Penang Hills and Trails - Round the Hills and Not So Far Away
The Minor Titi Kerawang Loop

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.

The 501 bus service needed to get to the start from the north of the island had been withdrawn by September 2022. This makes this hike impractical for anyone without the use of a car.

One of the joys of Yuehong's current passport is that she has to leave Malaysia after 30 days. This time away from the UK she again had a multi-entry visa and as we both had separate family issues to attend to we unusually went our separate ways for 2 weeks. On simultaneous return, we had a day off to recover from long flights and then restarted our hiking programme with what we intended (and indeed turned out to be) a gentle stroll 

We took the 10.30 501 bus with our regular driver who dropped us where he had before for the Titi Kerawang Loop walk. Since our first visit the gatehouse had acquired an accompanying gate, with surveillance cameras and a notice indicating that access was controlled by the Mukim 3 Cement Road Management Committee. The gate was firmly shut and we found a discarded hand written notice in Chinese indicating that the new system had been activated in late February. At this point a large 4WD vehicle swept through and we can only assume the driver had some electronic key. Later we saw the car parked up by a house under construction so presumably he was the contractor.

Since our previous visit, some people related to 'Macau Trailhikers' had been through and littered the route with plastic strips. These seem to be some kind of pseudo-green group with zero environmental awareness and responsibility. Indeed if these signs had been here previously we would have found the right route immediately just as we would have done if we had used a GPS, instead we had found another route down to Sungai Rusa and today we would further explore this lower area. I'm all for Malaysians getting fit but I don't believe that sending huge masses of people through private fruit orchards, vegetable gardens and what is left of the jungle here is the right way to do it (the annual Macau event would seem to attract four figure numbers if the website is to be believed).

Anyway, we turned right here (the route up we followed before goes straight on). At the next junction we continued right, the other track to the left is allegedly a dead end but we haven't explored it yet. One of the joys of being just two and in no great hurry is stopping and talking to the farmers. In this case the lady is explaining to Yuehong how the young durian trees  which would otherwise not be strong enough are grafted with cultivated stock. She also said that apart from the path down to Sungai Rusa she thought that all the others beyond her shed were dead ends.

So down we went as we had done before until we came to the small gate. This time, we wanted to have a quick look at the path to the left. For quite some while it looked quite promising but then it curved to the left and stopped...

So back we went, there would have been a nice view only Penang is currently shrouded in haze, not of Beijing proportions fortunately; I suspect this is due to seasonal paddy burning on the mainland. We went down through the durians and the occasional nutmeg as here until we reached the small hut shown.

Although Yuehong was still suffering from her visit to Beijing, we were making very good time and we paused for a snack and liquid refreshment. These durians had lost many of their young fruits in the drought and beyond we could just make out the golden globe of the Sungai Rusa mosque. This time instead of heading down, we turned right.

This was an undulating and undemanding path, along the way we passed what must be a spectacular waterfall at the right time of year, today it could barely raise a trickle.

There were several houses just off it, these ones had these attractive plants lining the nearby path. In no time we realised that we were just above the round-the-island road and we then hoped that we would be in time to catch the 13.10 501 ex-Teluk Bahang down to Sungai Pinang for some additional refreshment but it must have gone a little early as it often does as we know from experience..

The trail finished right on the first sharp right hand bend coming down from Titi Kerawang (the nearest JKR blue sign reads FT006/040/54). If you are walking in the opposite direction, bear left after the short rise behind Yuehong. We certainly weren't going to walk down to Sungai Pinang and nobody offered us a lift so we moved up a short distance to make it easy for the 14.30 501 from Balik Pulau to stop easily.

PHH 4505 gave us a gentle ride over the hill to Teluk Bahang, we picked up a nasi kandar take away for me and a substantial refill for the fridge and went home. Yuehong boiled herself some noodles and promptly went to sleep, the previous night she had been out for 15 hours which gives some idea of what it had been like in Beijing. Auckland, New Zealand is a far healthier place and I was left in peace to write up the walk.

We were back in business!