Death of Borneo ferns expert in flood a blow

KOTA KINABALU: Sixty-year-old Utretch-hailed Dutch fern expert, Peter Hoverkamp was found drowned by a torrent of flash flood inside Deer Cave in Sarawak’s Mulu National Park last Friday.

A prolific author with over 70 publications and 66 reviews to his credit, Hoverkamp was among a group of eight, including his wife, who had ventured 45 minutes into the famed cave from Base Camp when tragedy struck.

Hoverkamp’s body was found on Saturday while 20-year-old local guide Roviezal Robin was recovered by Search and Rescue team on Monday.

Local publisher Datuk CL Chan said he and Hoverkamp both attended a Flora Malesiana symposium in Mulu and the sad news struck during a post-symposium tour.

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Hoverkamp’s sudden death meant a plan cut short for Chan.

“He had been helping me with “A guide to Ferns of Borneo” which I plan to publish next year. So this is very sad and unexpected,” said Chan.

There are many gorge-like places which are prone to deadly sudden big torrents that come rushing in without warning and tourists should not be taken to such places during the rainy monsoon season.

A very good example is the famed 10km-long 1.6km-deep hellhole abyss, called Low’s Gorge, in Mt Kinabalu.

Anybody who goes into this flash flood death trap any time other than the driest season in Sabah, that is around March, is fool-hardy but the onus of caution is on the guides.

This is the reason why both the failed 1994 British Army Expedition to Low’s Gorge and the successful expedition in 1998 led by a retired British Major, helped by two Sabah Parks local rangers Martin Mogurin and John Sangki, took place in March.

March 1998 coincided with a prolonged drought associated with a severe El Nino.

There is another flash flood death trap that trek guide Tham Yau Kong avoids like a plague – the narrow deep gorge hemmed in by towering steep slopes from three all sides – the tail end of the Death March mid track at Lolosing, inside the Taviu Forest Reserve, near Telupid.

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Except for 14-strong Royal British Artillery outfit under Major Claire Curry in 2011, Tham had refused to take any other group into this gorge.

“These solders were strong, it’s ok. But if they are elderly and weak, no way because if a flash flood does come suddenly they cannot run up to the steep sides,” Tham said.

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