Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Gambir Explorer 1

This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a Grade 4 walk, there were long stretches of jungle with an undefined route.

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.

Now we have a little Myvi available, the hills above the Sungai Ara Valley are at last accessible and we intend to explore them systematically to extend our knowledge. We parked up the Sungai Ara Valley at pole OJK 52 after going up Jalan Kenari and taking the small road just after the Indian temple. It was just 10.00 and this meant the initial climb was shaded by the hill. This path is a handy by-pass for the Fig Tree Hill tourist complex.

It's a classic gentle start and the morning sun illuminated it perfectly.

This is a mansion which I have previously seen only from a distance. Close up, it looks rather unloved and the gardens are completely overgrown. Nevertheless there were two cars here as I slipped inside the remains of the metal fence. Back at the junction, Yuehong knew to turn left and then take the minor path up and through the distinctive gate.

Now here's a target for us another time. The durian orchard opposite goes most of the way up the hillside and the gap at the top is part of the FCS durian orchard...

Suitably warmed up, the climb now gets rather steeper until the junction for '541' the teas stop for bikers and walkers at weekends. Today we ignored it and carried on.

This is old rubber and leads to yet another house which has seen better days, we were due a water stop but there was so much mess that we carried on a short way into the orchard beyond and then back into old rubber.

In a clearing was a typical migrant worker hut, shady no doubt, but equally certainly a magnet for mosquitoes. We carried on downwards a short distance until we came out on a wide track.

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Almost immediately we were joined by a brand new concrete road, but onwards was what we wanted, the more modest previous style of road.

We enjoyed the views, ahead was the small col from which, with care, it is possible to go down to the Teluk Kumbar - Bukit Genting road. Behind are the cleared areas in the Malihom area.

The road finished in a cleared flat area but we could continue on something more modest until we passed a small hut with '494' in large numerals. Just beyond it is a Y junction in the rubber and we turned sharp left and went up.

The trail curved around to the left and finished, behind was again the view to Malihom. I had warned Yuehong today might be challenging but after a day off she had calories to burn. Our target was the ridge to the south beyond the rubber. We did a careful survey and decided to go up just to the right of what looked like a streambed covered in bananas and ginger.

Out came the secateurs and a narrow channel was cut in what must have once been a rubber estate. We took our time and in 40 minutes we were in a reasonably clear area at the top which seemed to be popular with the local wild boar.

We'd never been up here before and while I had hoped for a hint of the estate on the west side of Bukit Papan which we knew, I was reluctant to commit us to going down because it was not impossible that there was nothing cleared between us and the Teluk Kumbar - Bukit Genting road which was several hundred metres below us. So the decision was to follow a contour round as far we could and see what happened.  In these circumstances, the camera goes away, it all looks the same and it only appeared when we passed this nest, there were ants on it but I suspect it had been constructed by rather larger and fiercer wasps. As we went, the sounds form the airport became louder and we knew we were well round the side of Bukit Papan. Finally, we could see daylight and out we came into a durian estate after an hour's gentle 'clipping'.

(Much later, I returned here from below, at the col we were no more than 100 metres above a durian orchard! Put it down to experience.)

I knew what was coming next. "Do you know where we are?" Actually that was quite easy this time with a view like that, we'd walked up through the valley below form Bayan Lepas a few times and from where we were there was bound to be a path down towards it.

It was time for the day's first refreshment break. It wasn't where I had planned to be but it would certainly 'do'. The hut had failed the recent storm test, but here was the expected path.

It soon became a concrete road and we followed it all the way down until we went through the gate and joined a familiar route.

When I said to turn left at the oil palm, Yuehong looked agog. Had I taken leave of my senses? Well 'No' and 'Yes' because while it was the right path back to '541', the fact was that we had never used it in this direction and yours truly totally fouled up. I missed a left turn which was actually a U-turn and ploughed on regardless.

On we went through what became overgrown rubber until we had to plunge down a bank to a concrete path. This was a welcome sight but Yuehong was tired after 4 hours of hiking and her knees took exception. Again she asked "Do you know where you are?" This time I had to answer "probably". To the right might have looked attractive but it would have taken us to Bayan Lepas - not a good idea.

So we turned left and took the right fork towards the abandoned house. I was gaining confidence again, I predicted a zig-zag to follow correctly.

However, I knew it was some way up to the required 541 path and when we came to a 5 way junction, a tired Yuehong didn't question my judgement. Eventually we came to the expected durian orchard and at the top was the expected junction. When we got there, she collapsed in laughter, I cannot imagine what she had been exposed to for such an effect.

Not quite job done as it was nearly half an hour from here to '541'. The path had seen better days and the tree across the path didn't greatly help. It was only our third time here, but I did remember the stands of bamboos were impressive.

This was a beautiful ground ginger, normally these are red and yellow, not far beyond was the '541' shelter, a great place for a refreshment stop as we had it to ourselves.

We'd been on the road for five hours now, which was an hour longer than any other hike this season. We ambled down the same path back to the car, by the time we arrived it was close on six hours.

We again visited the Yo Yo Huat in Sungai Ara for dinner and I have to say that both of us were in much better shape than I would have expected. We took the western route home, but unfortunately the road through Batu Ferringhi was blocked by an accident and it took rather longer than usual. Never mind, the admirable car has a good CD system and the music took our mind off the wait.

When you get a few things wrong as had happened today, it's best to return at the earliest opportunity and sort them out, which is exactly what we did.