Penang Hills and Trails - Jalan Tun Sardon Horseshoe
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 longish 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 fourth 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.

• Relau Explorer 1
• Relau Explorer 2
• Relau Explorer 3
• Relau Explorer 4

I haven't called this one 'Explorer' as it follows a route provided by Peter van der Lans. We took a 502 bus up and over Anjung Indah, persuading the bus driver to stop somewhere near our kicking off point at km 1.2 just above the junction with the Relau Pass road. It's right opposite one of our regular entries to the Nanshan area and easy to spot with its two small shrines.

Yuehong had asked for a slightly longer walk than we had enjoyed so far; fair enough it was our 6th time out and the day's terrain was set out before us. At the bottom is the quarry which needed to be avoided, we had to skirt the left of the intermediate ridge and climb up to the hills behind, walking across to the ridge and ending up at Anjung Indah which is off to the right.

Basically this is the remains of an old path from Relau to Nanshan which was bisected by the construction of Jalan Tun Sardon in the late 1970s. The first part was extremely pleasant, dropping gently before curving in a semi-circular shape through old fruit orchards which included a magnificent stand of bamboo. At the time of writing it's actually one of Google Map's roads which aren't. It couldn't last, of course, and as expected we came out on a real road just along from the quarry. 

We ignored the road and took the inviting track opposite, as expected it passed just above the outer limits of the Relau developed area.

It was wide enough for a vehicle but unmaintained, I assume that the road we eventually emerged on loops around by near the quarry. We tried the continuation of our track opposite but it soon faded out.

So we set off down the road, we tried the next branch right but once again it was a dead end, finishing at a house, beyond was a durian estate but our target road was certainly some distance away, too far for a speculative bash on our first visit here.

I was seriously unimpressed by the next section which was downhill in the hot sun and we ignored the Chinese temple. Fortunately the road flattened out and re-entered fruit orchards.

The junction came as a pleasant surprise, I had been counting down the electricity poles and we were still in double figures. We had only been here once before and some time ago in 2014 (Twelve Bends to Heaven) and started our main ascent for the day. We passed by the new tower block seen in the background behind the temple above, the view out now was blocked.

Not that it would have amounted to much as this 2014 picture shows. No doubt, the inhabitants-to-be have congratulated themselves on the prospect of having a natural view of the hills behind them, but it will only last until the next high rise is installed. In the meantime, we could put all that behind us and climb up to the T junction with the familiar mast above. We've been here many times, there are plenty of earlier pictures of this area elsewhere.

The key thing is to turn right there. Just below the mast is a new house, now completed. Outside it were the recently arrived contents of two large air conditioned cars, being a couple of old ladies and a gaggle of young ladies whose idea of communing with nature was to immediately get out their smart phones. Unlike the people who live up here for real, they didn't bother to say 'hello', the ambience of the place was obviously totally lost on them. Yuehong was a little further up the road and I had to call her back, because to the side of the house was a renovated path which had been inaccessible on our previous visits.

I was apprehensive as I had collected an 'earful' for wasting the lady's energy but that all abated when it became clear that the path was a gem, cutting the corner and avoiding a steep section of the road. It was that 'Tiger Moment', the first of the trip as previous jaunts had been too short to justify one. We relaxed for a full half hour, there was no hurry as we knew exactly what was left and it involved very little climbing. Afterwards, the smile returned and I was forgiven.

There are junctions on this path, but all to the right and sandy as it winds up to the expected final junction. Left leads to the upper trails we have used before, ahead was a familiar small ruined hut, long disused to judge from the 2000 calendar on the wall.

This is where first timers need to be wary because, immediately after, the path finishes. Don't despair, just climb up a short way and make your way through about 50 metres of bananas. In due course you'll see the path restarting just below you - the direct route seems to have been deliberately allowed to become overgrown (it was clear by 2017).

Scramble down and follow the path all the way to Anjung Indah. The views are splendid, not all of them include the concrete jungle, like this one from earlier in 2015. For full details see our Relau Explorer 2 report.

The dogs at the house to be passed are none too friendly but back off once they realise you aren't going to try to get into it. In half an hour we were at the bus stop and the 502 kept us waiting as long again but there was still plenty of time for fruit shopping (water melon, rambutans and mangoes) as well as dinner and the trusty 17.30 501 bus. Yuehong's right knee was playing up, fortunately I knew the best treatment was a can or two of cold Tiger applied unopened and externally. It worked a treat and afterwards I had the pleasure of disposing of the contents.

The builders are in next door to our flat, the noise and dust on weekdays is unbearable so we shall take Saturday and Sunday as rest days and commute daily to Balik Pulau and so on until the worst is over. That will mean shorter, less demanding walks as we shall be deprived of our usual recovery time.