Five-hour trail adventure at Penang National Park

Entrance to the park

I have been to Penang on countless occasion and sometimes wondering where to visit never knowing that the most exciting places to visit lie in Penang National Park. I have decided to visit the beaches in the park when one of its beaches, Teluk Kampi beach was in the limelight due to the video clip of a group of local and foreign nudists  conducting their activities at the beach uploaded on internet. Though this incident happened more than a year ago, only on last Saturday, that is 27 of June that I decided to embark on a tracking adventure to the beaches in the park. 

We started our journey from Taiping around 8.00 am and we used the second bridge to go to our destination at Teluk Bahang via Balik Pulau. The road was a bit winding but certain parts of the stretch have been widened and straightened . At the side of the road from Balik Pulau to Teluk Bahang are numerous fruit farms setting up stalls selling branded durians. It is the durian harvesting season now. We stopped at one of the stalls and two of us ordered just one durian to be shared. Its name is 301 and it is the cheapest but still RM 8 per kg. That fruit came to RM 12 and luckily it was tasty. We were allowed to go to the durian orchard nearby to choose our own durian if we chose to. The road from Balik Pulau to Teluk Bahang is almost devoid of traffic because it is very narrow and big vehicle is no more allowed to travel along this stretch. Bus or lorry must use the Tanjung bunga way to go the National Park.

Carbon loading in a delicious way

We proceeded to the National Park at Teluk Bahang town after our durian. We parked our car at the car park operated by the local fishermen's cooperative which charged RM 3 for a day's parking. Entry to the park is free but we have to register our names and places we wish to visit at the information counter. We were also given a map of the park to guide us to our destinations. We set to track to Pantai Kerachut passing through Lake Meromictic and visit the Turtle Conservation Centre, turn back and track to Monkey beach via Tukun river trail and  USM Research Centre.

This is the trail map to guide us

 We brought along our lunch which is fried koay teow from our favourite stall in Taiping, some fruits, clothes and two bottles of water. We commenced our journey through the jungle trail to Pantai Kerachut  at 1100 am. As Penang is experiencing a dry spell at the moment it is quite easy to walk along the trail but still there are some elevations where stamina is required. Steep slopes usually consists of concrete steps with rope by the side for climber to hold. The trail is fairly well maintained and there is almost no litter along the trail. Visitors are warned not to leave any rubbish in the park and they really are heeding the advice.

Steep concrete steps

This trail will be covered next trip

  There are not many hikers even though it is a Saturday. This shows how poor the   publicity of this beautiful place is? Quite a lot 

of taxpayers' money have been spent in upgrading the park and the public should be more informed about place. We took about 1 hour and a half to reach the hanging bridge linking the jungle trail to Pantai Kerachut. The bridge spans over Lake Meromictic which is separated from the sea by a thin strip of sandy dune. The water of the lake is fresh and it is only of  knee-depth. Water is clear and clean and should be a perfect place to swim. We did not swim there because there is already a group of visitors dipping themselves in the water.

the only trench trail we encountered

Lake Meromictic and Kerachut beach separated by sandy dune

As it is already noon and time for lunch, we found ourselves a gazebo or small wooden hut under a shady pine tree to have our lunch. There are quite a number of gazebos for visitors to take shelter and rest. The wind was very strong and I wonder how many fine sands have been blown into the fried koay teow Seok Wan and I were eating. There were only few visitors at the beach maybe because visitors are prohibited from swimming at the beach.  There is a beach guard  stationed there to warn any visitors who try to swim there. It is too dangerous to swim there because there is strong current and drowning had happened before. 

After our lunch we proceeded to the Turtle Conservation Centre at the end of beach. We stopped at the toilets and bathrooms and were quite satisfied with its condition and cleanliness. There is even  a big gazebo for group activities near to the toilets and guard post.

Beach guard house

     

Bathrooms

The Turtle Conservation Center is just a small building nicely decorated with pictures and descriptions of turtle conservation. Besides that there are some turtle specimen on display and of course some baby turtles had just hatched one day ago and will be released into the sea for the purpose of conservation. There is a staff at the conservation center to explain anything about turtle conservation but only in the Malay language. As there were two Europeans who did not understand Malay Language  so I volunteered myself to be their translator. We are allowed to take part in conservation of turtle by releasing the turtle into the sea ourselves if we arrive at the right time or write in advance to get their permission.

One day old baby turtle

scenic Meromictic lake

As we will be going to the Monkey beach on another end of the park, we did not stay too long at Pantai Kerachut. We turned back along our original trail and branched into the trail to Tunku river which was seldom used by hikers as evident from the untrampled fallen leaves on the trail. I was a bit scared as the trail is narrow and quiet but feeling more secure after realizing that the two Europeans who are father and son from Perth were behind us. We were later joined by  two young men from Singapore. We passed by the camp site of Tunku River which has few cascading pools built in the river. There were some some local campers and an European couple having their picnic there. 

When we reached the junction leading to Monkey bridge and the entrance of the park, it was already 2.00 pm and we were hesitating whether to continue our adventure to Monkey bridge because the walk need one hour and a half. The Singaporeans gave up but we continued towards Monkey beach. I was quite sure the Australian father and son team would definitely gave up as the senior is quite plump and looked like in his sixty. I was shocked when we were joined by them again while we were resting at the beach outside the USM Research centre half an hour walk from the junction. Who dare say old and fat can not hike. In fact they did not rest and continued their hike to Monkey beach ahead of us. When we reached Monkey beach and have not really enjoyed the scenery at the beach the older Australian came running to me asking whether we would like to join them to take a boat back to the entrance of the park just for RM 10 per person. We agreed as another boat operator wanted to charge us RM40 for a boat. It is just a short ride from Monkey beach to our starting venue, perhaps just 10 minutes but it will take 2 hours to hike back.

A 10 minutes boat ride to replace 2 hours of trail

There is a bathroom at the information centre and Seok Wan took her shower and changed into dry clothes before we proceeded our journey back to Taiping. We returned to Taiping via Tanjung Bunga and saw the two Australians who wanted to wait for bus to their hotel at Bay View Hotel Batu Ferringi. Since we will pass by Batu Ferringi and I know that hotel is just by the roadside, we show our Malaysian warm hospitality towards foreign visitors by taking them back to their hotel. They happily agreed to our invitation and surely they will tell their friends that Malaysians are very friendly. 

The trail hike took almost 5 hours and we only felt thirsty but not tired. We should not feel tired after all these years of long distance running and hiking. I never expect the places we visited such as beaches and lakes are so scenic plus the surprises we saw at the turtle sanctuary, I should consider this trip as a very educational and a thrilling experience. We will definitely return as we still have not visited Kampi beach and lighthouse at Muka head.