4 Wheel Drive Off Road Adventure

The best thing about working in the tourism field is that you got to try out many adventures in the quest to find out tourism products in many parts of Sabah. The 4 Wheel Drive Off Road Experience is one example.

I have seen it on TV before - the Dakar Rally, Borneo Safari, other jungle/river 4WD Off Road competition and what not but having the thought of experiencing it myself - I mean on it in that 4WD car itself is far from my imgination. The steep slopes and terrain, muddy logging tracks, small streams and pools, narrow pathways and the fast pace adrenalin pumping into your body to stay in one piece inside this highly modified machine is something that I never tested myself off.

As part of the tasks to identify the routes of both marginal and hardcore roads (terms to differentiate graded road and rough/super gravel roads) that suit the tracks for 4WD drives in the interior, I was given the opportunity to be a part of it. Mr. Baxter the protem President of the Keningau 4WD Association provides us a hospitable preparation to bring us around for an afternoon experience to be in a 4WD on a hardcore roads.

We started from the small town of Tenom for a 7 km tarmac road towards Golden Hope Plantations at Chinta Mata. Here the thrill starts by passing oil palm's road heading into pristine unmaintained secondary forests. We passed a few small streams, absolutely unpassable narrow roads with uncountable number of uneven potholes, steep slopes of at least 30 degree angles, passable mud pools with the help of four wheel gears, fully covered bushes on the roads with the help of a 'parang' to clear the pathway, and of course me jumping on my seat every 3 second of a minute.

Heading home, the driver who is member of the 4WD Association asked me if this was my first time. He further asked me how do I feel about the drive. Vividly I replied that it was my first and preferred if the road would be more challenging.