Failed attempt

We attempted to scale another mountain, Bukit Melingkung, today in the continuing search for kerangas forest. Archives show conflicting reports about the existence of kerangas on top of this mountain, which is rather remote and not often accessed by our park guides. We were delayed in the morning at the police office, who were miffed we had not checked in with them on the first day of our stay in Lanjak. Luckily we had all our documents in order so the visit was painless though lasted longer than it should have due to the lack of electricity (and thus a functioning copier to make photocopies of our documents) during the daylight hours.

By the time we took the speedboat to the village nearest the mountain, and found a guide and a boat, it was around 10 am. Another hour by motorboat took us to the base of the mountain, and we set off at a rapid pace hoping to reach the top in time to collect data before returning to the boat. Unfortunately, our guide had never hiked up this mountain before (a fact revealed days later when we again, successfully, climbed the mountain). So we made it as far as a sheer vertical cliff where we could see red water, a trademark of kerangas forests, pouring down the rock face. We decided to leave the trip up the mountain for another day, returning home to Lanjak after dark.