After the second day of the Prologue events, which witnessed the cancellation of three Special Stages due to extreme weather conditions, everybody headed north to Kuala Berang for gas, food, and spare parts. Many teams used this short break in the action to recover from damages sustained during the Prologue Special Stages by visiting some local garages before the big jump into the jungle. Land Rovers, Jeeps, Suzukis, and Toyotas were familiar sights to the local mechanics, but most Malaysians have never seen an Austrian-designed, British-manufactured Pinzgauer.
After a long hard night of traversing countless streams and miles of mud, building bridges from logs, and making heavy use of our winches, we eventually made it to our campsite for the night. We hung plastic sheets on top of poles between the vehicles, set up our beds, and collapsed into a well-deserved slumber.
The next morning, following another SS in a river, the media convoy had to separate from the competitors who were headed to the extremely difficult Twilight Zone SS and Terminator SS, which were inaccessible to our press vehicles. We had no other alternative but to drive straight to the camp set up at the old "Elephant Bridge" at the end of the Twilight Zone and Terminator sections. It was going to be a long wait of four nights before we could rejoin the competitors.
In the meantime, we received reports that the X-men teams scouting the track leading to the Twilight Zone had been viciously attacked by aggressive sand flies, which had apparently learned the art of penetrating mosquito netting. We could still see the marks of this unfortunate encounter on the X-mens' bodies a few days later.
While we members of the press camped and waited, the competitors were heading into the high hills, using their winches for hours upon hours and, unfortunately, dealing with the jungle's abundant leech population. After 48 hours of slow but nonstop progress, the competitors eventually reached the dreaded Terminator Hill.
This year, the Terminator SS was a very slippery hill, 700 meters high with a 30- to 40-degree slope, requiring the codrivers to climb up and down, constantly employing their winches. In addition, the soil stuck like glue to every visible part of the vehicles, and at the same time, was as slippery as ice. It seems that the codrivers were the ones who physically suffered the most. The maximum-allowed winch-cable length was 50 meters, and with Terminator Hill being 700 meters high, a codriver had to pull the cable constantly along the slope, up and down, at least 30 times. It might not seem like very much, but it's exactly 1.4 km on an almost vertical slope. Definitely the path to hell!
Many vehicles also suffered from mechanical problems in this stage, mostly in the differentials and driveshafts, leading, of course, to sleepless nights of wrenching. Even with these difficulties, there was a strong spirit of friendship between the competitors. Everybody helped everybody else, whether it was with manpower, mechanical expertise, spare gas, or spare parts. Eventually, only five teams were able to finish the SS Terminator in time. Most of the other vehicles had to be winched out by the X-men teams.