One for Mistwalker

[BOD]

I remember promising Brian a post on a rainforest river some time ago so here it is.

The Selai river runs through several hundred square miles of high hills here in peninsula Malaya in the Endau Rompin N.P. There are thousand of boars and deer, about five hundred elephants and around 50 tigers. Told to me by a native who spent a year living in the forest on a census for the WCS.

I’ll try not say much and let the river speak for itself

The cultivated land ends
.

The track to the start of the trails.

a tributary stream

A hut being built

Start of the walk. My friends went up into the hills to some waterfalls. I was nursing an injured leg and opted trip in favour of a solo river walk.

Walking by the river

Birds nest on the ground

The side I picked was harder on the leg so I crossed over

View from the trail

The river often formed small islands

.

 

[LazySod]

Wow !!!!!!

 

[Bravo4]

Thanks BOD, looks really great Got me looking at Endau Rompin N.P. websites, rhinos too? BIG WOW!!! where's my packraft...

 

[Mistwalker]

WOW! Beautiful territory, I could mentally walk around in these pictures for a long time. Thank you very much! I'll be studying the little building a bit as well. Is the birds nest from a ground nesting burd or a nest that got knocked down? What kind of fish is in that river?

 

[Mistwalker]

I'm still taking mental walks through these pictures! What kind of bark is it they are using for the sides of the hut? What kind of cordage are they using?

 

[stanley lake]

Hay that looks like the sunderland up the road from me

 

[Mistwalker]

Hay that looks like the sunderland up the road from me

If all that were up the road from me...I think I'd seldom come back down the road

 

[C_Claycomb]

I'm still taking mental walks through these pictures! What kind of bark is it they are using for the sides of the hut? What kind of cordage are they using?

The hut walls are faced with flattened out bamboo. The idea is to create lots of small splits in a large diameter stem so that it can be unrolled, but so that it still holds together, the interior separators at each node are then chopped off flat.

Dunno about the string though, rattan gets used for a lot, but its kind of high quality cordage, so I would imagine that it was something easier to collect and process. Lots of choices, would be interesting to know which one they picked.

The nest looks like the kind you find up a tree but this one has fallen, it doesn't look like it was finished, but that could just be the photo. Ground nesters don't use that kind of woven structure.

 

[Mistwalker]

The hut walls are faced with flattened out bamboo. The idea is to create lots of small splits in a large diameter stem so that it can be unrolled, but so that it still holds together, the interior separators at each node are then chopped off flat.

Dunno about the string though, rattan gets used for a lot, but its kind of high quality cordage, so I would imagine that it was something easier to collect and process. Lots of choices, would be interesting to know which one they picked.

The nest looks like the kind you find up a tree but this one has fallen, it doesn't look like it was finished, but that could just be the photo. Ground nesters don't use that kind of woven structure.

Thank you. I didn't think it looked like a ground nest but I am not familiar with the fauna and flora of that area.

I think I am going to build a camp in the woods behind my house with the bamboo I cut odff of my neighbors property.

 

[Hoodoo]

Great country and super shots!! Thanks for sharing!

 

[BOD]

Well done Chris,

The nest is a fallen one.

The lashings are rattan indeed but the walls are bark, probably meranti which last 20-30+ years and is the material of choice. Its hard to see form the photos so you did well.

Brian, I am having problems uploading photos. As soon as i solve this problem, i'll post pictures of the hut.

Ash

 

[Mistwalker]

Well done Chris,

The nest is a fallen one.

The lashings are rattan indeed but the walls are bark, probably meranti which last 20-30+ years and is the material of choice. Its hard to see form the photos so you did well.

Brian, I am having problems uploading photos. As soon as i solve this problem, i'll post pictures of the hut.

Ash

Thanks Ash, I really appreciate that as I love the pictures. I thought the sides of the hut looked more like a bark from some of the surrounding trees than bamboo but I have seen pics of it done both ways and couldn't really be sure about it.

Brian

 

[traderran]

Great post BOD.

 

[BOD]

Finaaly got a new modem.

the bark sheets last many years often a generation.

the thatch

lashings. Rattan split in half. Very durable. Tim Severins's bamboo raft lasted 6 months in the Western pacific with rattan lashings

walls and floors and lashing material

a completed section of roof

the inside with kitchen in background on left

 

[Mistwalker]

Wow, thanks! So the floors are made of split bamboo, that's pretty cool. What kind of tree is the bark from? The hut will have a kitchen inside it? What kind of tree is it they make the structural supports from, is it the same ones as the bark for the walls comes from? Just for perspective what are the rough dimensions of the structure? The one problem with me making a bamboo hut here is that I won't have palm leaves for the roof like I did down in Florida, though if I had then handy I could and my use the leaves of a large leaf Magnolia.