Rafflesia and Raja brooke at the Ulu Geroh National Park

A Day after our wonderful Caving at Gua Tempurung , we headed towards
Ulu Geroh Forest Reserve which is located approximately 11 KM from Gopeng MCA. The 11 Km is a slow drive through very narrow and bumpy road. When on forest road, beware of traffic coming from opposite direction as you don’t want a collision.



Caught em' mating ---male on top??

 If planning on going, do contact Ngah at this number 017-5691227 to check first if there’re any Rafflesias in bloom. We called ahead and Ngah said there was only one, and it was “cacat” (retarded) with only 3 petals. We’ve seen lovely Rafflesias twice in bloom at the Gunung Gading National Park  before, but decided just to go ahead here to view a different species of the Rafflesia.

the beginning of the trail, just an easy walk through a muddy path

don't be fooled by its beauty, it's a LEECH!

The Trek to find the Rafflesia can take any duration between half hour to 2 hours, mostly through hilly paths, depending on where the Rafflesia is. Ours was just a short trek, but through VERY muddy paths with VERY HUGE  and HUNGRY leeches which will trek your feet down!

I had several huge ones on my pants, but thankfully none had the privilege of sucking my blood! haha :).  Some say applying Tobacco on your shoes and shocks will prevent leeches from crawling up. Let me tell you, it certainly DIDN’T work with the hungry leeches here. Our brave children went ahead and none got bitten. Just be watchful and keep walking.







 We found the Rafflesia after half hour of continuous uphill climb, and true it was cacat! Problem here is many tourists go through these tracks, and also local people go in and out several times a day to harvest durians. Our guide told us, when some people carelessly step on Rafflesia buds, the flower that blooms is then abnormal.



A bud, will probably bloom in less than a month from now

the 'cacat' Rafflesia. Probably deformed coz someone stepped on it while it was a bud. (so said our guide.)

So it's important to teach our children to trek carefully and not destroy the buds, which can be found on host vines.

After the slippery climb, we headed to find the Raja Brooke, and saw some Stick Insects on the way. Now this, was an AWESOME sight!

very huge stick insect!

A Close up of the Stick Insect



Raja Brooke Butterflies. According to the guide, they love the warm water here



closer look





 

  

The guide caught one for us. Some of us held it, but very gently so as not to harm it, and only for a while before we let it go. the children were all excited over this.



Close up of it's head

Finally, if you're at Ulu Geroh, do head to Gua Tempurung for some caving adventure!

Do visit this post Gunung Gading Rafflesia too.
@martha, 2011