The Berembun Waterfalls

This remote and unknown mountain is home to one of the sources for the Pahang River, starting off as the tributary river, Sungai Pertang.

Similarly, the name, Kampong Klau is relatively unknown. Most residents of the hinterland have heard of the place called "Klau", it is a renounced Felda palm oil land scheme near Raub.

The heavy rainfall in this lush forested area gives birth to two average size rivers from the upper reaches of this steep mountain.

This poster in Klau tells of 3 main waterfalls dropping off rocky edges, dropping almost 180 meters in a 150metres distance. The existence of the series of cascades is still a well known but the way in is not clear by virtue of its remoteness.

An enterprising hardware dealer has capitalized on the beauty of the waterfalls and its poor accessibly to erect this signboard. He provides transport to and fro the waterfalls vicinity, then holiday makers hike the rest of the way. His services ? -if there is a viable crowd or for a minimum charge

In Chinese, the place is named "Silver Leaf Mountain" while in English he has called it "Bukit Berembun". Most map list the peak as Gunong Benum, 2107 meters high.

The trip to the waterfalls is 13 kilometers journey, the first 5 kilometers is easily covered, using the tarred road and laterite tracks serving the rubber plantations.

For the remaining part of the journey, hikers depend on what is left of an abandoned logging track. As this area records very heavy annual rainfall, the hill slopes and tracks are eroded, most of the time to varying degree.

The "tour operator" contributes to maintain the track so that he can continue his deployment of two units of 4X4 vehicles to shuttle groups of up to 30 picnickers.

Very often vehicle get stranded in deep mud, the deployment of a pair of vehicles is a contingency to handle such set backs

Our group made this impromptu visit and with inadequate passengers to fill 2 vehicles load, the operators could not accommodate our request. We had no choice but to leave our cars after the "passable" stretches, and then the rest of the journey, we walked in. Only 8 kilometers.

That decision turned out well, we enjoyed the privilege of wadding through ankle deep mud and gliding up slippery slopes. At last, the wadding, walking and hiking was all over.

The scenery here is superb, the mountain river- beautiful and the air- absolutely fresh.

We reached the end of the torturous but navigable track -marked by this bridge made up of logs.

Next, the way in makes a left turn to move up an equally broad track but badly eroded. Some adventurous 4X4's had tried their skills here. This track stays close to the riverbank to move upstream.

This stretch is about 2.5 kilometers and takes close to an hour of trekking. At last the track ends in an open area. Behind the jungle 20 meters away is the river bank and a river confluence.

Cross the river at a suitable point after this confluence. The river is easily 20 meters wide with depth of one meter. Some caution needed on this swift flowing river. On the opposite bank, trek through the jungle for 400 meters to the campsite.

The terrain here is superb, the river flows through a shallow gorge, leaving the campsite reasonably high. This is an important safety point, promoting confidence for campers that they are safe from flash floods in the night. A gradual uphill slope for those who need extra assurance enhances the location as a good camping area.

This is the "largest" waterfall, at 100 meters tall and 15 meters wide, the view is superb! At the base of the major fall is a majestically large pool. For us, the water was too cold for prolong immersion in the water.

On the right bank, a well-trodden but precarious trail will take hikers up to the 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th fall within the 150 meters distance.

Here, Khoo was seated beside the 3^rd fall [45 meters tall] which empties into a basin of calm water, the pool is about 20 meters in diameter. The outlet is followed by a tempting slide down a 15 meters high 2nd fall into the lower pool. It is intimidating, as the water from the outlet of this pool gushes out as the head of the gigantic fall.

The 4^th fall is a tall drop of over 20 meters but hidden in a ravine. It can only be viewed through the foliages.

Before this 4th fall, the river passes through some cascades after over spilling from the retention ponds above.

On top of all this falls is a series of stagnant ponds squares in appearance but the depth of the water render the surface blackish.

Cheng, on a separate trip encountered this rarely seen wild orchid [Bulbophylum lepidum] on top of the falls.