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Penang Hills and Trails - Cross Country |
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This is part of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang. Click here for the index. This is a 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. This was intended to link three sections known to us by using two
previously unknown sections. The latter were in areas covered by parts of
two EveryTrail reports - The 302 bus covers the distance between Sungai Ara and Bayan Lepas in maybe 5 minutes, this route took as many hours mainly because Yuehong's body just refuses to be hurried these days. Nevertheless it is an outstanding hike, with some great walking and compared to most relatively little heavy climbing. It was a Sunday, the one day in the week when I will countenance getting to a hiking spot at the far end of the island going via Komtar. Using a 101 / 302 combination we made it to the Jalan Kenari junction from Mount Pleasure in well under two hours. Should you not have read the other pages detailing the start from this area, I repeat these picture which show the temple on Jalan Kenari and the turn right on to the concrete road just after it.
This will be my last report from the 2012/13 walking season (ie corresponding to the UK winter) and I wanted some special which would also tie up some loose ends. 'Leave them wanting more' is all very well but it will be in excess of 6 months before we are back in action in Penang. So while I sent Yuehong ahead to the rest area, I went to check out the two Chinese temples on either side of the road. The first is approached past a waterfall which is a favourite place for the local young lads to gather. The temple has a wild boar ('Babi Hutan') as some kind of pet, it's not badly treated as such but it certainly doesn't deserve to be trapped in this cage.
Inside the temple, the decorations could be described as 'traditional' or less kindly as 'bog standard', the most interesting feature was the Chinese calligrapher at work.
The other temple was guarded by five yapping dogs which is always a bad sign. Looking back down the valley, the upper parts of the end condo in Jalan Kenari could be seen, which I suppose would make a USP point for some of the flats to have a view of this temple.
Yuehong had enjoyed her early break and we took the left fork just after the wooden houses. This went up the side of what appears to be another 'boutique' holiday experience, a swimming pool was visible through the fence.
Almost immediately we were faced with a junction, we elected to go left and soon we could see some houses on the right which vindicated our decision. Then we came to an expected 4 way choice. A man on a motorbike told us that each was a dead end, in particular the one on the left which was 'his house'. Well no one in their right mind would have tried the first one on the right (see below). The walkers' report said to use the one behind Yuehong's left shoulder (second right) and the man, suitably impressed by our knowledge, left us to get on with it.
Apart from the web source, Yuehong had just met the man from the chicken farm below Malihom who had proved reliable previously and told her that this was a good choice. Our chosen path passed through an open gate, closing and locking it would only have deterred motocyclists as bikers and hikers could obviously have easily got over or around it.
We were now faced with what would be the main climb on the hike. We were in a large fruit orchard but the whole area appears incredibly green, very little of it is 'natural', almost all has been converted to fruit and rubber at some stage although much of the rubber has been steadily reverting to jungle over the years. The ridge behind is in the Malihom area.
There had been one path coming in on the right (some years later found to be a dead end) and there was just one small house just off the path. Higher up there were good views across to the transmission mast near 'The Carpet' on the path from Sungai Ara to Balik Pulau. That's quite a house that someone has got down there!
We were now roughly level with the main ridge of the Penang range between Anjung Indah and Bukit Genting but were about to leave the fruit orchard. There was just a glimpse of Relau and Bukit Jambul before we came to an area that was mainly overgrown rubber.
Very soon, there was a path to the left, it was in poor condition and with
a number of exposed small rocks. Could this really be the bikers' trail?
Actually it is, make sure you take it (by
2017 it was in much better condition). These guys and gals are clearly dog
barking (biting?) mad when it comes
to what they will take their first loves down. Anyway, being sceptical as
always we checked out what lay ahead. There was a 'tappers trail' also to the
left and the concrete path finished at a house which was not currently in use.
Just to be certain we also looked at the other path, but as often is the case
it went through to a final section of the durian orchard before expiring. At
least this time Yuehong had not had too much of a wasted climb. (In 2017 we
discovered that a small trail
follows the contour round from beyond the house, eventually descending
back to the Sungai Ara valley - see
There was still a little climbing to do and the path was rutted in places as if the rain had got to where too many bikers had passed. We were certainly now on the right route, there were plastic signs all along the way, the flatter sections of the path had not been affected.
We left the old rubber and the trail became wider. We were greeted with several 'trespass' notices which looked very new. Was this a response to a mass invasion? The prosecution threat is legal nonsense of course but it would be a shame if insensitive use caused paths like this to be closed by owners.
We were soon into durian country, the walking was very pleasant and, yes, that's yet another new 'trespass' notice on the tree on the left. The path then went down through some old rubber.
We emerged in a recently cleared area where the owner had caused more environmental damage damage than a million bikers could ever have managed.
We had completed our first 'unknown' section and were now back on the descent of our Bayan Lepas Lollypop walk - the path to the left up the hill goes to the coconut plantation at the top of Bukit Papan. We headed down past the giant bird's nest factory and came to the junction with the hut. To be honest Yuehong was looking rather tired by now and I did ask if she wanted to go directly down to Bayan Lepas while I tried to sort the second 'unknown' section. However, given there was not much of a climb left she was happy to continue.
It's a lovely path up through the old rubber, going a second time always makes a path seem shorter.
Soon we got to the junction for the Bukit Papan summit and this time took the left fork. It was literally downhill all the way from here. The path was clear but rather gloomy, there was just a single junction which led right to a temporary rubber tappers hut in a clearing. Apart from appearances, given the number of mosquitoes which were giving Yuehong a hard time, I would not call this a 'des res' at all.
It was now 17.00 and progress was slowing but as we entered a small durian estate, I immediately recognised it as the spot where we had thrown in the towel on 'The Wrong View' walk.
I wondered how long it would take Yuehong to realise it too. Tired as she was, it took less than a minute as we turned right and came to a concrete bridge. I won't say that she took off like a rocket, but there was definitely a renewed spring in her tired step.
Very soon we were at the 4 way junction at the top of the climb from Bayan Lepas and she even had the energy to wave her walking stick at the dogs as we passed the empty house.
We were into Bayan Lepas well before 18.00 and onto a 401E bus after a short wait. At the airport a 102 bus was ticking over and it took very little thought to jump on it - that would obviate the change at Komtar and the risk of having to stand on a 101 bus for the rest of the journey. A great plan which was somewhat disrupted by a major incident on the Datuk Keremat Road which saw us on a congested diversion we could have done without. Nevertheless, we got our dinner eventually. We both slept well... This was a fine conclusion to our explorations for the time being. If you fancy this walk, then we strongly recommend that you extend it by going up to the top of Bukit Papan. This is easily achieved by turning right at the cleared area as indicated above and doing it in reverse until you get to the junction before the final stretch through the old rubber. I'll leave you with a view which is NOT available on any of our hikes because it was taken from the balcony of our flat while I was part way through writing this report. Happy hiking to all our (not very many) readers!
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