The Best Time to Plant a Tree II - The surveying

Ini pohon durian? Are they mine?

It has been quite a while since I last updated the blog.

Of course the excuses are numerous. Busy could be one. Mental block is another. Lazy. Loss of interest. Did I mention lazy? Oh I did, but let's have another laziness as the excuse. I think it is three times lazy to be honest.

You can name anything, they are all applicable.

It has also been awhile since I first bought a piece of land in Ulu Langat. At least two year, to be precise. Since then I have done nothing. If I had planted some cempedak or rambutan trees, they would be bearing some fruits for me by now.

But I did nothing; and obviously, I got nothing in return.

Just lost opportunities. Time flies away, and it is gone for sure.

But lament I will not. I knew about the African proverb very well from nearly a decade ago. "The best to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The next best time is today."

The last entry I wrote about this proverb, it is more as a metaphor. But this time, it is literal.

The view of the durian trees from the valley. 

Just for the record, it is a small piece of land. Nothing of significant, but more than enough for a family of four. Tanah sekangkang kera. As far as I am concerned too, there is nothing of value there. It is more a jungle out there; hilly enough for us enjoy some view and the fresh air, but flat enough to let this unfit forty something to enjoy the little terrain without breaking his back and twisting his muscles.

Reasonably dense I would say. I am a couple
of feets away from Arif and yet I can't be seen here.

So yesterday we went trekking to the site. The objective is to identify trees that will have to go and those that will be retained for one reason or another. The bulldozer will be coming in soon to clear the site and (re)planting will have to start very soon.

Just like in Ali Baba dan 40 Penyamum, we bought red and gold spray paint to identify trees that will be retained. You know the X symbol that the Penyamuns used to identify their victim's home is used in our endevour this time around.

Silap-silap memang boleh tergolek. Been there before! The slope is
reasonably steep. A good one for planting D24 or Musang King durians!

But we managed to identify only three trees; once we started scaling down the steep slope, and upon hearing to sound of water stream, we lost focus and started imagining ourselves enjoying the cool stream.

Kali or mata air. Too small to be called a river.

I would say the water is pure mineral water and the stream passes our land.

We stayed put for about 15 mins, clearing the shrubs so that the stream can be seen clearly. The previous owner had taken bottles of water from this stream whenever he at site. I am yet to do that, of course, as this was only the second time I had been here, but hopefully I would do that more often once site clearing has been done.

Beautiful small stream; full of rocks and soft sands. I wish it is a bit bigger,
but hey, this is mine. A small pondok somewhere and I would be able
to enjoy this weekly. The question is how long this stream can last
in view of the development taking place in Langat.

Another view of the stream, downstream I guess. This is no longer part of my land.

This part is very sandy. The question is how long will it last.
As long as there is no development upstream, may be I will enjoy this,
but once owners upstream start demarcating their lands for house
development, then we are doomed.

We had two choices. We could climb back and follow the same path to return to civilization. Or we could follow the stream and hope for the best that it would take us to a kampung or main road.

We decided on the second option.

Fortunately the two pianists are ever willing to accompany their dad
in surveying the land. I guess this is not their normal chore and hence
it is nice distraction for them.

Until we reached this part, we thought we had made the wrong decision. There is no way through vertically. We had to walk close to horizontally. Well, not quite, but all three of us were on our knees.

Arif on bended knees. I think I have pulled a muscle or two in
this position while trying to pass through.

It was a long walk in the stream, close to 45 mins, at times lamenting on our decision that we've made. By this time, we were tired, but we weren't dehydrated as there was plenty of water!

Obviously we found our way back to the car. And I guess that was no incident worthing writing.

Heck, it is not even interesting.

Love this, but I am not sure of the species. Anyone can identify them for me?

But we love the floral and fauna in the jungle of ours. Well for now let's just enjoy the floral. We didn't get to me the small four legged animals, which we had met a couple of years ago, and obviously our hearts skipped many beats that day.

And the floral was just beautiful. I am sure if we were to explore a bit more, we would find more exotic plants in there.

The question is whether I have the stamina to do this on a weekly basis.