Ipoh-Through The Cameron Highlands To Ipoh Loop 28-1-2011

[Captain_Slash]

28 Jan 2011

The route 1, 59, A181

Total distance 213 km

Todays trip was to ride through the famous Cameron Highlands, I decided to stay in Ipoh for a couple more nights and use it as my base rather than move all my gear up into the Cameron Highlands, I certainly made the right decision there
I took the uninteresting 1 as far as Tapah then took a left onto the 59 and a much nicer road

As I start to climb its looking good in the distance

This is one seriously twisty road that would be superb on a motard

Its light rain on and off now which is a nuisance as this road is now wet

Two or three small waterfalls along the way

At N04.19.470 E101.19.531 is the Lata Iskandar Waterfall and lots of little shops

I eat at a small restaurant here and this tasty meal was 50 Baht, I actually ate the salad too and I am now getting concerned that it will affect my waistline

Then it was five pieces of fried bananas for 10 Baht from these girls

A bit further up the hill at N04.21.073 E101.20.331 I stop at the Jor Dam, at first the guy on the gate said I couldnt ride in, after asking me where I am from and being told England I was told to go ahead and ride in.
I am finding it a bit like that in Malaysia, after telling them that I am English, conversations about England spring up, some have been there and one referred to it as the old country.
It would seem that being English in Malaysia gets the same benefits as having a Thai driving licence does in Thailand

The overflow is right out in the middle

Its probably lush and green like this all year round up here as it never seems to stop raining

I shudder to think how many kids are in that van

About ten are dropped off here and it still looks full, the rain gets a lot heavier and more persistent now and I ride to the junction with the A181 turning left onto it without stopping for any more photos

Theres a lot of this in these hills

I am really enjoying riding down the A181 and its finally stopped raining, I was toying with the idea of going in the opposite direction and riding to Gua Musang but its a fair way and I am already wet so it can wait for another day

The A181 is a brilliant fun road

Plenty of these along the way

I get to the 1, turn right onto it and ride a few km back into Ipoh after a great days riding through the mountains, there were a couple of turnings I should have explored but they can wait until another day, as they were near the top I will ride up there via the A181 as it will be a lot quicker to reach there rather than the slower 59

Another recommendation from my LP book for tonights meal at N06.35.874 E101.04.624

More Southern Indian food and 75 Baht for this lot, delicious as well.

Get the gdb file here http://www.captainslash.com/ipoh-throug ... ipoh-loop/

 

[Midnitemapper]

Re: Ipoh-Through The Cameron Highlands To Ipoh Loop 28-1-

Captain great to see these photos, I road this area for quite a few years, fantastic offroad riding on these big roads that were jungle trails.

[center:3jgqwbob]"In the Day"[/center:3jgqwbob]

The Road from Cameron to Ipoh known as the Simpang Pulai highway was a tragic story.

This road cut through impossible terrain, was a major construction and environmental disaster!
This must be one of the most expensive 3 kilometers of road ever built, as I recall 6 years and it was not officially opened!
This road cut through virgin forest, without any proper survey or core drilling is a great lesson on planning, or how not to do it!

panorama of lower sections,Ipoh in the valley to far right

heading west approaching landslide area

This looks like the same area as above a few years later
This is the landslide area from west looking east, the lower arrow showing a large tracked digger working on the burms.
The upper arrow showing the most recent landslide photo 2004
7 burms below the upper arrow, is the road. that was the original design.All the earth below the road is from the landslides.
At one time the berms went all the way to the top of the mountain, they have since washed down.
The valley below was destroyed with the silt, and the Ipoh river was silted in, along with it's water supply!
I can remember seeing tractors and trucks totally destroyed in the slides, never heard of a fatality from the slides.
For many years the road was never officialy opened because it was too dangerous


These are toys trying to clear it at one point, then the giant Caterpillers came and really started cutting down the mountain.

 

[Captain_Slash]

Re: Ipoh-Through The Cameron Highlands To Ipoh Loop 28-1-

Its a lovely road to ride now but I can appreciate the beauty that was destroyed

 

[Midnitemapper]

Re: Ipoh-Through The Cameron Highlands To Ipoh Loop 28-1-

curiosity arroused, a "Google" replied with some interesting info.
Studies were done by;
A.W. Malone
Dept of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong, China
A. Hansen
Dept of Spatial Sciences, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
S.R. Hencher
Halcrow China Ltd., Hong Kong; School of Earth & Environment, University of Leeds, UK
C.J.N. Fletcher
Dept of Building & Construction, Hong Kong City University, China


Figure 5. 3D visualisation of the excavated hillside showing the surface displacement vectors (2003–5) to scale. Inset: surface movement of the central toe zone block relative to foliation.





Figure 2. Several joint sets cutting the low-dipping foliation
within the Quartz Mica Schist Unit.
Figure 1. Outline of the landslide superimposed on asimplified geological map of the site; and survey points.

7 CONCLUSIONS
The landslide is a slow rock slide in schist. Failure occurred in September 2003 and by December 2006 the head had moved downwards more than 21 m. The rate of displacement is declining slightly year on year, but for much of the time the landslide mass is accelerating and then decelerating in surges. There is some correspondence between the timing of the surges and the seasonal rainfall pattern. It is likely that the surges are induced by groundwater fluctuations. It may be inferred from surface observations that the failure involves sliding at the head and in the upper main body of the landslide on joints roughly orthogonal to the
foliation, which dips at a shallow angle into the slope; in the central toe zone the landslide is sliding up and
out on the foliation. The failure, which is probably a compound slide of volume about 2 million m3, has reactivated major pre-existing faults that run obliquely through the landslide mass.