Leuser National Park - 10 Days Trek With My Middle Son

Its Saturday, 24 November today. I’m in the middle of the jungle of GLNP in Sumatera. Jasa, Patrick and myself are on an 8-days jungle trek from Kutacane in Southeast Aceh to be Bukit Lawang in North Sumatera. This is the planned trip for Jasa and me that we talked about since last year. So now we’re here.

Day 1 - 20 November

We departed from Singapore at 10 in the morning and reached Kuala Namu at 10.05 am local time. Took a 10 hours drive to Kutacane. We were shocked when Pak Wanda, our guide, was expecting us to sleep over at his friends house. Simply put it was not the type of accommodation that i was expecting. So we decided to stay in a hotel. We ended in Hotel Sakinah, a cheap but decent local hotel. This was the second hotel that we went to cos the first one was not acceptable. Patrick was the one who voiced his disagreement with the first hotel and Murad had to find a better one. Anyway, that was sorted out quite fast. Murad had to listen to a long lecture by Patrick on expectations and reality.

In the background is part of the Gunung Leuser National Park. We are entering the park from Kutacane in Aceh.

Day 2 - 21 November

We were fetched by Pak Wanda at 8.30 that morning. Thereafter, we went straight to the starting point. After a quick round of photographs, we set off. It was a day of many climbs. At the beginning, Jasa seemed unsure but as the day went on, he became confident and trekked along quite well. The climbs were steep and numerous. The highlight of the day was surely seeing the end of the rainbow. It was quite a tiring first day. The campsite was not that ideal either. However, it was an ok day overall.

Top left is a picture taken with our guides just before we start on our trek. The first day trek was done through villages and privately-owned farms.

Day 3 - 22 November

We woke up early around 7am. Had a quick wash up and breakfast and break camp at 9am. It was gonna be another day of climb to the summit. We started on day 1 at an elevation of 225m and went up to 1105m for the Day 2 camp site. Pak Wanda was not sure of the actual height of the summit but estimated it to be between 1800-2000m. We’re actually going to the summit carrying our packs.

The first part of the trek was still through a private plantation and we had to bash through about a 150m - 200m of 2m tall lalang. And I really mean bash through cos there was no trail and the guides had to make the trail. There were 5 of them and each of them used their parang to clear the vegetation before it came to us to pass through. Although it was clearer by the time it was our turn, it was still tough. Mind you, we were carrying our packs!

We kept on climbing for the next few hours with a couple of breaks in between. It was tough cos some of the slopes were between 60-80 degrees. It was slightly easier when we were in the National Forest; that was about at 11am onwards. As we climbed, it got colder. Just before summit push, it started raining. First it was quite light but then it got quite heavy. We eventually reached the summit at around 2.30pm. The height was 1705m. It was cold coupled by the rain and wind. We were all shivering. But the euphoria of reaching the summit gave us some warmth. We stayed on the summit for about 30 minutes.

Then came the descend. As much as the ascent was tough because of the steepness of the slope, it was likewise with the descent. It was painful and dangerous at times. We took almost 5 hours to reach campsite. Fortunately, some of the guides had reached way ahead of us and so our tents were ready. We went for a cold shower and by the time we were in our clean warm clothes, hot tea was waiting for us.

That night I had a good conversation with Jasa about aim in life, vision and direction. Told him that he needed to have the above so that he makes his life meaningful. I hope the conversation shone some light on him.

Pictures of our summit climb and descent from Gunung Lumut - 1705m

Day 4 - 23 November

We woke up to a wet morning with slight drizzle. We woke up late, around 9am. Even the guides woke up late too. As it was drizzling, we waited it out a while longer. We had our breakfast late too at around 10.30am. By the time we moved out, it was closed to 12 noon.

Immediately, after we set off, we had to do a river crossing. Then I realised that the river crossing here is really perilous. It is made worst due to the rainy season and hence the water is higher than usual making the rapid faster. We had to do a river crossing for every 80-100m that we walked. It was tiring. It was hard on Patrick as he had hurt his right knee on Day 2 during the descent. So the guides helped him with his bag. Jasa did quite well on the river crossings. I did quite ok too. All in all, we must have crossed the same river more than a dozen time and had to do rope assist river crossing for almost half of that time.

We also had to walk around the sides of the river canyon. That was also another perilous task. I just hope that we will be able to do this safely for the next few days. It seems this trip is turning out tougher than I expected.

Pictures show our introduction to river crossing. We had to cross the same river so many times, that we lost count! Sometimes, when it was too dangerous to cross, we clambered up the canyon wall which at some points were at an elevation 70'-90'. But fortunately, there were always trees that we could hole on to. One of the day, I fell head-down on a steep slope on one of these walls. I managed to hook my left foot on one of the trees and that stopped my slip down the slope. That was a scary moment!

