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).