Spelunking, Caving dan meneroka gua di Gua Tempurung

Assalamualaikum,

Sudah lama saya memasang angan-angan untuk mencuba aktiviti meneroka gua yang juga dipanggil spelunking atau caving. Hajat di hati, ingin mencuba caving di Gua Tempurung. Gua Tempurung ni letaknya berhampiran dengan Ipoh. Cara paling mudah untuk ke Gua Tempurung tu ialah dengan keluar melalui exit Gopeng dari PLUS highway. Dari situ, sudah ada sign board untuk ke Gua Tempurung. Gua Tempurung ni actually less than an hour drive dari rumah mentua, jadi secara realisticnya, bila balik ke rumah mentua tu, dah lama dah boleh mencuba aktiviti caving ni. Tetapi, asyik tak mampu untuk mencuri sedikit masa nak caving di Gua Tempurung tu.

Bila kawan-kawan office mula buat planning untuk small group outing pada awal tahun ni (yup, you read it correctly, awal tahun ni! It took me months to write this post. I was lacking motivation and time to write), kami mula throwing out ideas untuk aktiviti yang sesuai. Saya pada mulanya memberi cadangan untuk pergi hiking ke Pantai Kerachut. Tapi out of the blue, ada yang cadangkan untuk caving di Gua Tempurung. Tak sangka ada team member sanggup throw out idea ke Gua Tempurung, which will require us to drive for more than 2 hours from Penang. Selepas dua kali undian dibuat, kami sepakat untuk ke Gua Tempurung. Jauh pun jauh lah. Kami semua nekad untuk pergi. Saya dah mula tersenyum seronok. Hajat yang terpendam lama, nampaknya akan menjadi realiti. Excited to the core, smiling ear to ear. Yang lagi best, all expenses are paid by the company. Free!

Aktiviti caving di Gua Tempurung tu terbahagi kepada 4 jenis Tour. Each Tour comes with different set of difficulty level. The first two, should be a breeze, but the remaining 2 is totally different story. Do take note that if you select Tour 4, you will have to go through Tour 1, 2 and 3. If you select Tour 2, you’ll be going through Tour 1. I think you’ll get the drift of what I’m trying to explain here. Pada hari tu kami memilih Tour 3. Kami tiba disana pun sudah agak lewat setelah driving lebih 2 jam dari Pulau Pinang. Taking into consideration time needed to drive back, lunch, prayer, budget etc, that was why we decided to take Tour 3. Rasa kecewa sedikit sebab tak dapat buat Tour 4, tetapi tak mengapalah.

Sebelum masuk, kami telah diberi helmet. So, make sure pakai. Untuk Tour 1 dan 2, kalau ada yang nak tunjuk macho dengan tak memakai helmet, saya rasa still acceptable. But, beyond Tour 1 and 2, helmet is a must! Sangat berbahaya kalau tanpa helmet.

Setelah diberi sedikit taklimat, kami bertemankan seorang cave ranger (Jep nama dia), mula bergerak masuk ke dalam gua. Gambar di bawah ni ialah entrance ke Gua Tempurung. What a view...

Bila kaki dah mula melangkah ke dalam gua, hati ni mula rasa terpegun. It was beautiful. The cave ranger will stopped us at a lot of areas, sharing a lot of information on the cave and letting us bask and immerse ourselves with the natural beauty that was right in front of our eyes. It was majestic. The cave was massive! I hope these few pictures can help with the visualization. Note that there were lots of stairs to climb in Tour 1 and 2. Di sepanjang perjalanan untuk Tour 1 dan 2, lampu ada disediakan. Lebih mudah buat pengunjung untuk appreciate kecantikan suasana di dalam gua.

Nampak lukisan kereta lama di atas batu tu? Itu ialah tinggalan lukisan yang sudah berpuluh tahun disitu.

Tuan empunya blog sempat bergambar di satu point di mana area disitu sejuk dan berangin. Tidak ada tempat lain yang berangin sepanjang perjalanan tadi kecuali di situ sahaja. Unik...

Tour 2 berakhir di sini, iaitu di Top of the World. Untuk continue with Tour 3 kami kena turun ke bawah kawasan yang gelap tu. Sepanjang Tour 1 dan 2 kan ada lampu untuk menerangi ruang pejalan kaki, tetapi beyond that memang tak ada lampu lagi. Gelap gelita. Disinilah pentingnya ada torchlight. Kalau tak ada, memang susah. It was really dark. No joking folks!

Ini view ke dalam gua dari Top of the World. Memang tak nampak apa. Gelap jer...

Customary picture taking session before walking into the unknown. Berdebar rasanya nak teruskan perjalanan.

Dari sinilah segala adventure bermula. Kami terpaksa masuk ke dalam a small passage way. Memang kecik. Kena la beratur seorang demi seorang untuk pass through lubang tu. Memang susah nak squeeze through.

 Ada kawasan yang kami perlu menggelongsor. So steep, nearly 80 degrees angle dia. Saya tak dapat ambil gambar semasa turun disitu disebabkan saya diantara yang awal turun dan ditugaskan untuk "menyambut" those yang turun later on. Penting ada orang yang menyambut tu, dan juga penting orang yang menyambut tu fokus dengan tugasnya supaya dapat mengelak those yang turun kemudian daripada terjatuh. One of my colleague bang her head on the stone bila kami gagal menyambut dia dengan baik dari bawah. Nasib baik she was ok, kalau tak jenuh nak menjawab. Lagi sekali pesanan dari saya, wear your helmet!
Gambar di bawah ni tunjuk area yang tak begitu curam. Tapi untuk lebih selamat, kami glide down instead of walked down.

This was when we were crawling, trying to navigate through the cave along a small stream. It was fun! There were areas where the water was up to my neck when I was down on all four. Scary. Kencing tikus was always on my mind.

I stopped taking photos when I need to put my iPhone inside a water resistant pouch to prevent it from getting damage, especially during the time I had to wade through the stream. But, it was one hell of an experience inside Gua Tempurung.

That was me again, taking a breather towards the end of our caving. The cool water was refreshing.

That was Jep, our tour guide for that day.

A short write up on the facilities. There were shower rooms and toilets. Do bring along your own toiletries, none were provided or sold there.

There was a surau as well for muslims to perform their prayer.

All in all, it was a fun trip for me. Hajat dah tercapai. I have many more photos to share, but I plan to compile it in a video that I plan to upload to YouTube.
I will share it through a link in this blog. It will take some time for me to work on it. When ready, I will update this post. So stay tune for that.

That's it for now. Hope you enjoy the post. Do share your thoughts.
Bye...