LABUAN, Oct 27 — The Merinding bush forest here, which was previously neglected, has been transformed into an attractive hiking trail for sports-lovers and leisure-seekers, especially on public holidays and weekends.
Merinding forest, near Jalan Pohon Batu, is now known as an interesting and challenging location for sports and recreational athletes to travel, run and cycle down the trail.
The transformation of the Merinding forest into an adventure for trail activities with the construction of walking trails, running and cycling routes as well as for remote control cars, is the effort of a small group of hiking and trail running enthusiasts, namely MTB Park Team.
The MTB Park Team began efforts to transform the face of this derelict forest into a must-visit location starting in January this year but was stalled a few months after COVID-19 positive cases rose sharply.
But after Labuan moved into Phase 4 of the National Recovery Plan (PPN) which allowed recreational sports once again last month, the MTB Park Team continued their efforts.
And now, the Merinding bush forest is widely known as MTB Park with a shuttle route of 6.8 km.
According to a pioneer of the MTB Park team, Jason Fu, the effort to transform the landscape of the Merinding bush forest into trails for hiking, running and cycling was due to a passion for this kind of adventure.
“We are happy with the construction of the route without expecting rewards and only using the manual method of hoe, shovel and ‘senso’ wood cutting machine has now benefited the public,” he said.
According to Jason, MTB Park was originally envisioned for extreme cycling, that is ‘mountain biking’ which is one of the extreme sports compatible with uneven areas, such as forests.
“But there were visible signs of visitors using it as a hiking route and trail run,” he said.
Meanwhile, JHK Events founder Jamil Kario also shared his passion with the MTB Park Team to organise the 2021 Labuan Adventure Challenge — if the COVID-19 pandemic situation eases up to allow this event to be staged.
“Naturally, the organisation of this extreme sport will help develop the Labuan tourism sector,” he said.
JHK Events has organised several extreme sports events in Labuan over the past few years before the COVID-19 pandemic and attracted many international extreme sports athletes to join it.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency