Day: Monday
Time: 2.00p.m
Location: Somewhere in Lubok Antu
Tired, exhausted,speechless yet wonderful! This vary day was so precious for some of us who were never followed us “Ngasu” before. For your info, “Ngasu”is an Iban word which means to hunt for wild animals with dog(s). This hunting technique was being practiced by the dayaks people since the early days they (the dayaks) know how to hunt for food using weapons such as spears or “sangkoh”, blowpipe or “sumpit” and net which were made from rattan. Nowadays, most of the dayaks were using shotgun or locally known as “senapang patah” to hunt. According to the elders (orang tuai) their shotguns were being inherited from their great grandfathers which were means to be passed from one generation to another. Believe it or not, that day we had a great catch/ hunt. And for some of us, it was the catch/hunt in a lifetime! Nevertheless, there were eleven of us with only two hunting dogs. WOW!
We arrived at our meeting point (abandoned logging road) around 2.00 p.m in the afternoon. Our leader, or known as “tuai asu” THE ONE AND ONLY, Mr. Seli Anak bedel, divided us into two small groups. They were the “ngipa’” group or known as the ambush group and the “nesar” group or known as the chaser group. The ambush group was to wait for the animals to run towards them before they gunned them down. Meanwhile, the chaser group along with dog(s) was to chase the animals in certain/ planned route or direction towards the shooting zone before the ambush group can shot them. Fortunately, both of our groups know our own part and playing our roles effectively. And of course, I was in the chaser group. WOW!
Our “Nesar” or chasing area were started from “Nading” to “Wong Pelandok” (Pelandok Waterfall).and also from “Wong Kijang” (Kijang waterfall) to “Batu Melandai”. From Nading, we have to climb the cliff which was about 45° aslant and 30 feet high. The hike was so tough and challenging! It took us about 35 minutes to reach our first stop point at Wong Pelandok. Furthermore, It was not and enjoyable hike because we had to tread down our path again to get to the next stop on another top of the hill (Wong Kijang). DARN IT! It was so tiring and made some of us were very exhausted!
After we took a rest about 10 minutes, we started to walk downhill towards “Batu Melandai” looking for the “Jerumun” or known as the sleeping place for wild animals. We knew that by looking at their newly sign of footprints, their waste and also the ground conditions which indicates that it was their sleeping place and active spawning and playing area. By looking at their “poo” we also knew what types of plants or Jungle fruits that they ate. And then, THE CHASE WAS ON!
As we moved slowly towards the river (Batu Melandai), suddenly we heard a thunderous, nonstop aggressive barking sound from our hunting dogs and guess what? We knew it was the “things” that we were looking for. Gosh! Everyone prepared themselves and get themselves armed and for me, I took out my 5 feet long , rusty yet sharp spears and get ready for anything!
We moved again, and guess what? Few steps after that, “BANG!!!” and followed with another “BANG!!!”. Two gunshots were fired and we knew that the chased was over. As we rushed towards the ambush group near the safe point, we heard that the ambush group rejoicing and laughing happily. Curious to know, we move towards them and we were surprised to see what a big, brown and furry (around 90 Kilos) wild boar laying dead by the river bank. We knew that they had just done a good job.
To our surprised, they told us that they had to shot the boar twice to get it killed. Can you imagine how big that animal was when you had to shot it twice?
(Tagged: TEAM (Together Everyone Achieve More!)
That was it. We then carried the "hunt" of the day back home and for sure it need five of us at a time to carried it. How heavy it was!! Although we we tired, we were also happy as we knew we all had done a very good job!!! we arrived at home/ school around 5.30 p.m that day! Congrats comrades!! (yeah, we were get ready for the BBQ time!!!)
