Some time back, Cheng had sent a mail with photographs of the Perdak falls to Khong and that was the first time we confirmed its existence. Khong had surveyed the place once but did find any fall. That morning, we set out early to give ourselves the whole day to accomplish the task.

We were happy with the blue sky and strong winds on the west of Genting Pass. Passing the tunnel, the weather was reversed to that of gray skies hiding the sun. We kept our spirit high and continued east bound from Karak. Before the Highway crosses the Telemong River, we turned right into the Durian district. The largest village along this route is Telemong, which the river is named after. Just before reaching that town, we passed a fair size river, Perdak. There on our right, we saw a clean track and thick overhead electric cables running along side. It was no big deal, just follow the cables. The track continued to be good except for a couple of crossings where half the road had collapsed. The track was narrow at one point we made a passing with a truck with some difficulty.

After 5 kilometers of driving, the terrain changes from Durian plantation to that of rubber trees interspersed with durian. Further on all cultivation stops and the track began passing through forested area. A pleasant surprise, we passed an Orang Asli settlement followed by an abandoned timber yard. It was somewhere around here that Khong remembered making an uphill climb and also where he stopped on his last visit.

In the second timber storage yard, there was this huge clearing, he took the car to ascend the first track we saw. Surprisingly, the car made it. In no time we were on the first ridge and we pressed on encouraged by the navigable tracks.

As we peeped into the fringe of the estate, we made our most important discovery! There were Staghorn ferns growing everywhere!

This was a shocking find as this species is a solitary dweller and its spores propagate on hosts far and apart. We counted 7 plants within a 3 meters radius with one of them just above my head.

This was a shocking find as this species is a solitary dweller and its spores propagate on hosts far and apart. We counted 7 plants within a 3 meters radius with one of them just above my head.

The surrounding slipped into greater wilderness. We move deeper and deeper until we realized that the thundering roar of the river was subdued. It must be the wrong track.

We backtracked and true enough; we had gone into the wrong valley separated by a very narrow hill.

This time we chose the track led by the cables. Another 100 meters, the track was too broken for the car to ascend. We parked it by the roadside and continued on foot. A steep climb followed by the next and then a level path. Within a kilometer, we had reached the Mini Hydro-Electric power generating station.

From there the track led on another steep climb. Up we went and at the top, we saw a deep gorge and a beautiful mountain river rushing through the boulders. Further up we saw the open sky between 2 hills. The pass could not be another kms away.

A check with the map shows that the peak on the left is Gunong Hantu Besar while the lower hill on the right is Bukit Kubang Ampung. We were just on the eastern side of the same Mountain Range that generates Kijang Jatuh, the tallest vertical fall!

We saw the rapids and the cascades at the intake point. The view from the riverbed and on top of the gorge was beautiful.

From the high point we could now see the area for the water collection intake to feed the Power Station but before that, there was also a turning to the right to reach the bottom of the gorge. Cheng hinted that we should follow a track that passes before the power station. Cross over the river at that point. The presence of the track confirms his directions.

Down we went, the water was too swift to make a crossing and the rain had started early that day before noon. We failed again.