Penang Hills and Trails - The Secret Garden Revisited
Tropical Fruit Farm to Pantai Acheh

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.

The 501 bus service referred to in this report had been withdrawn by September 2022. This makes this hike impractical for anyone without the use of a car.

This is only a brief summary of further explorations on this route, for basic details please read the original Secret Garden account. We repeated this walk in January 2015, November 2015 and November 2016 without the side trips, the route remains exactly as before, the paths are in excellent shape and the short connecting section is more distinct than ever. We used 101, 501, 404, 501 and 102 buses leaving home at 09.30 and returning just after 16.00. The pictures below show the 'new Yuehong' and what will be a more worthy than average addition to the area's housing stock.

We needed a safe walk of known length as we had to be back washed and scrubbed for dinner at 19.00. The Secret Garden had been one of the great little discoveries the previous year and it was well worth a revisit to check out some side trails. Here are a couple of pictures from the first visit to show you how to get started, the rest are all new; we arrived just before 11.00 on the 501, knowing that if we cocked things up we had to be back at our dropping off point by 15.00.

Part the way down the track we met the owner of the hill top ahead, he was perched on a very modest motorbike. He has an organic farm and plans to open it up as a centre for people wanting to recharge their batteries. All of which is more than can be said for the adjacent owner who seems intent on producing an ecological disaster, albeit down in the valley below all is still delightful:

:The trail is mainly through old rubber and on this occasion we had time for a diversion, a small path which led off to the right just as the main path was starting a slight climb before switching valleys. Yuehong acclimatises faster these days, it was she who spotted it and suggested we try it.

:We had no great expectations as it was following a stream which would surely empty into the Teluk Bahang Dam, which indeed we reached in about 15 minutes. There was no sign of paths onward along the water's edge in either direction.

We returned to the main path and continued to the house in the middle of the durian estate, no-one was at home. There were enough dogs here to persuade Yuehong not to return this way. That meant we would be going to Pantai Acheh and were under slight time pressure. So as we climbed up to the path which would take us there, we decided she would go on ahead and I would check out the second access down to the dam. It was barely 10 minutes away, but first I had to pass a small private pumping station with a particularly obnoxious dog.

:Just another dam, with signs of its recent establishment.

I had given Yuehong a 20 minute start and caught her up half way down the hill. We got to the coffee shop just as our 404 bus was due to leave Balik Pulau. What time would it get here? Some time after 14.00, said the good lady and so I was forced to drink two whole bottles of cold Tiger to keep them in business while Yuehong sunk a couple of herbal elixirs.

The bus duly turned up as anticipated leaving us another wait in Sungai Pinang for the 14.30 501 from Balik Pulau. Just enough time to sink the emergency Anchor and also to admire this vintage Morris minor from the 1960s.

We were home well before 17.00, with plenty of time to prepare to meet new friends for dinner. It's still a great short(er) walk and comes highly recommended.