Day 5 to Day 7 - 24 to 26 November

The trip is really turning perilous. We’ve been having daily tough river crossing, walking by the canyon wall and even had to climb a few canyon walls so far. Patrick has been complaining non-stop on how Pak Wanda and his team don’t seem competent especially in terms of direction of move, equipment used and time estimation. He has valid points. But at the same time, I know that this is how they operate. I remember Sai saying something similar about Kinul when he lead my group that included Sai in 2015.

I am feeling quite frustrated too cos the the trail selected seemed awfully harder than usual. At times, I find the risks not managed properly. At the same time, there is nothing that I can do to to satisfy Patrick’s incessant complaining. I am physically tired too. After, my discussion with Pak Wanda, it seems that we have to extend our trek an additional night plus a couple more hours on Day 9 as we would reach only at night on the last day.

On a good note, Jasa is still positive about the challenges. He is taking it in his stride. He has fared so far. I will reward him big time in when we are in Medan.

Living condition for the trip was spartan. Our tent is made every evening using branches and canvas. It serves as our place for the night and also to dry our wet clothes. Its functional with almost no aesthetic. On most nights, when it was not raining, we will start a campfire in front of our tent. It keeps us warm and keeps the insects away from our tent.

Day 8 - 27 November

The trek today was relatively easier than the past days. Easier as in there was no life-threatening river crossing nor river canyon climb. I guess that dangerous stuff are behind us. The tough things today was fighting the leeches. Between the 8 of us, me must have shared with over 200 leech bites! Earlier this morning, i tried to send an emergency message to Raihan to inform her that we are a day late due to bad weather. If they know, at least they won’t worry. But the iPhone message service didn’t work; so yeah. Hopefully, they don’t over worry.

Today was quite an easy day. It did not rain and there was only a few river crossings and no canyon climb. Managed to enjoy the day and took some nice photos of the surroundings especially the 20m+ waterfall.

Day 9 - 29 November

Today is the day we must trek out! So here we go. Phone battery is left with 80% and with no juice in the power bank so will not take too many pictures and videos today...just in case.

Pictures show our ascend and descend of a 1000m mountain in 1 day!...after 8 days in the jungle.

Today’s trek was a real test of fitness and strength, physically and mentally. First, we climbed up a waterfall wall and then trekked up the stream flow. Took us 2 hours. Then we had to climb a mountain of 1030m with crazy sloping angle. Took us another 2 hours. Then descent. Took us another 2 hours. By 5pm, we were at Sungai Landak and were met by 3 guides sent by Murad to assist us out of the jungle. By then, we were so tired and fatigue that their assistance to carry our bags was welcome, even though our bags were almost empty cos our first 5 guides had taken most of our stuff as their bags were empty since all food supply had finished and they also threw away things that they believed that they cannot wear anymore. They were also trying to lighten their own loads. Then it was a 3 hour trek by Sungai Landak which was 100 times easier than Sungai Berkail. By 9pm we were out of the jungle. We were met by Murad with 3 motorcycles to bring us to the homestay.

Day 10 - 30 November

Woke up this morning after a short 4 hour sleep to the view of the mountains in the foreground. We were leaving Bukit Lawang in 2 hours time. So went to have breakfast and cleaned up our stuff to look respectable when we arrive at the Sheraton this afternoon.

Last night before going to sleep, I had a discussion with Murad. Apparently, the whole village was abuzz about our group being late. It seemed that the guides informed their spouses that they will be in the jungle for 7 days and hence by yesterday, they were missing for 48hours. The rangers were having an exercise and decided to use the path that might lead to us. But we didn’t meet with them. I guess the guides’ spouses were just as worried as Raihan when we still didn’t check in. Anyway that’s over now and we will be off to Medan in 2 hours time.

Exhausted but happy! Time to go to Medan and chill for 2 days.

This has been a tough trek. It is the toughest that I had done. Tough on physical fitness and mental ability. But also, it was tough on the risk management side. All the river crossings were done with just ropes and no safety devices. All 3 of us almost got swept by the river water at least once. We climbed 3 river canyons up 30-40 m with 80’ angle with no safety rope nor helmets. We followed river canyons in the river numerous times. And we climbed a waterfall wall, although at 50-70’, we had no safety devices again.

The challenge to our team physical ability was acceptable but the minimal risk management was not acceptable. I shared this aspect with the chief guide and Murad. They can do this if they were on their own but not when they are with guests. Told them that if I didn’t know them before this trip, I would have been doubtful . But since I know them, i trusted them to do the right thing. Nonetheless, they should not do it again without proper equipment and more manpower.

I would not do this kinda trip again even if someone paid me. However, i am believer of everything happen for a reason. And God would not put us in that place if we could not get overcome it. All in all, it would be a trip that I would remember for the rest of my life.

On another positive note, there are so many learning points that I can share with Jasa. And that may be one of the reason we had to go thru what we went thru!