Penang Hills and Trails - Bukit Batu Ferringhi Challenge
Tanjung Bunga to Batu Ferringhi the Hard Way

IMPORTANT

By December 2023, the route from the Bayview Beach Hotel towards the Batu Ferringhi Reservoir past the 'Chin Farm' had been aggressively blocked by razor wire in the area where there is a gate by the water tank. There are also numerous signs stating "NO TRESPASSING - NOT A PUBLIC HIKING TRAIL"

This will mean that there is no longer any access to / from any of these well known paths:

1. That to the Rimba at Teluk Bahang
2. That to RG 17, 18 and 19  (and on to Bukit Batu Ferringhi / Western Hill area)
3. That to RG 20 (and on to Western Hill area)

I do not know about current access through the main gate to the aqueduct above the former Holiday Inn.

In March 2017, I visited Bukit Batu Ferringhi (580m asl) three times, I have written at length about the experience (east to west and west to east). If you are not familiar with them, it might be a good idea to flick through them before reading what follows. I consider these BBF walks to be the toughest available on the island because there are no formal paths except for the connecting 'rain gauge trails' and it is very easy to lose your way, to the extent that I would not attempt the west to east route again, it being challenging in the extreme to follow the optimal ridge downwards from the summit.

Until this visit to Penang, I would have been very reluctant to take Yuehong along but when she expressed an interest a couple of months back, I said to wait until we were properly fit and by then the route would have dried out somewhat and some of the more obnoxious plant growth would have died back. We were as well prepared as we could be, Yuehong had taken two days off to rest her arthritic knee and I had carefully read my reports to minimise repeating mistakes made on previous hikes here.

Once again, the starting point was the PBA pump house in Jalan Lemba Permai, Tanjung Bunga. We knew it would be a long, long day so we started around sunrise at 07.30, the daily strollers were already busy but not surprisingly in Penang, there was no security presence at this early hour, so there were no lies to be told about our destination. After a particularly hot spell, it had rained significantly overnight, this made for welcome cooler conditions and as a bonus a softer ground (and leaf coverage). 

This is a 2017 view of BBF from near the starting point. The ridge we followed runs from the PBA secure area (white building on the left) up to a point where the slope eases and then continues up to the summit. The ridge on the right comes from Carla's Peak above the north coast of the island, the ridge on to RG 18 continues behind the summit of BBF. The path on my map actually starts along from the Sungai Kelian valley which we had hiked also in 2017.

Yuehong set her app recording as usual but I warned her that the toy with its limited contour resolution was of no help here during the hike and please not to question any of my decisions today! As there was no one from the PBA around, we could photograph and pass behind the red board with impunity. It is difficult to have much confidence in a public authority that not only wastes money on stupid blue boards but can't even get the name of their streams right - it should be 'Kelian' of course. Just ahead there was a tree down across the path, but just enough had been done with a chain saw to make it easy to get past. This area had been hit hard by the November storms, not far away a road in a new housing development had been undercut and collapsed and several people had been killed afterwards when an unsupported cleared slope slipped. It told me what to expect on the climb today.

There was PH3 paper where we started climbing (but no more) and marker stones soon to confirm we were on a ridge. For most of the way up we would never be far from a gully which represented an eroded old path.

"Stop" said Yuehong and she grabbed the camera from me. I have to admit it that it came out quite well.

The early part of the ridge is pretty wide and it mattered little where we climbed, we just took the line of least resistance through the more open areas. However, I always seem to end up at the pile of pipes by the Sungai Kelian pipeline. It's a good place for a water stop, just before it we saw the only other piece of hash paper left from that I saw last year.

Above was a bit of a plod, this was our first tree down, it wasn't a problem and we passed quickly through a welcome open area. Higher up, at times several trees were down across the width of the ridge and we would find it easiest to divert.

 Another tree and then the ridge was narrow enough that the few hikers who come this way were constrained and had worn a single path.

Yuehong was going well, she thought it nothing like as tough as I had painted it, but each tree climbed over would take its toll on the stamina. There aren't many landmarks, but this huge boulder told me that the worst of the climb was over. So I knew to skirt the ferns ahead on the right side, taking care as the slope runs steeply down, then it was back on the path.

Inevitably, it was rarely that clear for long and with the summit ahead and known to be covered in ferns, it was time for a snack. A Chinese cake was a rare treat for us, normally Yuehong has just a little fruit and I rely on a blue can, but this was going to be a lot harder than anything else we had done on the visit so far.

Another tree or three (or more) and we were into the summit area. Never mind you know or have been told what it will be like, the reality is a bit of a shock.

Especially when it extends to the whole of the summit area and some way down the sides. Straight ahead worked last year and it did this time, the ferns parted more easily than before, either I had done an exceptionally good job last time or people have been reading this website and coming this way so we got through quite quickly, unbelievably just 5 minutes of trampling and snipping.

Beyond, we found what looked rather like a path running to the left, it hadn't been there a year ago and when we came to the landmark tree it turned right just as it should.

