Friday, March 14, 2008

1st Tahan Expedition,part 14....the 3 wise men of Padang

This 4 decade old colour photo showed the 3 of us, from L to R, Balbir Singh, Dick Yip[ me] and Twang Peck Ee looking like 3 wise men in the remote Padang plateau. Behind us, in the background, is the Tahan ridge. We were looking at the beautiful setting sun far to the horizon in the west. This picture was taken on the 4th Day of actual climb...April 18th 1969. We had made remarkable progress since we started off from Kuala Tahan Hqrs....as trailblazers. It was a tremendous blessing that we managed to arrive at this Padang plateau, set up camp, recover from our most exhausting efforts, and be able to sit down in relative peace and tranquility to enjoy the sheer, raw beauty and splendour of nature in the mountains.
More importantly, having arrived at this place Padang, in good time and with all our equipment in order and with no serious injuries or illness to worry about, we were supremely confident that our ultimate objective....conquest of Tahan peak, will be accomplished the next morning.
We had time on our hand to enjoy and study the landscape of the Padang campsite that evening.

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