With me being on holiday, Steve moved his Friday morning class to Thursday afternoon so we could have a long weekend off together. So we caught the night train up to Butterworth and we were over the water to Penang, on a bus bound for Batu Ferringhi and checked into a guesthouse before anywhere was open for breakfast. Pretty good going hey?
The first day’s walking was to be in Penang’s small National Park and since it was only 5kms away we decided to walk to it. We expected the trails to be quite short and basically were only mentally prepared for a walk in the park – literally! The park may be small but it is very well maintained and we couldn’t believe that it was free to use. The trails turned out to be steeper in places than we thought and a bit more extensive. By the time we got back to Batu Ferrinhi we’d walked 23kms. Not a bad warm up day for the real walk. The park does have some animals but we were only lucky enough to see some macaques and plenty of them.
The next day we were basically trying to do the walk we did last time we were in Penang but in reverse and using a different starting point before linking up with the main trail. The day started well when we saw a group of dusky langurs and one even had a very cute orange baby. However, per usual we couldn’t find the start of the trail and were just backtracking when we met a couple walking their dog and asked about the area’s trails. They were very informative and showed us where the trail used to start. It was obvious that we wouldn’t be able to go that way but instead of having to totally backtrack and go 5kms up the road to find the route we used last time they showed us an alternative way up. We basically followed an aqueduct up a tarmac road until it basically went straight up through the jungle to the top road that would then link to Penang Hill. The path was very clear until right near the end – we could see the communication tower but lost the path. On battling our way through the bracken we came to the fence. We knew it was a restricted area and had to skirt around the fence. Since we could clearly see the fence we thought all was well and we’d soon link up with the road. Er – not quite.
It turned out that the restricted zone wasn’t just a communications point but a military area. Obviously we’d been spotted stumbling around and someone came over to ask us our business. So we explained that we were following a good trail but lost it at the end blah blah and can you help us to find the summit road please. Of course we were invited in to show our ID so that they could verify who we were but unluckily I’d gone and left my gold card in KL. Not a good start but Steve had his driving licence so that helped a little. The next thing is they want to phone someone who can verify that I am who I say I am and where I work etc. Luckily they got hold of a Sara who is a teacher at my school, and seemed satisfied with whatever she told them. Even more fortunate is that both of us know our passport numbers off by heart so we could give them those so they could check with immigration that we have the visas we claim to have. We were then told they would show us the way out but we had to call them later to let them know where we were staying. I guess so they could come and nab us should the immigration department not be able to confirm our genuine presence in Malaysia.
They found it very strange that we don’t carry ID as the norm and in fact really we should do. They also couldn’t work out how we didn’t know where we were going to be staying. Evidently the concept of walking from Batu Ferringhi to Georgetown carrying all the gear you’ll need for a weekend away was just too alien for them! To be fair we were probably the only ones doing that.
Since we hadn’t found the tough route up to the top we felt a bit robbed of a good workout and had thought to go back down that way and then get a bus to Georgetown. However our brush with the military totally put me off the idea of any more jungle trekking for that day so we stuck to the road over to Penang Hill. Once there we still carried on with the plan to walk down to the Botanical Gardens but again this meant sticking to the road. Not what we’d intended at all but half way down we found the jungle path to Moon Gate and this would take us to almost the same end point as the road. So we decided to give it a go. It’s always more pleasant walking in the trees than down the road – not that there is much traffic on that road. We saw some lovely shiny black giant squirrels on the way down so at least we got to see a bit more wildlife too. Towards the bottom of the hill there were loads of trails but we stuck to what looked like the main one every time. In the end we never did find Moon Gate but we emerged from the forest into a playground so we knew we must be near civilisation again. About 10 mins before the end of the trail it started raining. It gave us chance to check out how waterproof the inbuilt rain covers on our new rucksacks were. Very good it turned out. Yes new packs as we simple didn’t have good enough daypacks in terms of size, comfort of carrying or general state of repair! Since we’re going to be carrying them for 6 days solid on Kilimanjaro we needed something up to the task and also bigger than the little packs we use every day on our bikes.
Maybe the loosing of the path did us a favour in the end. We’d been doing our usual nightly walks and just didn’t seem to have the enthusiasm for them – we were even walking slightly slower than normal. Plus of course it was the first time we were using our new packs and we were carrying quite a lot of stuff. Maybe the tough route up would have been a step too far and we’d have started to loose interest. I think we’d hit a natural low point in the training programme and I’m sure that’s normal. We’ve never trained for anything before so don’t really know how our body will react over the long run. In the end we still did 2 full days of walking (about 40kms) and on the second day went from sea level to 1000m and back down to sea level so it’s not to be sniffed at really. We’re going back for the final weekend before jetting off to Africa and do the tough route using the path well away from the restricted zone!
Once in Georgetown we quickly found somewhere cheap and cheerful to stay and checked in with the military. It took Steve so many attempts for them to get the phone number in both English and Bahasa Malaysia that there’s no hope for national security! The message was that all was well up to that point and that was all we’ve heard so I’m assuming they’d been in touch with the immigration department. After this brush with the law and being made to feel naughty even though we’d done nothing wrong it was time to sup a few ales. We decided to go somewhere to play a few games of pool and ended up playing doubles and chatting with some travellers. All in all an enjoyable night and we’ve only got 2 more drinking Saturday s left!!
We’ve done our 3 nightly walks this week with much more of a bounce in our step so I think we must have passed some sort of low point and are now on the way back up – right the way up to 5980m we hope! This weekend is a KL bound one where we hope to buy the rest of the gear we need. Will definitely need a beer once we’ve signed that credit card bill!!
