Quandrangle

Rain water is hammering on my window, bouncing off the surface and splashing on my face. I stand up and walk towards the window. However, instead of closing the roller blind, I stare at the quadrangle. Water is gushing down the slope, washing away the top soil on the slope. Taking advantage of the leeway given by grasses and flowers, the rushing water creates an ad hoc stream on the ground.

I am captivated by the scene which helps me relive the exciting adventure with NUS Rovers Club in a mountainous jungle in Kota Tinggi, Malaysia.

It was Rovers Adventure Club Committee Selection Trip. We reached the foot of the mountain at about 10 o'clock in the morning. The last time I came here was when I just graduated from primary school but I was still shocked by the way human activity changed the landscape. Instead of pristine primary forest which used to hug the mountain tightly, we saw hundred acres of oil palm plantation which make the mountain looks so lonely. Instead of sound of laughter from families coming for picnic, we heard cacophony of dogs barking at the trespassers.

The mountain is definitely angry at the suffering that Man inflict. And it certainly made no attempt to hide its anger. The moment we set foot in the jungle on the mountain, the rain water began to fall, lubricating the rocks along the trail. However, perhaps due to our adventurous nature, none of us was deterred -- we moved on.

Yet, the mountain again showed no sympathy towards our determination. After about 20 minutes, rain water started to flow everywhere down the slope, loosening the soil we gripped on. The river water also forced the base from some of our shoes apart, leaving them no grip on the ground. We all know that every step we took necessitated extra attention. It might even be a gamble on our lives. The mountain is infamous for taking no prisoner. Not long ago, it just claimed the life of a student from a junior college in Singapore. We must be careful to avoid making any tragic mistake.

We crawled along the trail unrelentingly for two hours. The terrain disallowed us to rest. Furthermore, the low-lying areas where we planned to rest were flooded with rising water. As a result, some of us started to lose attention and accident happened.

[to be continued]