That day, the agenda would be day walk. So we climb the highest hill up to helipad with our flag.
Up there, u can see the Penang bridge on a clear day. Anyway, we would walk in our company, boys and girls apart. This time, no trainer would escort us and they would only stand at some places.
The instruction is to walk in line, all the time minding who's in front and who's at the back so that nobody would go missing, beacuse our day walk is not a walk by the lake, instead it's a walk in the jungle and like I said, tropical jungle is very different from European's woods. And we are supposed to plan the journey according to what we were taught in coordination class. So, we set off with a compass and a given bearing. The main instruction is very clear ~ follow the bearing.
The rough sketch of our day walk. There was an exquisite scene of autumn like colours on the hill next to helipad hill.
And down we went from the helipad, helping each other at some tough spots and admiring the plants along the way.
The walk was a scenic one since the trees were the shades of autumn and at one point we were walking under bamboo shades (not the big scary type of bamboo of course).
And then, we were crossing a small stream and facing this slippery slope. And according to the bearing, we have to get through the slope. Thing is, it's not a really that big of a deal to take over that slippery slope if only one or two people is/are going to go through. But after 7 people or so, it would be dangerous for the next person to climb up that slope and how many girls do we have in our company? Well, if I'm not mistaken, there were about 40 of us.
And then, the trainer came to the rescue.
"U were not supposed to cross any stream or climb any contour"
U must have lost your way.
And say what? We didn't lost our way. In fact, the girls at the front were doing a perfect job, only that the trainer that let us off from helipad mixed up our bearing with other group's bearing.
Luckily we are trained with physical activity for quite some time alredy and finishing the walk in a longer distance than planned didn't cost us that much. We reached some settlement and settled for warm tea and bread. I don't know about the other, but after living on top of a hill with 500 people for quite some time, sitting on a coconut trunk or on the edge of a drain in the middle of a kampung setting was really appreciable. And those people, both fellow trainees and trainers were so sporting that I enjoy it even more.
We got into lines again, counted our number and set off for camp, this time passing the path that we travelled on our maiden journey to camp. There was a temple that grows dragonfruit and we passed a house with a roasted pig laying on the table outside, maybe was used for some some of ceremony or celebration. We took our shower, gather our laundry for pick up and darted down again to dining hall for dinner. And as we were having our hearty dinner, we heard that Delta girls also lost their way and they are not back yet. They walked all the way to Kulim town. You should make a phew sound at this point.
A town may sound nice judging to the fact that you could sneaked into the shop to buy some refreshments and whatsnot. But let me tell you, to get there from helipad is quite a feat. Town is very far from camp and even with those training we already had, they are not sufficient for such a long journey.
Anyway, not long after, we had night walk. And the scene before the walk was very funny.
Our starting point is the surau. And as always, Alpha is the first to go. Hand firmly clasping the amulet, prayers heard here and there, another hand clasping friend's ~ sufficient to say, if any spirit would appear that evening, we would all be in mental facilities before we graduated from camp.
And ahoy, off we go, this time with a trainer. I don't really remember if we each have our torchlight with us. Walking in the dark, it's a very stimulating thing to do. Walking in a big group of scared girls like us, the bonding vibrate more than ever. If in a day walk you can see the beauty along the journey, night walk brings you to feel your journey since all you see is darkness. You learn to appreciate with your hearing and sixth sense.
First leg, we walk in a jungle, trodding on the leaves in the midst of noisy crickets' sound.
Then we walked out into an open space, the stars above us. I didn't have the time to divulge in what's above me since there's sound of running footsteps and then, a sound of someone legs gave off. Rufa ran to catch up (or was it beacuse of another reason) and fall on the ground with a screeching sound
Anyway, it seems that the place is a meet up place since the other girls and boys were there too.
We were instructed to sit down and cover our eyes. We shushed around, asking who's that, who's this to find out which company is there too. You know what? It has been almost 5 years and I really don't remember much about this part. But we then set off again, now across a small river.
Yes, u heard me right. We crossed a small river in the dark. In fact it's the kind of river with big bamboos growing on both its banks and the river itself, albeit just shin deep, was loaded with trash. And the smell, enough to make you temporarily forget about your fear of gory beings. And even the combat boots didn't protect your feet. Yuckish!
Well, I'd rather do this than sitting in the hall and watching the ever so boring character building video that we were made to watch most evenings. I haven't done anything more boring than that believe me. And everybody arrived at the foot of our accommodation hill, sweaty and tired and yearning for bed uphill. Sitting on the tar, sweating in your stained combat suit among other friends under the starry nightsky singing songs, it was such a pleasure and I'm glad I had the chance to do another night walk when in peparation programme.
PLKN is nothing like school and it has everything that I enjoy doing, all at the right intensity, and plethora of friends. The only regrettable thing is that it's just a 3 months long program. Thank you Allah, for choosing me to be elected.
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