No one ever emails me about these pages, but it's good to know someone outside my very small circle of friends may be reading them - mostly the main purpose of the write ups is for my own benefit on days like today and places like this where the consequences of getting it wrong are not pleasant. So when the path climbed just a smidgeon and continued flat, before it started to go down, I knew we had to turn left, this tree would do for a landmark in future. Yuehong gave me the 'are you sure?' look and I just went in. I know someone who chose to go straight on at this point and ended up spending the night up here.

Initially the side ridge is quite wide but knowing the right angle to take, it soon became narrower and started to go down, it looks steep but is MUCH steeper on either side, the clear area seen looking both down and up later is very distinctive. 

Where it reaches a small col, we should have gone straight ahead but that wasn't easy today as there was a tree down in just the wrong place. Going round was a little slippery and it cost Yuehong a tweak to her bad knee. After a few minutes rest, she pronounced herself ready to continue and from here there was no real way of going wrong.

Essentially this ridge undulates more or less in a straight line and under the canopy either there is a hint of a path or it's sufficiently open to make your own way. I recognised the boulder and the squeeze round the side of it.

There were ferns to the right of of us and ferns to the left of us but never at the same time and importantly they never covered the ridge.

At just one point our available space was barely a metre and Yuehong for some reason best known to herself decided she needed some water. She hung her hat on a convenient small dead branch and for extra decoration added her small bag with toy and medicaments (insect repellant, sun block, Tiger Balm etc), the extra weight of which was more than it could bear and her treasures ended up just below the edge of the ridge with a huge drop below. Neither of us would have wanted to risk climbing down to retrieve them but fortunately my walking stick was just long enough to hook both back up again to safety.

Given her knee's status, a 'you s****** w****' style remark would not have been a good idea and we continued on. I knew we weren't very far from the rain gauge, but the cumulative effects of 6 hours of jungle bashing were taking their toll. 

I remembered to turn slightly right off a small summit and we came to this open area which I knew to be the last of the landmarks of this section. Twenty minutes later and I knew the secateur snipping for the day was almost over, mostly they had been applied to the 'wait a while' vine with its tiny hooks on its tendrils which remove hats, snare clothes and rip the skin of anyone who tries to brush past them, in my book they are even worse than the prickly vines which rapidly colonise any bright areas in abandoned rubber.

These ferns didn't scare me in the least, I knew that Rain Gauge 18 (RG 18) was just ahead. I had abstained from all forms of serious refreshment up till now for fear of letting my concentration slip, I hadn't made a single wrong decision on what I consider to be the most difficult traverse I have done on the island. I was delighted to discover that the cold bag which Yuehong was carrying was heavier than I had expected.

Although it was past 14.00 and we had a long way still to go, a rest before continuing represented a good investment of time. Apart from the occasional unexpected blockage, the ridge path onward is clear and in good condition but I was a little tired, Yuehong was more so and her knee was giving her hell which wasn't totally unexpected as all visit it had complained every time we had been out for more than about 5 hours.

There's nothing I could do to help, I was already carrying the main water supply (5 litres initially) and to that I added the cold bag. The body language says it all.

Fortunately, the path had more or less escaped the storm damage although there had been a large landslip just to the left, another one like that would cause the ridge to drop by quite a few metres. Before the next rain gauge, unfortunately, the path drops considerably which leads to a significant climb up which finishes going through ferns.

With her agreement I left Yuehong to her miseries, going at her snail's pace wasn't doing my own bad knee any favours. I didn't greatly enjoy the ferns but I did break more than a few so the path would stay cleared for longer. Another Tiger had long gone before she appeared at the anonymous rain gauge 17 (RG 17) and the time slippage was beginning to give me concerns, but there was no question of asking her to speed up.

I monitored progress by going ahead and waiting. It was painful, I tried to help by carrying her bag. Finally at 18.30, Yuehong emerged at the aqueduct. She was not surprisingly relieved and pleased in equal amounts to have completed the jungle sections, "Give me a hug" she said which I was happy to do but ever so carefully.

Of course, we were still some way from the Bayview Beach Hotel but even in her condition we should have got out by sunset. Unfortunately, the heavens now opened, the rain came down first gently and then more insistently, switching the lights off in the process. I got the bags as quickly as I could to a dry place (cameras and Iphones don't take kindly to water immersion) disturbing a wild boar not far from the main road. In our state it would have been bad manners to have jumped in a taxi but we quickly got a bus to Tanjung Bunga. I eased Yuehong to a coffee shop and revived her with a hot sweet tea although she wasn't up to a dinner. You can tell how knackered I was by my ordering a coffee instead of a Tiger to go with my meal. Afterwards, I collected Mavis and whipped us back home. Yuehong had a hot shower and vanished to bed where she slept for 10 hours. I followed her shortly after when I had tidied up the contents of the bags and for the first time in months I slept straight through the night.

The reality is that Yuehong will have to take at least some of her doctor's advice and retire from such excesses as today's hike and restrict herself essentially to what we call Gibby walks of no more than 5 hours duration. When she finished this one, she had said 'never again', but today when I asked her about tomorrow's Hakka feast at the Da Ba Gong temple high above Titi Kerawang, she said "Of course I'm going". It's a hard life being an exercise junkie and like all such things, being a late convert makes you more extreme.