Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Gambir Explorer 2

This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a Grade 3 walk, the off piste section is not difficult for experienced walkers.

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

The day before, we had enjoyed a less than perfect day, today we returned to the same area and followed a not dissimilar route but clockwise instead of anti-clockwise. Lessons had been learned and it went near perfectly. The initial climb was exactly as before and I have used some of the pictures again. That explains the change of T-shirt part way!

We again 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. We were running a little later this time and departed from the starting point at 10.30.

The climb was as pleasant as before but the sun was slightly higher and the colours less good than shown below.

The climb passed without incident.

When we got to the '541' junction, this time we took the left fork. After a more or less non-stop climb, it was a good spot to take on some water.

I have to say that the bikers have overused this path in the last few years, the flat parts are fine but on the slopes, the thin layer of topsoil (effectively just sand) has been worn away and gullies are forming. Rain water now rushes down them and adds to the erosion. Give it a rest please!

We retraced our steps from the day before, this time I made the effort to photograph the delightful 'cup' fungi, I assume the feature helps keep them moist.

Yuehong ducked under the tree and kindly took my own bag across. Soon we were in the durian orchard, there were strings on the trees ready to be tied to fruit, but in this area nothing ripe at all.

This was the section we had unintentionally missed the day before. The path is fine and after entering the rubber does a gentle zig-zag downwards.

We came to an area which had been cleared, the day before we had come in from the right and continued to the left. It's the pantomime season in the UK and the phrase "It's behind you!" springs to mind, if we had paused we would have seen the proper path, as it is, I doubt we shall make the same mistake again.

We got to the oil palms, turned right and headed upwards. We had view across to where we had come across the side of Bukit Papan, we speculated where we had been. Down below, there was a concrete path up the valley, another time we will try that but today I wanted certainty and the wide road offered just that.

There is a gate to the top area, it's usually locked but there's just a dead branch protecting the way round to the left. Just up a short way is a hut for the migrant workers here.

We carried on up towards the coconut farm on the ridge and just before the road swung left we turned off into the rubber. There was a tree down but it was easy to skip over it. 

The path continued to the shelter, behind which is jungle. Instead of entering it we turned slightly left to look for a path I had spotted on an earlier visit, it was rather overgrown to start with.

The picture explained (to us) what should happen next. In the background are the familiar Malihom hills and in the middle ground is the ridge which was our next target.

We continued round and down a little. The path ended some way short of the forest and there was an overgrown drop before.

So we tried a little further down and quickly found a good route. Yuehong was obviously relishing the chance to wield her secateurs and the wall of green in front parted for us.

Inside is rather different, there were many small trees and just a few vines. The actual ridge was just a short distance across.

Looking back, it's just about possible to make out the open area we had just left.

In a perfect world, we would have been at the same point on the ridge as we had been the day before but checking to the right where we would have walked I found old rubber and a sheet of corrugated iron. That meant we were further down (west). Never mind, that didn't change the plan at all, we had to go ahead and down and it would make sense to bear a little right as this should bring us to the cleared area where we had climbed from. Comparatively it was less steep and easy going. Some way down we saw what was clearly an old rubber terrace to the right and it looked almost like a path that followed it. Perfect!

In a few minutes, we could see brightness ahead and the roof of a house below and sticking to our path we came out with a concrete path below.

Normally I would be some way ahead of Yuehong but today I had to ask her to wait while I took the pictures - very helpful should we come this way again.

We were not far below the Y junction where we had done a U-turn up the day before and a nearby upturned plastic fruit box gave us a seat for or refreshment stop.

This path takes a sharp right turn just below and if we had not used that rubber terrace, we would probably have come out further along and missed the chance of using the path. The path becomes a road beyond the shelter.

We hadn't actually been this way before, but that was not a problem. The new concrete road came in on the right and we continued down the country lane.

The complex ahead turned out to a hut and what looked to be disused fish tanks.

Shortly after we got to the main valley road, the mould covered pole said OJK 105 so we had just over  50 of them between us and the car.

There are developers at work up here, the landslip just above is not a pretty sight, what the blue 'tent' represents I have no idea.

There was a stream of trucks and pick-ups coming in, at one stage we saw a convoy of six large cars so we can safely say that the valley is 'changing'. I just hope they space out the houses, keep as many trees as possible and plant lots of new ones. Attempts have been made to protect the larger trees but they don't look at all happy. We left that area and walked down past the Thai temple road. We had a second break at the bikers shelter and then returned to the car.

Yuehong was very happy, it had been a most successful day. Her diet is going well and the pounds are melting away. All helped by a large portion of healthy food at the Yo Yo Huat in Sungai Ara. This time there was no delay on the way home and there was even time for an early evening swim.

It's a fascinating area, almost all has been cleared at some time, initially for rubber but maybe half has been abandoned, the rest mainly converted to durians and other fruit. There is more good new walking to be found for sure.