Romping in Rompin

I had the opportunity to go for a 2D1N trip with my explorer friend to Peninsula Malaysia 2 weekends ago to visit some nearby cryptocoryne habitats again. As usual, the trip started with having roti prata for breakfast in Johor Bahru.

And as usual, the strategy we adopted was to go to the furthest location first, then make our way back slowly. For 2D1N, we decided to venture furthest to Rompin only, then back to Mersing and Singapore. The first habitat we visited was that of C. sp. 'Pahang 10, Rompin' to see if we could locate a blooming spathe.

Unfortunately, luck was not on our side, no spathe was found and instead we were greeted with the sight of an extremely large paw print of a cat again...

The quantities of plants seemed to be much more than when we previously visited, which was good as it signified that the plants were reproducing.

We brought Mr Lee C. H. out from the jungle for a simple lunch of fried rice before heading to C. sp. 'Pahang 8, Rompin' habitat.

C. sp. 'Pahang 8, Rompin' habitat could be destroyed sooner or later with all the deforestation going on around Rompin like the case shown below.

Footpaths could now be seen being formed inside the jungle where the cryptocorynes were found, indicating that human activities were increasing in the jungle, possibly surveying the potential for logging?

A spider guarded the throat of the blooming spathe, waiting to trap insects travelling in and out of the kettle tube?

C. sp. 'Pahang 2, Rompin' could be found mixed with C. sp. 'Pahang 8, Rompin' at this habitat. We found the fruits and some unopened spathes.

We travelled to Mersing and stayed over there for the night and spent the rest of the night enjoying the simple seafood dinner and mindless chatting...