Rainforest Challenge 99

It’s D-Day!!

Some will be nervous, others sweating in their too clean cargo pants and Camel shirts. But all will be looking forward to the start of the Rainforest Challenge today (RFC) at Dataran Bandaraya, Johor Bahru.

RFC will be setting two official records and one unofficial. The Malaysia Book of Records will be there to register the largest 4x4 parade as well as the biggest international 4x4 convoy ever assembled in Malaysia – of course, they won’t all be going into the jungle. The other unofficial record? Well, it is the only international event in the country which overlap with out general elections day.

For the foreign contingent representing 23 countries from Asia Pacific, Africa, Europe and North America, this will be the jungle event of the year; on e which they have been planning and preparing for the part 11 months.

The favourites this year are the Thais, and the top two teams are Puripat/Choochart and Suthat/Pongchai.

The former was here last year and finished in the top 10 while the latter shone in the recent Perak National 4x4 Challenge held in July this year. Both teams are members of the Off Road Federation of Thailand.

The Australian team of Trent Leen/Wayne Smith will also be one of the teams to watch out for. No doubt Trent will be new here with his Nissan Patrol, nit Wayne, with the experience with his father in the previous RFC will be an advantage to this “young guns” from Down Under. Their age factor should not be underestimated in the competition. Those who do will surely pay a heavy penalty for their misjudgement.

Still from Asia Pacific region, the Japanese winners of the RFC Overseas Selections Japan organised by Off Road Express will be another one team to watch. Tomonori Tsurumi and his “winch man” Kazushi Suzuki will be driving another Nissan Patrol, painted with Simex and Off Road Express colours. The younger Tomonori is no push eover, even though they will not be driving their machine from japan. The vehicle will be supplied by Simex. Suzuki, the diminutive but tough winch expert, will surely give solid support with his experience.

The British champion of Simon Buck and Jeremy Clark and their Land Rover Defender 90 will see their reputation severely tested in a jungle event. How they do will have a great impact on the image of Land Rovers in Malaysia where the Toyota Land Cruiser has long since become the No.1 workhorse of the nation.

Next comes the Malaysian-based Danish team of Max Skjold and son, Jacob. This father/son combination in their Jeep Cherokee 4 litre has shown tremendous improvement in their skills for the past two years. They finished in the top five in the Perak national 4x4 Challenge this year. It will be interesting to watch how they will fare this time.

Closer to home, our fellow Malaysians from the Land Below the Wind, Hui Vui Leong and Chu Khen Chu in their Toyota LC FJ 43 R-KC will be showing their forte. Not known for softness, they will showing what Sabahans are made of. A team to be reckoned with..

Simex, the title sponsor, will be fielding a team of four, which will give out foreign guests and fellow Malaysian teams a real challenge that they will never forget. Wong Sing Cheong/Nelson Wong, Harry Yap/Thomas, Danny Liew/Chan King Cheong and Martin Wong/Simon Sim will make sure that the others sweat profusely on the way to the top five position.

The other Malaysian teams from Johor, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Penang will also be giving their best in this event. Among them, Tan Chin Long/Wong Van Naan, will be at their best and might even spring a surprise or two.

However, the other teams competing in this third edition of RFC should not be discounted at face value yet. In a event like this, the team that can outpace, outlast and outperform the rest without causing damage to their vehicle will surely win the day.

The other attractions that Luis Wee, RFC event director, will be showing during this event will be the five brand new Husaberg Enduro bikes and two Yamaha Grizzly 4x4 Quads all from Sweden. Among the bikers will be a lady this time, ms Erica Roth, who will be riding the Husaberg FE 400cc. This 24 year old lass has full of experience to match her style. Who says a woman’s place is in the kitchen?

For true grit and endurance, the honour must surely go to two gentlemen from Sweden, Mats Anderson and Fredick Lindstrom. Both are paralysed from the legs downwards, but that did not stop them from riding their Quads all over the world, in the snow, rocks and sand. But the jungle will be a new territory for these true blue adventurers. However, nothing will stop their pursuit of knowing new places and experiencing new adventures. They will ride their 600cc Yamaha ATV with the convoy.

The event ends at Awana Kijal on December 8 at the Awana Kijal.

Rainforest 4x4 Challenge 99

Having taken part in a variety of off-road event, from the deserts of the Middle East (Paris-Dakar) to the jungles of the Far East (Rainforest Challenge ’97 & ’98), 4x4 Enthusiasts Steve Benniman and Tom McGuigan now tackle the worthy successor to the now defunct (in 4x4 terms) Camel trophy – The International Off-Road Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia.

Known more readily as the Rainforest Challenge or RFC, this prestigious ten day competition is ‘’without doubt the toughest, most gruelling off-road event anywhere in the world.’’ Who says so? - Along with observers and participants from all over the world, Steve and Tom as it happens!

They all agree the RFC is currently the number one competition in terms of hardship, skill, endurance and adventure. Even better, it does not cost a fortune and, perhaps most important of all, unlike some elitist events in the past, is totally open to all.

Seen through the eyes of Steve, hopefully this account will transport you halfway around the world to a land of incredible beauty and warm, generous people. If it doesn’t – you have no heart!!!

Late November 1999

The ultimate adventure starts in Malaysia’s ultra-modern capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Some of the teams have been here for a few days already, others begin arriving from the 24^th. Participants now begin gathering from all over the world. Arriving courtesy of the friendly, super-efficient staff of Malaysia Airlines, some are competitors, others reporters, photographers, TV crews – and of course the Touring Adventurers.

What is a Touring Adventurer I hear you ask? Well, inclusive of 5-star hotel accommodation 3 days before and 3 days after the competition plus food from the chuck-wagon in the jungle plus RFC adventure wear uniform, for the princely sum of 800 Us Dollars (around about £550 Stirling) anyone can buy themselves a non-competitive seat on the convoy in an official’s vehicle, hence travelling with the event from start to finish. Mind you, do not for a second think this category is a cushy “free ride”, for in time everyone has to help out merely to keep the convoy moving. Whether it be winching, digging or simply pushing, “getting muddy” goes with the territory, something that just cannot be avoided. While a few people may have some jungle experience under their belt, most of the Touring Adventurers will pit themselves against the elements for the very first time. Believe me, they won’t know what has hit ‘em!

Myself? Although starting out as a Touring Adventurer, luckily my off-road experience in various parts of the world enables me to “upgrade’ to an Event Official very early on, hence pitching me into the thick of it almost from Day One. This suits me just fine. Tom meanwhile is part of the ever-expanding media convoy which records the event for transmission/publications of the Rainforest Challenge, he knows what to expect in the days ahead. I will have to find out for myself.

As for the actual competitors, having shipped over their vehicles they then have to sort out all the Customs formalities and collect their pride ‘n’ joys from the port. This is no mean feat as one wrong word or mistake on the import forms can change everything. With most of the vehicles clear it is back to the Hilton Hotel, our luxurious 5-star base for the next few days.

It’s time to sort out all the equipment and along with the newly issued competition number, apply acres of sponsorship stickers. This takes the best part of a day as competitors vehicles are turned into mobile billboards, along with all the officials, press and TV crew vehicles. The Hilton is now looking like a 4x4 showroom with all makes of four-wheel-drives parked around it. The amazed looks on the faces of locals passing by is a picture in itself!

The next major task is for the competitors to present their vehicles for scrutineering. Held at the newly-opened complex of Off-Road Equipment, this is an extensive check to make sure up to the required competition safety standard. Having been deemed safe for use, it is on to Johor Baru, the location of the long awaited start. Some teams however still have major problems even up to the day of departure. Event officials are constantly talking to the Customs in order to solve them, eventually they all make it.

Saturday 27^th November

It’s now time for a journey of over three hours as the convoy heads south to Johor Baru. Yet another superb hotel awaits us, the Hyatt Regency this time. Ah! Such decadence.

Sunday 28^th November

The official opening ceremony, formerly attended by the ex King of Malaysia – the Sultan of Johor. Despite being in his seventies, he too is a keen 4x4 enthusiast and owns several vehicles. The ceremony is something to behold as drums beat, cultural dancers perform, children dressed to perfection in traditional costumes dance in harmony. The colours are amazing. The Sultan arrives with his convoy of 4x4’s (some containing security staff, the rest from his own collection) to meet and greet us all. Now the competition starts in earnest as the vehicles are flagged away and cheered off the starting ramp. The last few days of comfortable hotels are soon left behind as we head for outskirts of Johor Baru for SS1 the Prologue, the first of 15 competitive Special Stages held throughout the event.

Held at a motorcross circuit the Prologue consists of a series of holes and jumps on rock-hard ground, the highlight being a deep, purpose-built water hole. Racing against the clock, the terrain soon sorts out the competitors starting positions for the first jungle stage. It’s now late afternoon and we are the last convoy to head off for our rainforest hotel. It’s not a 3, 4 or even 5-star hotel – it’s a million stars as we set up our camp beds at 3am beneath the clear night sky. Accompanied by noises emitting from the dense vegetation that most of us have never heard before, we settle down for our first night in paradise.

Monday 29^th November

Rising early we see the start of the first jungle Stages. This comprises of SS2 Morning Stalker – a river-crossing, SS3 Johor Grit’n’ Grunt – three very deep mud-holes to drive and winch out of, and SS4 Puff The Magic Dragon – a fast up hill climb. Apart from a few drowned engines during the Prologue, the first real casualty is the Swiss team of Marc Spring and Laurence Blaser whose Land Rover 90 V8 stops in a mud hole with electrical problems. Whilst trying to fix it, the batteries short out filling the vehicle with toxic fumes, thus overpowering driver Marc who has to be helped from the vehicle by myself and the medical team. After a check up by the Doc and plenty of fresh air he is soon on his way again. As Marc recovers from his ordeal, co-driver Laurence takes over to drive the rest of the stage.

Potentially even more lethal was SS4. It is during this last stage that the Korean’s Isuzu Trooper goes over the edge and rolls about ten times! Fortunately, due to the preparation of the vehicle nobody is hurt, the Trooper soon recovered and pitched straight back into the action.

Having survived the day intact, naturally the only place to wash is the rivers. This was fine until the time we stepped into the water only to be confronted by a poisonous snake quite happily swimming up stream! After that encounter, from then on all my washing was done in the fast flowing rapids. Less chance of snakes of the North East Monsoon and yes you’ve guessed it, the rains have arrived.

Tuesday 30^th November

This was another early start with rain falling most of the day. The tracks change rapidly as we exit the first jungle stage. Back on the main road as we head up the Eastern side of Malaysia, it’s dark and we are getting hungry.

Arriving at a small town with a track leading down to the local eating places, all agreed a Chinese meal would be very welcome indeed. A Mixture of all kinds arrives including catfish, wild boar and even mountain goat on one table, but I draw a line at chicken’s feet – definitely not for me!

A decision has been made to stay in town for the night and leave early next morning. Nobody argues with the decision as it means a night in a hotel complete with real showers. Ignoring the drips from a leaking roof and salamanders that constantly dart up and down the white walls all night, due to sheer fatigue most get a pleasant night’s sleep. Only real problem is the snoring of your fellow adventurers. With three, four or even five camp-beds set up between the room’s twin beds (it not only enables the personnel of a 60-vehicle convoy to all have a roof over their head for the night – albeit leaky – it also cuts down on cost somewhat), you quickly learn who not to sleep alongside for the rest of the event. This is important as some sound like blocked drains!

1^st December

We head off to another jungle location, this time with all the competitors camping on one side of a wide river and all the officials on the other. This was always going to be fun because as soon as camp was set it was obvious what would happen next. With rain falling on hills in the distance and heading out way, it will come as no great surprise to tell you that the river started rising fairly rapidly, the current got faster, and low and behold the competitors had to cross over to our side. This was watched with great interest as the vehicles were being pushed down river by the torrents of rain that had fallen.

The Little Suzuki SJ 416 Samurai of Team England’s Peter Cooper & Mark Oram took one look and thought “no way” (the crew weren’t so keen either), so to avoid being swept away they strapped their vehicle to the back of a British Competitor’s Land Rover for the crossing. Needless to say all the press and TV crews were poised waiting for the action. Although the Suzy did actually float at times, much to the media’s dismay it made it across without too much drama. Only one vehicle stopped in the middle – a Spanish entry. Almost instantly three vehicles swung into action at the river’s edge, running out winch cables to secure and drag it to the safety of the bank. No problemo!

An evening of hard work over and time to relax at the camp. We still had quite a few cans of beer left, so word soon got around and sure enough an impromptu party had started. In no time at all the Australians, Polish, South Africans, Spanish, British and even some of the Malaysian officials had found their way to our English/Irish encampment, the quiet night erupting in songs, jokes and stories from their native lands. It was good timing as most of us needed to unwind, not forgetting of course there was still a lot more hard work in front of us and getting harder all the time.

2^nd December

Daylight breaks with a few heavy heads and another full day of events and river crossings in front of us, only this time the rivers are a lot deeper! It is clear the organisers are not hiding the fact either, for according to the itinerary this is entitled SS7 Monster of the Deep.

The idea is simply to ford a wide river, turn around on dry land and return to the starting position. Simple? With a possible 100 points up for grabs, it was a calculated gamble whether to risk potential damage to the motor and “go for it”, or simply dip the four wheels at the water’s edge to gain a nominal 20 points by declaring a DNF (Did not finish). 19 crews decided upon this soft option while even worse, 17 teams were classified as a DNS (did not start – 0 points), such was the scale of the task that lay before them.

Those who did attempt it were the brave ones. As you can see, due to a hidden hole mid-stream the British crew of Simon Buck and “Nobby” Clark in the Devon 4x4 sponsored Land Rover 90 didn’t quite make it across, although it is worth pointing out that even though their Landy was nearly totally submerged, Simon Buck at his task by keeping the 300 Tdi diesel engine running throughout the exercise while ex-Para Nobby quite literally swam out of his passenger seat window in a vain attempt to spin the vehicle around to face the right way. Needless to say the current defeated him, but full marks for effort. An extremely brave and worthy attempt by both of them, the crossing being captured for posterity by every single camera on the event, such was the excitement generated. Okay, they received a DNF and only 20 points it may have been, but at least they had a go. They obviously did not come halfway around the world merely to watch.

Unfortunately, the third Team England crew of Martin Lewis & Peter Codd in a 100 inch wheelbase Land Rover hybrid also failed to cross when their diesel engine filled with water. Commonly known as “hydraulicing”, the problem is cured by removing the fuel injectors, turning the engine over on the key and squirting out the water. Once the engine oils are changed, you can then be on your merry way.

This however was not the case with the British Suzuki. Whilst the petrol engine remained running (well, for while anyway) once again the river’s depth defeated the crew. Granted, this is not the ideal vehicle for river crossings, but no doubt its day will come.

It is worth nothing that out of the 39 vehicles who arrived at SS7 Monster of the Deep only 5 crews actually completed the stage to score any real points. These ranged from 100 – 44 points, so attempting the crossing was clearly well worth the effort. The vast majority however were either left floundering within the river’s murky depths or opted out altogether by going for the totally safe if somewhat unadventurous policy of not starting at all. How does that motto go? Who dares wins?

Thankfully the rains have stopped and the sun is out. Would you believe it, folk are now complaining that “it’s too hot!” Only one thing for it, sit in the river and watch the competition unfold in front of your very eyes. And of course while sitting in a cool, flowing river what better than put a few cans of beer in you shorts to cool down with you. Aaaah! Sheer bliss.

The competitive sections are getting harder by the day. The aptly named SS8 Heartbreak Hill certainly emphasises the point. Although this particular SS was an exception rather than the rule, only one vehicle (that of Aussie’s Trent Leen & Wayne Smith in a Nissan GQ SWB Patrol) actually completed this gruelling section. Told you it was difficult.

It’s now time to head north to Kuala Terreggunu. Here we have an official reception hosted by the newly-elected Islamic State Government. Like the official start at Johor, the hospitality was again excellent, the food laid before us second to none. Meantime, McGuigan was on the hunt. Although a Muslim town, alcohol can still be acquired via the Chinese-Malaysian community, thus it came as no great surprise when Tome reappeared with a supermarket trolley chock full of beer and Smarties – I kid you not. A journalist on the previous two editions of the RFC, Mc knew his oddball shopping would prove to be a life-saver in the days to come (and so it transpired), for the worst or should I say the best was yet to come!

From here we head into the depths of the jungle; now the adventure really begins. Up until this point the going has been relatively easy, with rain-sodden logging trails arduous but manageable. Crossing the Bridge To Nowhere, a massive concrete structure built in the early 1980’s to span a deep river gorge for a new highway (a highway that due to a slump in the economy was scrapped), the pot-holed tarmac stops and the dirt tracks begin in earnest. All is well at this point as the tracks are dry, just the odd log bridge or two needing a quick rebuild after being washed away by previous storms. This part of the jungle has two routes. Doubling as an escape route should the rains come, one route takes you about 50 km to the Legend of the Lake and on to SS13. Needless to say, although twice the distance, as the name suggests the ‘escape route’ is thought to be a whole lot easier to drive than the shorter direct track to the Terminator. Make a mental note of this fact, it is highly relevant to the rest of the Rainforest Challenge ’99.

My driver Jovi and I decided to head to the lake for an overnight stop – and still no rain. It was here that during the night we had to listen to herds of elephant trampling the bushes and trees on their way to the water’s edge. More to the point, our camp site is their watering hole. Are you going to argue with them? No, nor am I. However, this was nothing compared to one morning. I can’t remember exactly where, but walking down to river for the cold wake-up wash, as you looked down into the soft mud you suddenly noticed paw prints – not just any paw prints you understand, but that of a tiger! Yes, sometime that night or early morning one or more had passed by within yards of our camp site. With up to sixteen camp-beds dotted around under each fly-sheet, next time I’m sleeping plumb in the centre!

Meanwhile, back at the Legend of the Lake, the scenery was all-inspiring yet at the same time quite eerie. The early morning view was something to behold with old trees and braches protruding from the water, low cloud on the hill and an orange sun rising over the horizon – truly amazing.

We are now well into the 50 km track heading for the Terminator. Some killer hills lay ahead and of course true to form – it’s starting to rain. When I say rain, you have to realise what type of rain it is. None of your everyday summer showers here, this is the sort of rain where the heaven’s completely open up and gravity makes certain millions of gallons head to earth. This is rain on a monumental scale. Consequently the trails are very greasy with vehicles struggling to get up the hills, promptly sliding back down as the tyres become clogged with mud. The journey is now getting slower and slower as crews have to winch their vehicles up slippery mud slopes in a constant battle against the elements. Many of the tracks have whole sections washed away and some of the gaps are just wide enough to get a vehicle past. One wrong move and that’s you over the edge. The saving grace is the dense undergrowth, for if a vehicle does roll usually it will just fall on its side with very little damage. Others are a bit less fortunate and roll a few times. No injuries thankfully, just the damaged pride of the driver, a few bruises and a cracking tale to tell the grandchildren one day.

After many hours driving and winching we eventually reach SS13. The competitor’s worst nightmare lays right here. Arriving late evening it was a case of setting up camp with over-friendly leeches, sand flies and an assortment of other creepy crawlies. Mind you, they should all be extremely happy as via our veins most shared our food and drink that night! Next day it was an early for the competitors. They had to clear a mud-hole, then drive across a river, clear an even deeper mud-hole, then try to drive and winch up to the top of Terminator hill.

As the weather has got so bad, most of the press including Tom McGuigan and the TV crew vehicles are still trying to reach the Terminator. It’s mid-day and a decision is taken by organiser Luis J A Wee to start sending the vehicles back out. The competitors will leave by the short route from the top of the Terminator, the remaining officials, media, chuck wagons and medics will turn around and go out via the escape route. Little did he or we know, but the ‘easy’ escape route had become so boggy that it was now worse than the competitor’s track. By way of example, we left at 1300 hrs and 8 hours later we had travelled just 4 km!

Winching vehicle after vehicle, sometimes two or three joined together, we were going nowhere fast. It was now dark, we were still going uphill, our fuel stocks were running seriously low and many teams were having serious doubts whether they would make it out at all! What to do? Plod on a further 46 km or turn around and face the sorter but more difficult Terminator hill. Well, having just sampled eight hours of pure slog in atrocious conditions, we reasoned that (a) the other route could not be any more difficult, (b) because of the distances involved it would be better fuel-wise and (c) camping on a hill was not an option anyway, so we made the collective decision to turn back safely. Setting up camp for the night, a good solid sleep would see us ready for an early start come the morning.

Next day, to avoid having to cross all those mud holes on the approach to the Terminator hill, we made a new route into the river and managed to by-pass some of them, but we still had a long, long way to winch. What lay ahead was awesome. Such is the difficulty climbing this rise, normally there would be a team of officials at the summit waiting to assist. We thought we were on our own for this one, as we could hear no other vehicles above. I think the best decision we made the entire event was to send someone on foot to the top; it certainly paid dividends. To all our relief and utter astonishment we managed to catch the Scout team of the Malaysian Land Rover Club just in time as they were packing up to leave.

This group of dedicated enthusiasts establish a base camp at the summit every year, and sure enough every year their services are required in exactly the same way. They certainly know their stuff, and while their ramshackle collection of three elderly Series lll Land Rovers may look the worse for wear, the number of teams they have helped out over the past three years is quite staggering. They now had three more to assist. So, with their Land Rovers anchored to big, solid trees they ran their PTO (power take-off) winch cables down to us and started the painful task of winching us to the top – a few inches at a time. After a brief rest we set off to try and clear the Jungle, but the rains kept coming and the muddy track was getting very deep indeed.

The first major obstacle was a 40 foot long log bridge spanning a river. Well, rather it should have spanned a river, but instead had been completely washed away! The only way across was to drive through the river itself, but first it had to be checked in case it was soft sand on the bottom of just too deep. I took one look and thought ‘not again’. Sure enough, being the tallest it was down to me again to wade into the murky torrent. In I went. It came up to waist level so that was okay. Now all I had to do was walk downstream for about 100 yards to check it too was alright. “Anybody sees a snake – yell!” Finally I found the only exit out of the river bed, a 50 yard 45 degree climb which again was only possible by utilising the hard-working winches. As it was raining hard and the river was slowly rising, we had to make a quick decision whether to try and cross right now or wait up to a day or more for the water level to drop. Basically, we had no choice but to go for it as the water was already over the bonnet of our Land Cruiser. Moving forward slowly but surely, it may have been painfully slow but we were getting somewhere. I think the feeling of only having 20+ km to cover kept us going but with all the rain it certainly wasn’t getting any easier.

7^th December

Eventually catching up with the other officials who had left the day before, it shows how hard the going really was. Today was the last day, the prize-giving scheduled for the evening of the 8^th – and we still had a lot more mud and hills to cover. It was dusk as we arrived at a really long uphill section. There was no way you could derive it safely at nigh, so after a quick chat on the pro’s and con’s of attempting a climb in the dark with ruts in the track up two and half foot deep, we agreed it was just not worth the risk. Reluctantly another night in the jungle was called for, bed once again being the front seat of the Toyota.

Moral at this point was getting very low (wet feet for the last few days certainly did not help), yet we all knew we only had approximately 6 km to cover after the top of this hill before a relatively easy run back to the Bridge to Nowhere and civilisation.

During the night the rains got heavier and heavier, so much so that when we woke in the morning the ruts in the track were torrents of running water so powerful you could hardly stand up in them. The few vehicles that had made it this far got stuck into the task (good pun) of getting up the hill. As before, wherever possible we were helping each other out, this after all is what the event is about, even so, we had no choice4 but to leave some vehicles behind due to winch failure and various other mechanical problems such as a blown gearbox, mangled steering, etc. Some crews of stricken vehicles had simply walked out of the forest (a highly questionable, dangerous act at the best of times – but at night in the middle of the monsoon season? I think not!) with the intention of returning with new parts in the next few days to salvage their steeds – if the rains stop. Fortunately our vehicles cleared the top of the long climb so now it should be plain sailing to the bridge. Just as well really as most of us had either run out of drinking water a day earlier or were about to run dry at any second!

Sure enough, after a few kms the jungle track started opening up, a good sign we were on the way out and very near the bridge. Next thing we knew, over a crest amongst the green undergrowth we spied several white, vertical lines – the bridge’s concrete supports. We were out and back on the black stuff! Never have I been so pleased to see a piece of tarmac road in all my life! But what of all of the other teams and officials? They were still battling their way through the escape route – somewhere.

We hurried to the finishing point at Awana Kijal, a luxurious beach resort overlooking the South China Sea. It appears that while we were still locked in mortal combat against the elements, the 21 remaining competitors were thrashing out the final places over the last two SS’s. These were run on dry, white, sandy beaches within our hotel complex, a far cry from the oozing, claggy, orange mud more akin to clay that had plagued the participants from Day One. In fact it was such an idyllic setting, according to those who took part “the rainforest seemed a million miles away”. I can believe it.

At this point in the proceedings, 18 teams were registered as DNS. Out of these either their vehicles (or crews) had expired at some time or other during the previous 10 days of competition, were like us on their way back to catch the evening prize-giving ceremony or if the Gods had deserted them, were still jungle-bound slogging it out there in the rainforest.

The evening was a prestigious affair as VIPs, sponsors, organisers and participants sampled an excellent selection of food and drink, the air alive with a heady mixture of personal satisfaction. Achievement, relief to make it back in one piece, and great sadness that it was all over. Stirring speeches, high elation. Of course it was not possible to acknowledge them all, but so many deserved awards that night including my driver Jovi; a special thank you to him.

Sitting here, even though we tried to enjoy the presentations our thoughts were still with the teams trapped in the jungle. Some were without fuel, even worse, others without water and/or very little food.

Immediately after the prizes had been awarded, several rescue missions swung into action spearheaded by three 4x4 vehicles. Crewed by volunteers selected that evening from the top competitors of RFC ’99, the idea was to drive back into the jungle to try and find the trapped teams to take food, water and fuel to them. Other options ranged from (a) enlisting the help of a local construction company working on the fringes of the rainforest to transport RFC officials back in via a different rout; along with taking in supplies, their bulldozers and JCB diggers could then haul out any motor whether dead or alive (b) in order to by-pass the worst excesses of the jungle tracks, hiring a barge to travel back up-river to the Legend of the Lake to literally ferry vehicles out, (c) for two of the fast, go anywhere Swedish bikers (’99 being the first time motorbikes had competed in the RFC) to go on ahead deep into the heart of the jungle at pace to take emergency supplies to the most needy, and last by not least (d) acquire a helicopter from the Royal Malaysian Airforce again as a safety precaution should food/water become a necessity. Apart from the helicopter which was unable to assist due to commitments elsewhere, all the other rescue missions described were mounted.

It transpired that Martin Lewis & Peter Codd, for example, re-entered the rainforest no less than six times, such was their dedication and tenacity. This was even more remarkable given the fact that early in 1998 Martin was diagnosed as having cancer, had missed the RFC ’98 altogether to receive treatment, slowly built up his strength over Christmas ’98 and New Year’99, built an entirely new competition vehicle from scratch during the Summer of ’99, had only hours previously finished competing in RFC ’99 to finish 4^th overall, and yet here he was back in the strength-sapping 100% humidity of the Malaysian jungle to rescue fellow competitors, media and officials. Truly amazing! Yet they still hadn’t finished, for I heard late that the duo were even preparing to go back in yet again to hunt for Tom Mc, Sahin Defever – a Belgium journalist, a film unit of TV3 Malaysia, and the crew of Team Korea. I am glad to say they were dissuaded at the eleventh hour, but it just goes to show the tremendous camaraderie that builds up in such events.

Due to the relentless weather (even by Asian standards), at close of play the stranded teams had been trapped in the jungle for an extra four days. In one region for example it rained for 48 hours continuously, such was the ferocity of the monsoon. The only way out for many of the participants was via the efforts of a tracked bulldozer, the driver of which had thankfully graded the existing tracks as he went, filled in chasms where bridges had been washed away and towed abandoned vehicles out of the way as required. This is how Tom finally exited the jungle on Day No. 5 having spent four exceedingly uncomfortable nights sleeping in a Daihatsu Fourtrak to avoid becoming Tiger food. Evidently he reckons it was ‘and experience’ and he wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Touched or what?

With all the teams and vehicles now out we can celebrate by raising our glasses to an excellent event and already start looking forward to next year’s competition.

The overall winners in RFC ’99 were once again Australian – Trent & Wayne in their Nissan Patrol (with a Ranger Rover from Oz victorious in 1998, methinks their hot Aussie climate and diverse, plentiful terrain gives them a distinct advantage over us freezing, cramped Brits). This said, unlike the three Aussie crews who finished 1^st, 26^th and 27^th (all incidentally in Nissan Patrols), Team England all finished in the Top Ten (4^th – LR 100 inch, 7^th – Suzuki SJ416 Samurai, 10^th – LR 90). In addition, both Martin Lewis (LR 100) and Peter Cooper (Suzuki SJ416) won two Special Stages each to further earn the respect of their fellow competitors.

Two excellent Malaysian teams finished 2^nd and 3^rd overall in a Toyota Hi-Lux and Daihatsu Fourtrak Pick-up, and the Team Spirit award went to none other than Martin Lewes & Peter Codd for their post-event heroics, general helpfulness and good humour throughout the event in their Land Rover Hybrid. A thoroughly deserved award if ever I’ve seen one. At the end of the day though, the real winners were each and everyone who took part, by taking on new challenges and overcoming difficult obstacles – at times just to survive! This was true adventure. This was The International Off-Road Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia ’99.