A Knight’s Tale: The Weekend of Huffing and Puffing that Climaxed with a SCREAM. (2-3 Jan 2010)

2010, it was the start of a new year. I just came back from KL visiting my folks and Jakarta-based bro, and not forgetting meeting some of the folks for Adrian’s and Daphne’s wedding on New Year’s Day. It was also a long weekend and I decided to do some mountain bike riding then. This story may have started like any rides on the Saturday but it ended up with a screamer, literally, on Sunday.

Saturday’s ride was a ‘short’ one for just Chew and me. We decided to do Bukit Gambir but took the farmer’s route instead of the regular Tea Shack one. Then, loop back via the Farlim apartments after descending down behind the Paya Terubong apartments.

However, going with Chew was never a short ride nor was it easy but the saving grace was the weather – cloudy all the way. So eventhough we started at 10am and finished the 19km route three hours later, we didn’t feel the usual afternoon heat. What I did feel was a lot huffing and puffing – little did I know later it was a symptom I was coming down with something but more of that later.

Sunday’s ride was a killer but I wasn’t the one screaming about it. It was also the most hilarious factor of the ride which will be long talked about for the whole year…

The trail we had proposed was to climb up K6 (Thye Seang Loke Khoon), connecting to Canopy Walk and routing back down via Woodcutter.  This trail was only about 15km long but had a lot of surprises along the way. First, for the first 5km, the trail upwards weaved around the hills that at some points was an unrelenting climb up various gradients – from 5% up to 45%. Then, it was a mix of singletrack, off-road and concrete trails through the forest reserves of Penang Hill. The climax was steering your two wheelers deep in the foliage 700-plus meters above sea-level away from civilization but that wasn’t the best part….

Sunday’s ride saw a bigger crowd compared to Saturday’s. Altogether, there were 9 of us –Andrew, Chew, David, Dennis, Hock Huat, Jane, Jason Lee, Wei Liang, and myself.

I was in no shape at all after Saturday’s ride – still felt lethargic but since I was the trail leader, I had to force myself to go. As I said, I was coming down with something but at that time chose to ignore it.

So the first part was to ride up the 5km of uphill terrain – that took about 3 hours. Reason, everyone had to wait for me to lead the way and the ride up (more like the push up) wasn’t very easy in my condition.

Definitely way out of shape.

The weather was nice though, just like yesterday’s. So it wasn’t hot but a very nice cloudy day with a cool breeze blowing. In fact, when we got to the top of Penang Hill, there was thick cloud cover which made it a lot more like riding in Cameron Highlands.

That also got me worried because riding under the thick canopy made visibility very bad due to low light conditions but after much deliberation, we decided, we’ll just go for it.

Woodcutter here we come!!

After a brief stop at our usual place for grub and liquids – we set off for Woodcutter’s. To get there, you will need to enter via Roger Peng’s trail. This trail was to be used as part of the 2009 Kayuh Lasak ride but due to some goof-up, all was rerouted elsewhere. However, all work was not wasted as we still used it for our weekend rides like this one we did.

It was really a great time to ride there – cool air, solid ground, not muddy. The recently cleared trail was all the more inviting to ride it. The only negative factor was the low visibility. Nevertheless, a lot of the folks took a stab and guided their two-wheelers down the singletrack. It was a pity I didn’t bring my camera to catch them in action. It would’ve been really cool to share with the gang. It was fun stuff!

Touching on fun, here’s the hilarious part to start the year off and the highlight of the ride.

Going into Woodcutter’s trail, we were enjoying nature’s cool air and the serenity of the forest, while negotiating the trail. We were quite focused on the path making sure we didn’t trip on any log or slip down any steep banks.

Then, pandemonium struck.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, there came this sharp piercing shrill of a scream. It really shook up everything inside the jungle. If there were any wildlife in there, there were none now as they had been spooked by this loud blood-curdling scream. If WWF was taking any statistics, they would’ve found a sudden void in wildlife at that moment; they ran over to the next forest reserve to escape that nightmare. Better yet, they would’ve thought there’s a new species yet to be discovered that emits a high-pitch scream before a kill.

The scream went on for some time and I looked at the guys ahead to see if everything was okay, nothing there.

Then I turned behind to see if it was from behind – and behold, found the source of that high pitched shrill of a voice. You could’ve sworn from the sound of it, there was mortal danger like a giant snake attacking one of us, or even a tiger about to pounce. Instead, one of our riders got hysterical all because of one small tiny leech on her arm!

So picture this, while the person is frantically pulling off the leech, she manages to push her larynx to new high levels, screaming throughout the ordeal.

That was Scream 1.

After exiting Woodcutter’s trail, we regrouped just before a farmer’s hut. That was when the sequel, Scream 2, happened.

The rider discovered another leech on her bike frame, nicknamed Pinky.  So she just went berserk, screaming, whilst requesting for Dettol (does help to repel those suckers!) – all in one breathe!

The things people can do when in dire straits and I don’t have to give details of the situation – you can just imagine the whole drama.

Just a little footnote, Roger Peng and Woodcutter trail, for some reason, is the only part of the trail that we encounter leeches. Compared to the ones I saw in KL, their Penang cousins are much healthier looking, bigger and longer. They’re always waiting to latch onto unsuspecting hosts whenever you ride into their territory. Especially on a dark, damp and cool day. I had my share of leech bites but today I managed to brush off a couple. Even the rest of the guys managed to evade them. Chew had his trusty Dettol spray ever-ready to repel them.

However, the screamer of the day didn’t come from the guys…

As I said, leeches will latch on to any host, male or female. They don’t care what gender you are as long as they get blood. They are Annelids and are known as hermaphrodites (bisexual) – so they can mate with any other leech to produce tons of eggs.

Oops! Got carried away there - back to the story.

Finally, after getting rid of the leeches – we headed back to Air Itam and adjourned for some good ol’ Mee Goreng and Mee Rebus with Char Koay Teow on the side.

Thankfully there was not to be a trilogy of screams. She even sent me a text message to confirm that! Otherwise, it would’ve been one to be told for the next generation of riders!

Until the next ride…

PS: Later, I found out I had stomach flu but the screaming took all the pain away until the next day. That’s how good the screaming story was!

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