Endau-Rompin National Park

Endau-Rompin straddles the Johor-Pahang border and covers around eight hundred and seventy square kilometres of lowland and hill dipterocarp forest standing on volcanic rock of the Jurassic period, roughly a hundred and fifty million years old - the forest itself is among the older continuously wooded landscapes on earth, having escaped the glacial dryings that cleared other regions. It holds tiger, elephant, tapir, gaur and a long list of hornbills, and it was one of the last places in Malaysia where Sumatran rhino survived; the species is now gone from the country, the last individual having died in 2019, which the park does not pretend otherwise about. Access is through Peta or Selai with permits, a guide and river transfer, and the interior is genuinely remote - waterfalls, the Buaya Sangkut falls among them, and a fan palm found nowhere else.

What you actually see

• Forest on Jurassic rock - a landscape wooded for a very long time.
• Tiger and elephant range - with tapir, gaur and hornbills in the interior.
• Buaya Sangkut falls - the main waterfall, reached on a multi-day trek.
• An endemic fan palm - the livistona found only in this forest.

When to go

February to October; avoid the monsoon. Three days.

Honest expectations

Permits, guides and boat transfers must be arranged in advance - there is no casual access. It is remote, hot and leech-ridden. The Sumatran rhino is gone from Malaysia; do not expect to see one anywhere.

Nearby

Kluang is south-west; Mersing and the islands are east.