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In late December 2006, ten people looking for a round of adventure during the long weekend leading up to Christmas ended up at Gopeng, Perak, where they had the opportunity to spend a day white water rafting and caving. Despite having their rafts capsize several times, slipping as they lost their footing while in the cave, and several bum-bruising lorry rides to and fro the activity locations, they emerged with satisfied smiles, and more than eager to recount the exciting tales.

The river journey was longer than I expected and had plenty of fun rapids to keep you busy, it was a well-chosen route with minimal flats to paddle through. The water was clean and cool but not cold. We floated past several homes where local children were splashing and playing in the water.

Although recent rains brought questions of safety, the course was well clear and posed no hazards. I was impressed with the extensive safety procedures and pre-trip floating and rope rescue training exercise. Other outfits often do this after or during the trip - it makes more sense to do it right before put-in. There were several capsizing incidents, but it actually made the rafting a lot more fun, and since we had been briefed on raft safety, no one was alarmed, we just enjoyed the water !

The flying fox zip line cave is a complex, multi-level system of large chambers with ancillary passages. Most of the formations seemed to be dead, but dropping water all around proves that they are really just damaged or polluted from human contact. However, in several areas inside, one can find not only live formations, but beautiful white calcite flows that are as ancient and pure as the ones found in pristine caverns. You might have to look around a bit to find them. There was also at least one rimstone dam pool with clear water surrounded by several columns. Bats were definitely present on the ceiling, barely visible in small patches. Didn't see any in flight. Surprisingly there was little or no guano on the cave floor, and no nasty guano smell either. Overall a nice trip !

Read about the detailed trip arrangements at the Perak Weekend Adventure page . . .

Text by Jason Eng
Pictures by Jason Eng & Chan Yuen-Li