The International Steam Pages


Penang Hills and Trails - Relau Explorer 3
Revisiting My Old Hash Haunts

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 is the third 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. The final report is based on the first three.

We took a 502 bus up to Anjung Indah, today's aim was to identify the path(s) which would link the masts to the road leading up to the 'Carpet', we had already found paths across at a lower level. Along the way, we had a few things to check out. We first walked down Jalan Tun Sardon in the Air Itam direction, past the km 2.3 sign to the next house at km 2.2. It doesn't look very inviting, but there's only a piece of wire holding the gates closed so access was easy and the path went well clear of the house. Today there was just one dog around and it decided to run away. First we needed to check the wide trail up at the back of the orchard, the initial obstructions weren't too bad.

Further up there was evidence that it is not greatly used and it finished at the bottom of the durian estate with the fence.

There was no point to plough on, at best we would have reached the road beyond the masts and have had a fence between us and it. So we admired the view and walked down as we had done four days earlier. 

Looking up and across we could see today's target, a small transmission mast and below it and to the left was where we had climbed up through the overgrown rubber two days earlier, something we had no intention of repeating. When we got to the clearing at the bottom, Yuehong took a rest and I was dispatched to check out the possibility of a proper path up.

Yuehong had spotted a path from the hut opposite, but when I went into the valley, I discovered that it just connected to the point where I had left her. Back I went, diverting to the entrance to the birds' nest factory. I didn't want to go in, which was just as well but I was disappointed to find that their electricity poles had no numbers, hence I could not identify where their access road joined Jalan Tun Sardon. (For more information on this see the Relau Explorer 4 report.)

So together we went across the valley to the hut as before, this time avoiding the concrete road. We went up to the ridge and when I pointed out the concrete path below, Yuehong insisted we check it out;  well down to Relau didn't strike either of us as a good idea, but up looked good.

Well it was for all of 50 metres then the path finished and we had no choice but to climb back up. We'd not had a great day so far, in fact nothing new had worked at all and Yuehong was feeling 'tired', it being my fault for waking her up too early when she hadn't been sleeping well. When I asked for a picture to show where we had previously climbed into the overgrown rubber, she stuck her tongue out at me and the camera went away.

It didn't really matter as we were on the same route as before, we followed the trail down and then up to the house and turned right and right again and headed up towards the 'Carpet'. I was quietly confident that a concrete path I had spotted which ran right would do the business but some patience was needed while Yuehong trudged up, fortunately it was barely 14.00 and time was on our side. I said nothing, normally this is her favourite kind of path. This is the first junction, the other path goes 100 metres and finishes.

When we met some Nepali guest workers who agreed this was a good way to get to the masts at Anjjung Indah, she perked up a bit especially as I suggested going higher up from the junction here would not be necessary. For information on this path, see the Relau Explorer 4 report.

Of course the view down to the airport may have helped.

In retrospect we should have taken the path down at the next junction, later we could see it immediately curved left and joined up (give or take a small burned patch) with where we had broken through on the previous walk. As it was the path ahead finished at a vegetable patch and we were left with a short scramble to reach the mast, behind is the birds' nest factory. I was 'demob happy', I'd made my point and cracked a Tiger.

We took the road down to the house, 'granny' was home this time, she looked more than a little surprised to see us but Yuehong said a few words and we were waved through. This time, we had barely 10 minutes to wait for a 502 and were in Balik Pulau by 16.30. We have had a communications crisis back home as the public WiFi has collapsed completely, but Yuehong had spotted a Wifi password on the Hometown Food Court wall. We had brought the kit with us and it proved by far the best connection we have ever experienced in Penang, it was like lightning. Problem solved, even if it is 30km from home, we go there anyway every couple of days, it's free and the Tiger is as cheap as anywhere on the island. And as for Yuehong's mood, well not for the first time it turned out she hadn't had enough to eat before coming out. She scoffed a bowl of Koay Teow soup and beamed at me.

One more visit here to check out the other paths round the ridge and I think I will be able to declare this area well and truly sorted. The very private house below the mast, we believe, can be avoided by going just a little bit higher through the rubber, it's not the kind of place I would want to encourage too many hikers to walk through.


Relau Area

Key:

 ____ = Concrete Road

 ____ = Path

 ____ = Easy 'Off piste'

 ____ = Seriously 'Off piste'

(Not all paths are shown, there are many more
which are seasonal or just go to houses.)

Click here for information on the maps.


Rob and Yuehong Dickinson

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk