
The Madek River is
one of the remaining unpolluted rivers in the Johor
state. It length of about 40 km originates from one
of the highest mountains in Peninsula Malaysia, the
Belumut Mountain, from a height of
1010 metres above sea level, and commands a catchments
area of 150 sq km, flowing through all the permanent
forest reserved areas.
The water from Belumut mountain reserve
flows southward to the Linggui River
where a Linggui dam is built for water supply to Singapore.
Thus consumers would understand that the water to cultivate
Kahang rice they consume is the water from the same
source. The Bulumut mountain reserve has its water flowing
northwards forming the Madek river where the water is
used for planting the Kahang Organic Rice Farm.
In the catchment area there are tropical
rainforest animals like elephants, wild boars, monkeys,
mouse deers, squirrels, iguana, barn owls, flying foxes
etc. In the river are homes of the renowned silver arowana
(a protected fish specie), ikan tapah weighing up to
30kg found during the Nov ~ Jan northeast monsoon. The
green catfish (buang), marble goby (soonhock), giant
snakeheads (toman) up to 10kg, snakeheads (haruan),
featherbacks (belida), Malaysia bony-tongue (arowana
- kelesa) etc are some of the few found in the river.
The year round water availability from the Madek river
is sufficient to irrigate the Kahang Organic Rice Eco
Farm (KOREF) padi fields even at extreme dry seasons.
Trekking starts at Sungei Temigol
(behind KOREF) for about 1km before arriving at the
junction of Sungei Temigol and Sungei Madek. The trek
will continue downstream of Madek for about another
1.8 km before arriving at the sandy beach about 500M
away from the junction of Sungei Madek and Sungei Kahang.
Most part of the river trekking is less than chest depth
but life jackets shall be worn regardless of the swimming
competency of the trekkers. Trekking guides will also
be companied based on a minimum ratio of 1 : 5 trekkers
depending on the type of trekkers. The trek is not physically
demanding as it is walking downstream all the way. One
can even swim or float along the river downstream. The
entire trek will take approximately 2 1/2 hours for
novice trekkers.
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