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Penang Hills and Trails - Relau Explorer 4 |
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This is one 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. IMPORTANT As of January 2024, the route south from Anjung Indah has been blocked by a new owner with a security fence backed up by razor wire. This account is linked from my Penang Peaks page which lists peaks over 400 metres as well as other places of interest and viewpoints. To find other hikes which visit this peak please check the maps of this are using this link. In fact very little hiking is needed as the peak lies up the road to the left about 500 metres from the start, in fact it is under the upper of the two transmission masts. This is the fourth in a series of walks which build on each other as we explored the region between Anjung Indah and Relau. It would be sensible to read the earlier reports before this one as it assumes some existing familiarity with the area. We took a 502 bus up to Anjung Indah, today's aim was to find a route beyond the masts which did not depend on the goodwill of a large private house we had walked past twice before. Since the third walk had been shorter than average, we skipped our day off but Yuehong was much perkier than the day before. We went up the road towards the masts and saw that what looked like an ordinary gate on the left was actually remotely controlled as two motorbikes sailed in. We kept right.
At least two paths go up at the point below, all the information we have suggests that neither goes through but we will leave it to others to confirm this. I don't have a map of the reserve area here, but I left somewhat confused as what looks like it had been jungle next to the road had recently been cleared and was still burning. Put together with the rubbish near the main road it begs the question does anyone care?
At which point one of the farmers who has a house well below the reserve came past and stopped to talk with us. He was a Balik Pulau Hakka, yet another former pupil of Sacred Heart School. He knew that conventional fertilisers were a waste of time in the hills, he had two bags of old fashioned chicken shit with which to feed his ginger plants. He also told us that the current (raw) rubber price is just MYR 2.80 a kilo (GBP 0.50), a price that makes it uneconomical to tap the trees above his house. He invited us to visit his home, to get there we needed to take the road right at the next junction, left would take us to the private house with gates which nevertheless would give access to the hills beyond.
There's the usual trespass sign to ignore, of course, and we kept to the right of the first house, passed below the birds' nest factory until the road ended at his modest house. We had a very interesting 20 minutes here learning yet more about the area and its people.
He wasn't too keen for us to go further on, instead he suggested going up the valley behind. That path soon died at the end of the water pipes, so we turned left in the direction we really wanted to go and were immediately rewarded with PH3 (1965) paper - my old hash still using old fashioned biodegradable trail materials.
We stuck with the paper for a while, it meant scrambling up a level but we were heading in the right direction.
The paper then turned right along the edge of the rubber, as we neared the jungle above, not for the first time in my life, I lost the paper. It was time to turn left and head for the young rubber. The picture lies, it was actually an easy route to follow.
Very soon we were out of the nonsense, we walked around the side of the hill and found that we were some way above the small mast. The view was most interesting, through the trees I could spot the road coming up from Relau towards the point at which it turned right for the 'Carpet'.
We could easily have gone down left to the small mast, but to the right was of more interest. Above was another 'slash and burn area', did it impinge on the reserve? Don't hold your breath waiting for a forestry department official coming to check, they would probably get a heart attack climbing up the hill. Downwards was what promised to be Yuehong's kind of path.
It was a very pleasant zig-zag route down and eventually we came to the junction we had been to the day before where the Nepalis were hard at work.
From here we took a lunch break just before the 'Carpet' road before going down through familiar territory to the local 'dog house' from where we went left to the open area above the next birds' nest factory. Yes, it was the fourth time we had used the path in a week, but it is an exceptionally pleasant route and I had trouble understanding why anyone should be bored with it.
Across the valley, we came to what was a 'new' route, we went to the right of the birds' nest factory. They don't welcome visitors and Yuehong hadn't noticed she was on CCTV.
I confess that I had assumed I could block my ears and just follow the poles along to Jalan Tun Sardon. No such luck, after we passed the barrier we came to a T junction. The poles went down and right which didn't seem a good idea.
Instead we went left up the hill. On the first bend left we could have gone straight on but to me it smelt 'fishy'. The next bend right brought us past a house which at first sight looked abandoned but had washing hanging up and a car parked outside. The metal gate was a waste of tine.
We were not entirely confident until a motorcycle appeared in front of us and carried on down without blinking - normally if we are on a dead end they will stop and tell us. As we rounded the next bend we came to familiar power lines and could hear the traffic on Jalan Tun Sardon. For the record we came out at the 2.0 km post, that is apparently a Guan Yin (Goddess of Mercy) temple sign but we had obviously missed it.
There are no official bus stops in this area, we had our usual polite discussion about what to do and eventually decided that it would be difficult to persuade a 502 to stop. That meant a 1km walk up to the Anjung Indah area, but the gods were truly smiling on us as as almost immediately one appeared, I made a begging sign and it stopped. Yuehong literally sprinted up the hill lest the driver should change his mind, I confess I just followed a respectful distance behind. Anyway, we were in Balik Pulau well before 16.00. In other words there was plenty of time to catch up on our internet world and enjoy an early dinner with all the trappings. I, at least. was totally satisfied, it's another area ticked off and we'll only be back when we need a well defined leisure walk with no surprises.
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