In late November, I made a weekend trip to the Cameron Highlands. It is
about a 3-hour drive from Kuala Lumpur, the first 2 hours or so getting out
of KL and on the good toll road north (toll to Tapah about A$8 each way),
then another hour or so on a very winding, busy road to the Highlands.
Because it was Malaysian school holidays, I had booked into the Lakeside
Hotel, an expensive place, but the only one whose name I knew other than Ye
Olde Smokehouse which was twice as expensive. I paid about A$120 for Bed
and Breakfast and about $A40 for the evening meal. It is not the best
location for birdwatching, being close to Ringlet whereas the "good" places
are near Brinchang and Tanah Rata. Although everything is close in
distance, the roads are mere collections of hairpin bends and full of
traffic. It is for example, about 50 minutes' drive from the Lakeside
Hotel to Gunung Brinchang, about 20 km.
Bransbury (A Birdwatcher's Guide to Malaysia) suggests that Gunung (Mount)
Brinchang is a must and I spent 3 hours here on the Saturday and 5.5 hours
on the Sunday. It was good, but like the rest of Malaysia, very hard
work. I managed to see the "almost a certainty" Golden-throated Barbet but
only on the second day. Other interesting species on the mountain were
Rufous-winged Fulvetta, Large Niltava, Silver-eared Mesia and
Chestnut-tailed Minla. I also saw lots of Constantly-moving Dark-shadow
Babblers.
One can drive right to the top of Gunung Brinchang but the road near the
top is effectively the only place to watch from. If you park at the open
area about 1.5 km from the end of the road, you can walk along the almost
level road to the end - even on Sunday there was not too much passing
traffic . There is also a very rough and muddy track which leads from the
open area into the jungle, but I gave up after a short way.
The directions in Bransbury to Gunung Brinchang were not of much use to me
and I spent about an hour looking for the turnoff from the main road. You
should continue on the road through Brinchang town for about 4.0 km past
the end of the town. There is a hard-to-see sign on the right amongst road
stalls saying "Gunung Brinchang" to the left.
I also had 2 or 3 hours in the afternoon at Robinson and Parit Falls where
I was happy to see that the Slaty-backed Forktail is present still at least
at the former. This is in spite of both falls being, from the smell, the
primary sewage treatment facility in the Highlands. There was a male
Red-headed Trogon on the walk to Parit Falls. The marked walking tracks
are in very poor condition in Cameron Highlands, in spite of the huge, ugly
condominiums and hotels going up in all directions. There are scars
amongst the forest which according to the KL newspapers are mostly illegal
clearing. The only planning controls in Malaysia seem to be determined
behind the closed doors of the ruling political parties.
Regards,
Gil Langfield
Melbourne, Australia
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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