Penang Hills and Trails - Sungai Ara Explorer 6
The Wooden Bridge Part 1

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a short and gentle Grade 2 walk. There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed. 

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

Yuehong is under orders from our doctor in Penang to scale back her hiking as her right knee is suffering from osteoarthritis. Primarily that mean no more long(er) walks and finding downhill paths which place less strain on her joints, not to mention climbs and flat sections which are generally smoother. Which is hiker speak for no more overgrown rubber estates in the south of the island and no more rain gauge and National Park paths in the north and in general no 'off-piste' sections. As a dutiful husband I will try to oblige, it won't be easy but we have only two weeks left in Penang for the 2017-8 season. This walk revisiting a couple of trails we had used only once and some new ones amounted to overkill, her toy recorded just 4km and 2 hours net on the move. However, it was so enjoyable that I have been ordered back immediately for a further session here.

We were running very late today and parked up at about 13.00 a short way along the Sungai Ara valley road at the turn off for a temple on the left although today's expedition would be on the opposite (north) side of the valley. We needed to walk back a short way and turn left.

There's a small pool here popular with local children, the new path looked 'interesting' but had a closed gate across it. Round the corner, we briefly visited the small Chinese (9 dragons) temple with the grand old man in residence. They no longer had a wild boar in a cage, I was glad to hear that they had released it.

Today's path started behind the toilet block! Not surprisingly we'd discovered it coming downhill and it seems the new path has been built to bypass the temple.

At the first (only) junction we kept right and started to climb, it's only a small hill and despite it being very warm again, it was pleasant hiking.

After we passed the small hut, I recognised the point where we had come in when we had climbed up from the 'wooden bridge' off the valley road.

There was a small shelter and then an unusually shaped durian, I'd call it 'the one with the less fattening centre' but Yuehong says it's a 'Hor Lor' a popular local cultivar which originated in Balik Pulau.

We came to the end of the orchard, the one beyond seems to have been heavy handed with the herbicide. We climbed up past the water tank to the local high spot and went down across the stream.

Ahead is what passes for a fence in the 'Sunshine Durian Orchard' hardly a serious attempt to exclude visitors. We saw them building the concrete road 4 years ago and although the 'gate' had a padlock on it, it had long ago separated from its hinges so it was easy to get out!

We'd been at this crossroads many times, but had never bothered to check straight ahead and now it was time. The road went gently downhill past a hut, there was a junction with a path going left (which is next on our list) and then we turned right to a much larger than average house which like all the others had seen better days. There was a path to the left of it.

Above the house on the ridge looking out east was a temple, Tua Pek Kong had been relegated to the out house at the bottom of the steps.

The boards are unusual, on the right are the Chinese numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and on the left the same but in reverse order. Inside, it's clearly a Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) establishment, it's very rare to find one of these in the hills.

We carried on up, but by now we were heading in the direction we had come but higher. I looked to the left, I could see a path but when I went through I found I was next to the same Hor Lor durian tree.

Back we went to the temple and down to the house where the Hakka owner had appeared. He now lives down in Sungai Ara, but he said the house and temple were built by his family in the 1980s. I can only speculate that senior members had insisted on adding the latter and that some matriarch had specified it should be Guan Yin.

We asked him where the other path led to and he immediately answered 'the wooden bridge'. I checked by asking if he saw mountain bikers coming past and he said 'lots' which was what I would have expected from reports I have seen on the web. However, since we had never been up this way, it seemed a good idea to check it out.

At this small junction, I checked out the path to the left to see it it connected to the durian orchard on the other side of the valley. I could have clambered down and up again, but the path itself turned out to follow a water pipe to the stream.

We took a break and continued down coming to a junction where I am sure we had gone upwards on our previous visit.

This is obviously a very old path and I had forgotten how easy it would be on the knees, there are long sweeping zig-zags and it's easy to see why it's so popular with the mountain bikers. 

The ramshackle house was a familiar landmark from before and then we were at the bridge and Mavis Mark 2 was just a couple of minutes away.

After our traditional visit to the YoYo, Yuehong had a visit to make. The gap on the shelf at the back represents a souvenir on its way back to the UK, a small Tua Pek Kong statue in our garden will be a perfect reminder of happy days in Penang while we are working in it all summer long.

Click here for our further investigations above the 'wooden bridge'.