The weather was fantastic, it drizzled for a while at around 9am but mostly bright and sunny until noon.

The Selangor river at Kuala Kubu Baru is about 1 and a half hour drive away from KL City. It offers the best and ideal place for commercial White Water Rafting. With distance of 7 km, the river boasts a rapid of Grade 1 to Grade 5. The water level however is very dependent on the weather  and controlled by a near by dam.

The first RV point was the Rawang RnR. We had our breakfast here before heading out to the Kuala Kubu post office, the second RV point where we met with our operator (Khersonese) and other participants.

The town is rather peaceful and quite but hosts a great collection of pre-war shophouses commonly seen in Ipoh’s old town. Walking along the streets of these what could probably be almost century-old buildings was like being transported back in time. The town really retains it’s “old world” charms.

From here we headed out to the assembly area or drop zone, the starting point of the “river cruise”. The drivers were hen lead by the operator to their temporary headquarters at the National Service Training Centre.

The facility is huge and with pretty decent amenities. They're not like hotels but good and cozy enough.This time around we didn’t have to go to the “open shower” to clean ourselves. At least we had a little bit of privacy and a piece of mind while taking the shower. You didn’t have to worry if you dropped your soap bar on the floor.... hahaha...

After we'd secured our vehicles and took our “heavy bio-break”, we were transported back to the drop zone. The journey was fun, a bit bouncy but fun. 

Shortly after we arrived, the operator gave us the safety briefing. Bai, our river guide was as his usual self, delivered the tutorial in a funny but insightful way. As this was my 2nd time, I kind of expected the jokes. I guess “recycling” has no boundaries. But there was this lady besides me who couldn’t stop laughing and giggling during the briefing. And she laugh all the way through out the cruise.

We were then separated into groups consisting of 4-5 people per boat/raft. Once the groups were sorted out we headed to the river bank and boarded our designated rafts. Each raft will be accompanied by two very experienced guides/operators.

Even though the water level was not as high as before but the rapids would still make a grown man scream “Hussin” all the way down stream. The serene, lush green trees and the crystal clear water flowing through the river was absolutely fabulous.

From time to time we’ll pass through several spots that were so serene and tranquil. I could still smell the fresh air, the sound of calm and graceful water flowing around our boats, coupled with absolutely gorgeous scenery.

We waded through the river for about 4 hours, passing through few challenging rapids. Since the water level wasn’t the high, the were few instances the rafts had to be pulled and pushed back to the water when they were stuck.

We then took a 30 minutes break after the the famous “chicken drop” rapid by harbouring near a beautiful waterfall. Lesson learned here, do not underestimate the amount of work needed while doing a commercial white water rafting. Sure there were two experienced guides on the raft who did most of the work but each and every one of the raft’s crew played important part to ensure the raft didn’t flip. While you still need to paddle, the over-left, over-right, front and back formations were damn tiring after a while.

After the break, we continued the cruise down stream to the finish line somewhere near the headquarters. The current was a bit relaxed here up until the last “you gotta to flip” rapid where the operator will in a “mysterious way” tried not to flip the raft but most of the time, they flipped. Our raft flipped and we were thrown out to the water. It was amazing. The adrenalin rush, the view of being thrown out of the boat was the pinnacle of fun of the entire cruise.

I knew this would happened so I purposely wore a goggle instead of my Rudy Project’s eyepiece. Things on you or on the raft that were not tied and strapped would be floating down stream and swim with fish at the bottom of the river . Last year I almost lost my Rudy Project but this time I had a close call with my Lumix FT-2. Even though it was strapped and secured, the lanyard I used to hook the camera snapped when we were thrown overboard. I was lucky to have placed the camera inside my life jacket.

All of us reached the finish line safely, wet, tired and satisfied. After half a day on the water, the next thing came into our mind was... the lunch. I gotta hand it to the operator, the lunch was fabulous. Even though there was no “ayam masak ros” , but the “lauk”, “ulam” and “sambal belacan” were awesome.

I had a great day and enjoyed myself. It was a bit tiring but an amazing adventure.  I woke up on Sunday morning still feeling exhausted. 

Below are some of the over 200 pictures taken during the day. The HD videos will be uploaded in phases due the size.

Abayo....

Video 1:
White Water Rafting @ Kuala Kubu Bharu 01 from Faizol.Hardi on Vimeo.

Video 2:

White Water Rafting @ KKB from Faizol.Hardi on Vimeo.

Video 3:

White Water Rafting @ Kuala Kubu Bharu 2 from Faizol.Hardi on Vimeo.

Extra pics from other cameras:
This pics were taken at on of the thrilling rapids, the "Chicken Drop"



Images from my Lumix: