canadian hill continued..

There were strange rustic pipe-like branches ( up to diameter of 40mm) protruded from smooth sandstones at places. At first I thought they were sort of oxidised rusty iron rods/bars. But they crumbled into powders when hammered with a stone. These strange criss-cross 'branches ' structures apparently were very common in the hill sandstone outcrops and similar ones were locate at near beaches. No one knew what they were and I could not remember anyone mentioned about them or anyone bothered to ask. [As late as 95s, i rememberd taking some pics of them when I revisited my hometown. I asked (via internet) around the world and a Canandian expert emailed back telling me they were fossils remants of marine animal's burrows - trace fossils. ] which means once-upon-a-time, the top of the canadian hills were submerged in sea!* ( no wonder seashells were presented in some part of the hill.)
Instead of heading towards to the water- fall, there was another narrow path on the right which lead to a diesel powered oil well. You have to climb on all 'fours' and hold on to the shrubs/tufts for support while pulling yourself up. I used to throw stones down the ravine and watched them ricocheted off the rocky surfaces. We found a way down there and had brought back sticky clay . We wrapped them in large green Simpoh - imitating the local market of using them to wrap taufu. To support and maintain the oil wells that dotted the canadian hill, a series of network of dirt roads were built. Along these deserted road 4-5" dia. metal pipe were located at ground level. We chanced upon one that brought us all the way to Oil Well #7 and back to my Primary School ! Numerous trips were made to explore more of these dirt trail and I found another interest pretty sandstone outcrops and named it "pretty stone". Soon a sketch of the visited trails were penned. [ a few years later I was thrilled to see my sketch matched up with a detail published map of the Town and the neighbourhood]




*in fact the whole of miri were under 200 metre of Sea water eons years ago ( more on this much later) with few spots above water - small parts of canadian hill....

eXploring the 'hinderland'

In primary school time before the arrival of TVs , there were few distractions - the town had two cinemas, a (good) Public library and sandy beach and free-dark sky at night. Reading , cycling, listening to the radio [ favorite The American Top 40 - the DJ is still around and he is on 90.5FM here!! ] my reading diet were mainly books on African Adventure, Coral Island, Robinson Crusoe, Kon Tiki's Expedition, Thousand leagues under the Sea - some of the titles from our local town library- my second home. Favourite 'in-class' past time was map-reading with my buddy Kim Hua who sat just behind me. He was a short, slightly plump, bespectabled, good-humoured and kind-hearted guy. We were avid map readers and invented our guessing game of ' where is the xx island, rivers'. As a result both of us had intimate knowledge of names of small island, obscure african countries making good use of Atlas of the World from Geography. I could and still can draw the world maps freehands. Cartegraphy/charts making fascinated me. [ In secondary school i was chartered to reproduced the Town map on a giant scale that filled the wall behind our classroom] These probably fueled my numerous trips to the 'hinderland' or 'interiors' - a tradition I extended to Mt Victoria, Wellington, New Zealand many many years later.

Not far from our housig estate was a low sandstone hill. I could also see this from my bedroom window. In early eveing the outcrop was basked in golden sun and stood out from the lush green forest. In rainy season - it was just a wall of gushing milo coloured or yellow. To get there took only 5-10 minutes of walking on a sandy dirt road and crossing the main lutong/miri trunk road. At the foot of the 'hill' - you will be greeted with 'reindeer-horn like' smooth touches of nodding Clubmoss/Lycopodium cernuum moss and clusters of tiny floor pither plants - like little bottles striving in low nutrient and little clayey thin layer of soil edging the hard sand stone. Further up the slope, resam /Dicranopteris curranii fern dominates. In extreme dry period they wiltered leaving behind a tinder mass - just the right fuel for a forest fire. [ forest fires were common in those days, i have seen the whole hill burning bright for days. The afermath was tragic - the whole chunks of secondary forest were totally wiped out.] Near the outcrop's edges overhanging branches provided the needed shade from the hot sun. It was a great place to relax and watch the nature in the quiet afternoon sea breeze. The running water sound was soothing and the place had a slight aromatic smell. ( from oil wells nearby).