Day 3 - Lawas to Maliau Basin

We left Lawas at about 0930 hrs and headed to Keningau..... Not an eventful journey as it was all on tarmac...

We did stop at a coffee factory in Tenom to have a cuppa local coffee as well as buy some coffee... it was actually quite good.. the chilled coffee was yum!!

We then head on to this absolutely beautiful lookout point which was a sight to behold... I was honestly surprised at how the crew managed to find such a huge piece of empty land with such breathtaking view for our photo-op session...

We then stopped for lunch at Keningau and made a fuss around the Toyota roadshow... that was entertaining... We just circled the roadshow and the entire convoy started honking... :D After lunch, the fun part for me began... I requested to take over the wheel on our Single Cab coz I just wanted to drive so badly.. I kept sleeping as a possenger in the Recovery 01 vehicle... So on I hopped onto the Single Cab... The radio/walkie talkie session was so much fun... there was jokes and pokes being thrown here and there... it was just a fun ride... :D Not as boring as the radio in the Recovery vehicle which sole consist of what model and make of vehicle was coming at us at what speed...*boring!!*

After all the tarmac road... finally we came to the exit towards Maliau and onto an unfinished highway which was all sand and stone... It was a dusty drive from there onwards with visibility almost down to nil...you can hardly see the vehicle in front of you much less anything else... It was just dust dust and more dust and the painful experience of listening to rocks hitting your vehicle body so often... The amount of dents was unimaginable... But there was a beautiful sunset en-route that was such a feast on the eyes....
We safely arrive in Maliau and was greeted by this....
My oh my... a bbq has never looked so good... hehe!! We had prawns, lamb, chicken wings and sausages.... All my fav... washed down with a cold bottle of beer... that's the life.... We had some late nite or more accurately midnight nature walk after dinner... we trying to spot some wild animals... the first round with a huge group of ppl was unsuccessful... All I spotted was plenty of leeches on Bakry''s legs... hehe!! Went for a quiet second round with Tang and we managed to spot a mouse deer sitting quietly in the bushes... It was so cute!!! After a long day... we went to bed in our bunkers...

Day 4 - Maliau to Tawau

We woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed (NOT) and headed for breakfast and our morning canopy walk...

We first stepped on a suspended bridge across the Maliau river...

A quick 20 mins later and we have reached the end of the canopy walk... time to head back to camp....

I didnt really get a chance to explore Maliau as there was limited time... I suppose that would be my biggest disappointment... But definitely Maliau is a place I would plan a trip to... I want to hike to the Maliau Falls and set my eyes on the 7 tier waterfalls which Maliau is so famous for... :) But for the moment I would have to settle for a photo from a helicopter ride I didnt get to get on due to space constraints... Oh well... better luck next time...

All in all I enjoyed the entire trip... It was a fun event for all to share and a good time to get to know each other better... :) Hope that I will get a chance to participate in next year's event as well... Keeping my finger, toes and eyes crossed... :D

*all pictures are courtesy of Rudy our photographer... only the canopy walk pictures were taken by me...