24 October to 26 October Travel from Kuala Lumpur to the other side of Malaysia some 4-5 hours away in our trusty nice fishing wagon the ISUZU pickup.
Day 2 Kayak the Merchong River fishing and nature photography trip. The Merchong river west of Kg Merchong is all mangrove swamp and hence packed with mosquito's sand flies and other human biting insects.
We get up late again and have breakfast in Kuala Rompin before driving the 30+k up to Merchong so we eventually arrive about 11.00am and packed with supplies all from 7-11 (oreo biscuit grapes etc) including that invaluable item ICE which it today going in my live bait box as I am only lure fishing today. Mainly we are out for a paddle and a nature trip.
By 11.30am we have the kayaks in the water and are finally ready to go. The river is slightly silty and flowing slowly we are planning to paddle up with the incoming tide and them back down with the outgoing tide. Yoke has the Malibu Mini-X a 9ft fishing KAYAK and I have the 14ft S14. Dam it's hot as we head out as we are almost 3 hours late. High tide is at 1.00pm I have the all important cooler full of cold drinks and the ever refreshing cold grapes.
Scenic is all I can say and relaxing we paddle up river slowly sticking to the shade.
We cannot ascertain if the tide is coming in or out. We pass a very small fishing village and then all sign of human habitation disappears. We see a boat coming drifting and being paddled (16+foot wooden boat) downstream.
They have load of ferns stems for making roll your own cigarettes and a fishing net.
Soon we start to see birds such as this flight of white egrets
Then this bird the name of which suddenly escapes me.
and then the sounds of a troop of monkey's soon we are quiet enough to get so close to take a couple of pictures and see the baby monkeys running through the trees within 20 meters of us. All the while I cast into places I hope/think there is Mangrove Jacks or Barramundi but nothing. Soon we spy kingfishers which is a good sign of an abundance of baitfish.
A howling noise suddenly starts and I realise military JETS low and fast. Looking up and behind and trying to get the camera out we are rewarded with the sight of a very very low flying military camoflagoued Mikoyan MiG-29 and it goes vertical just after passing us at what seems to be around 800k awesome - hot on its tail and doing the same manoeuvre is a new Sukhoi Su-30. Man I snap of the camera but later I am only rewarded with sky shots. Back to the real peaceful world and a kingfisher is next in the camera lens in fact we managed to also capture tow of them together but the image is blurred.
Then another boat slips downstream carrying a similar load. They are very friendly and asking where we were going and we were very surprised to see us there. Another boat goes past and they are tourists and camera's go off everywhere. This time its us being snapped.
I watch seeing what he is catching in the net - very very small fish noting large but then the net is very fine.The I spy a water monitor on mangrove but Yoke paddles in front at the wrong point leaving me with only a blurred shot.
Then suddenly I am peckish and its hungry time. We pull under a large mangrove tree and in the shade have a meal of grapes and cold 100+, oreo's what else could a pair of adventurers want to eat. So far we have hardly been touched by the man eating insects. During lunch a kingfisher sits in a tree near us but I cannot get a clear shot through the mangrove roots. Time to continue the journey upstream so far we have travelled about 4kilometers and we decide at 5.00pm we would head back using he outgoing tide. The wind was everywhere and totally unpredictable each turn of the river has the wind changing direction. we come to a small side river and the sounds of crashing fish and rises indicates maybe toman but definitely Seberau. I fish and fish slowly working my way in but nothing not bites. Bitten alive we decide to head out and its time for home. The tide is with us but the wind against us to its a slow slog keeping to the sheltered side. Since its 4pm the birds are starting to head to their nests
We come across a egret roost and I spend an age here and manage to capture a few good clean shots with the 400mm lens as you can see the with this sequence of a egret landing.
Transparent wings on a egret looks cool.
But the then the sight of the afternoon a pair of otters which makes my day. It the first time Yoke has ever seen an otter in the wild its chewing on a freshly caught fish.
Finally its the last 500 meter haul to the jetty but its a in your face wind. Yoke is struggling along so I head off and paddle up to 9kph for the last 500 meters into the wind just to prove I’m not too old still.
Food and rest were exhausted after paddling only 11k. Want to go back sure I do early next year after the monsoon season is over for a longer paddle and with different bait there is so much to see on this river either side of Kg Merchong is very different.
Regards GeckoAdventure
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