Rich&Will's Exp Travel

Sprain Hill – Penang, William

As I took my first strides into the undergrowth, it felt as if nature itself dived into me; the overwhelming sensation of the warmth and ambience of the thick, wild tropical jungle flew past me; our plan for this hiking trip was fairly simple: We first would first travel through a steep incline, then we would enjoy the forest in a rather flat path, and then finally we would reward ourselves with a bathe in the cold refreshing waterfall nearing our hike’s destination. 

We started our ascension from the hillside; it was rather steep from the start. This area of the jungle was densely covered with tropical trees; the trees were not to imposing, the branches of the trees look as if they were trying greet you with a friendly gesture; their swirling large roots cut through the edges of the steps in the ground, forming reinforced steps, making walking up more interesting and relaxing. While walking uphill, my stride morphed into a run, birds flew past me, the flaps of their wings were like an audience cheering on my grand sprint; doging tree branches piercing through the air; jumping over the tree roots, which at first seemed helpful for my footsteps, now seemed as if the mischievous trees were trying to trip me over. 

After burning all the energy that was left in me, I had completed the first part of the adventure. After waiting for my (slow) Dad and friends, we exchanged a few words before setting off again. I sprinted in front of the group so that I was not distracted by my Dad’s interesting conversation; I could finally enjoy the jungle to its fullest; I could hear the birds chirp with all their heart; this filled me with optimism and peace. A morning breeze swept through the jungle making the undergrowth and leaves dance with the rhythm of the wind. The brimming evergreen trees all seemed just in the right place, not too aggressive to other trees but also not too far away to be anti-social. After focusing on the leaves for a while, I glanced back onto the scenery of the jungle to relax my eyes, the jungle looked as if a drunken teenager had just taken up painting and splotched blue, green, white and yellow all over the canvas; the blue sky, green undergrowth and leaves, white swirling clouds and the yellow sun and the glinting of the leaves. 

After about an hour of walking through the jungle, the birds seemed to be in distress, flying in every single direction possible; then my eyes jumped towards an eagle gracefully gliding through the sky; the glint of its golden beak was a sign for all birds that danger was nearby – it looked around in the blue sky for some prey. The eagle’s piercing talons poked out of its hands. His feathers were as dark as the night, all perfectly geometrically arranged, not any of them made a slightest of sounds, the eagle was silent, piercing and in complete peace with itself. The black beady eyes glared down at the surrounding environment. As I was gazing back at this powerful being it glanced back at me in an expectant way.

After a long while of walking I could hear the slight sound of a crashing waterfall which diverted into many swift silent rivers. The river cut through the forest to form a picturesque scene for the eye to behold – the way the river cut through the rock over the centuries made this area more than holy. The aroma of the vegetation mixing with the water gave the air a cool, fresh and humid feel; each breath felt more precious than the other. We walked over an old stone bridge built for Victorian water transportation, and looked into the dense trees and into the valley of the waterfall. The vegetation seemed to be reaching for the refreshing stream, trying to join the bath party with all the other trees. After a while of chatting and resting, we started to climb down to the waterfall. Climbing down vertical rocks was not an easy task; each person was faced with the danger of falling and tumbling down to the bottom; we took turns to scramble down the almost vertical rocks; while waiting for my turn, my worst nightmare had come to haunt me, because I was just wearing a t-shirt and shorts I got horded with swarms of mosquitoes, due to my special blood type and because it just turned into the wet season, nobody else but me got bitten by these irritating creatures. When it was finally my turn to climb down, I rushed down with all my heart’s intent to reach the ice-cold waterfall to soothe my bites; I was very familiar with climbing down these rocks, I did it swiftly and elegantly and I reached the grand imposing waterfall. Looking past the streams and rocks was the towering waterfall; the composition of the waterfalls were very special: they first starts as a fast-flowing river which turns into a waterfall, then it slows down again and turns into a dislocated pool, after filling to the brim with water, it overflows and hugs the rocks and falls into an even bigger pool, which then in turn (once again) after many turns and twists through rocks into the final giant waterfall. We decided to relax in the bigger pool looking up to the first waterfall; climbing down the rocks into the second waterfall was far too dangerous and hazardous.

As I took my shoes off and dipped my feet into the fast flowing stream, a splitting cold, painful but relieving sensation burst through my body; I immediately plunged into the water being temporarily relieved by the itching and burning mosquito bites. When my head entered the water it was as if I had entered a completely different world. The sound of the water flowing was ever so calming but multi-layered, putting your mind into an inferior position being a terrestrial human. My dad decided to sit right under the waterfall being completely battered by the force of the falling water; Cleo, the dog that we have brought to give us company, wildly ran around splashing water as she jumped from rock to rock with ease. My brother decided to relax on a rock overseeing the fast flowing stream. The sensation of lying down on a stream while looking at the forest canopy was the most relaxing feeling of my life. The sound of water and the magical chirping of birds enforced my feeling of my spatial cognitive ability and the powerful force of nature.

What seemed like eternal peace suddenly came to an abrupt end. Clouds were gathering above us as the sound of thunder taunted us. After scrambling up from my lucid experience, while putting my shoes on and packed my bag, the sensation of the burning mosquito bites flew straight back into me. I begged my dad to let me run back to the bottom as fast as possible to escape the horrid cycle of being bitten and suffering in turn, he agreed to my impulse and I set off once away; climbing out of the valley and over the ictorian bridge: I was once back on the flat part of our journey. I jumped over fallen trees and roots, dodging branches and swinging around sharp turns, the feeling of freedom and happiness was overwhelming and again I returned to my state of eternal peace and divine comfort. When I almost reached the first part of the journey (the steep bit), my phone started to ring, I stopped and realised just how tired I was, I picked up my phone and answered it: “Hey Will could you come back” said my father’s voice, “Cleo is really uneasy about your quick disappearance”, I agreed on coming back and felt no harsh feelings towards this request, I ran all the way back to where my father and friends were. Cleo the dog leapt onto me, we both felt happiness rush through us. I was quite relieved from my mosquito bites after having that burst of pure speed and energy. My dad, brother, friend, dog and I all walked at a relaxed pace and fell into silence; we all felt the spirit of the jungle flow from branch to branch, leaf to leaf. After a while of walking we started to talk again, I was quite absorbed into the conversation until suddenly, while walking, I tripped over a tree root and sprained my ankle really badly, the weight of my body landed on my ankle; I thought to myself why had I sprained my ankle not while running but walking! I was rather annoyed by this event but I just notified my dad about the situation and continued walking with a limp. “Remind me to buy ice from the hawker store to put it on your injury” my dad hushed in a quick, quiet but concerned way. Just as things were starting to get bad… it started to rain! The forest danced in a ritual-like way to the sounds of the howling wind and the storming rain, all of us started to pick up a faster pace; the rain was so dense and fast that it was hard to see Cleo in front of us. 

After a while of fast-paced walking, we reached the final decline part of our journey, at that point although my ankle started to hurt really badly, we were almost done with our adventure, although Richard and Cleo stormed down the hill, my father decided to accompany me (or maybe he was just very slow). After about ten minutes of painfully slow decline we finally reached civilisation once again. We walked across the road and into the pleasant hawker centre, as people greeted us and let us sit on chairs around a table, my dad ordered some food for dinner. After a great meal and repeatedly putting ice on and off my injury we returned home and had a great night’s sleep.