Enjoy A Little Ocean Drive Along The Old Kuala Baram Coastal Road

The Great Ocean Road is one of the most scenic in the world and is one of the big tourist attractions of Australia. A Great Ocean Road drive is an experience that will remain etched in your memory for a long long time.

Sarawak does not have a road that can come anywhere close to the beauty of the Great Ocean Road. But if you can keep an open mind, Miri does have a road that offers quite an unique experience too if you take the time to stop and explore at different spots along that road. I am talking about the old Lutong-Kuala Baram Road that runs along the Miri coastline to Kuala Baram.

Over the past two days, I spent about two hours each day to explore the old Kuala Baram Road.  The first thing that struck me was the proliferation of roadside stalls. During both days, most of the stalls were closed. The few that were open were selling mainly fruits and vegetables such as watermelons, bananas, chillies, sweet corns, mangoes, pineapples and ginger.

I stopped at the first cluster of fishermen quarters. There were maybe over a dozen fishermen quarters with fishing boats in their designated sheds. It was quite a scenic sight even though many of the quarters looked a bit dilapidated.  The beach there was nice, with big rocks lined along the coastline to prevent erosion. Standing on the rocks, I could see the roaring waves crashing on the rocks. A few crabs were resting on some rocks, out of reach from the pounding waves. I felt totally relaxed!

As I drove along the road, I found out that these fishermen quarters and fishing boat sheds dotted the long coastline.

The fish market was deserted on both days. I dropped by to snap quite a lot of photos of the fish market, the fishing boats in the sheds, the fishing nets lying on the ground, the beautiful view of the sea and the fish mascot near the entrance to the fish market.

Not far from the fish market, I stopped again when I saw a roadside stall with a lady selling fruits.  Alighting from my car,  a beautiful butterfly caught my attention. With a lot of patience, I managed to take a few photos of it. In the bushes behind the roadside stall, I saw one of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen. I wasted no time in snapping  lots of photos of it from different angles and distance. I asked the lady at the roadside stall if she could sell the flower to me but she declined.  She told me that the flower just bloomed a few days ago. I bought two pineapples from her for RM5 and she happily posed for me.

As I approached Kuala Baram, I stopped at the roadside to take some photos of the beautiful coastline and a shed that looked like an open resting place.

In the marshland along the road, I saw some occasional egrets. Each time I stopped my car and got out to take photos of them, they would quickly take flight, denying me the chance to take photos of them. In the end, I used a different strategy. I saw two egrets further ahead so I stopped my car at a quite a distance from them. I used my zoom lens to take shots of them. Though the shots were far from great, I was happy that I finally managed to snap them in a marshland setting.

Just besides the Happy Farm is a bridge from where you can catch a nice view of the sea and fishing boats moored near it  I think the Happy Farm is a chicken farm where all the chickens are happy, until they find out that they are about to be slaughtered.There are also some fishermen quarters there too. A Chinese fisherman told me that he doesn’t stay in his fishermen shelter and that he only uses it for taking rest. He also told me that the previous afternoon, a fishing boat was badly damaged when it hit some rocks in the rough weather.

Near the Happy Farm, I saw a small road leading to a quiant house near the beach. The place looked so laid-back and serene.

I visited the wharf near the Country Forest Industries Sdn Bhd’s factory at Kuala Baram. There were a few very old wooden shops but I forgot to take photos of them in  my haste to go to the wharf. On the wharf, I could see workers at work, loading and unloading cargoes. There were some tugboats berthed near the wharf.

As I was making my way back to my car, I spotted a striated heron (Butorides striata) also known as mangrove heron standing on a small log floating in the water. I was so happy to be able snap photos of the bird that it made my whole trip worthwhile.

Near the wharf, I saw a giant “green monster” towering above the surrounding bushes. Some ferns were growing around the lamp on top of a nearby lamppost so I suspect the lamp was probably no longer working.

On the way back from Kuala Baram to Lutong, I could see some abandoned houses. They look eerie, like haunted houses.

There are also fishing boat factories but I did not stop to take photos of them.

My final stop was at Toh Brothers Pottery (Miri) Co. The place sells a wide assortment of pots and gardening stuff as well as potted plants, flowers and bonsai. I had a happy time taking photos of the flowers and orchids. As I was photographing the flowers, a beautiful butterfly came along. Being able to capture this butterfly on my camera was definitely icing on the cake.

My wife bought several flower pots in anticipation of adding more flower plants to her collection.

What a lovely drive it had turned out to be! I am tempted to call it the Little Ocean Drive!