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

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 4 walk unsuitable for those without experience of off-piste hiking. There is a sketch map at the bottom showing the route followed. Click here for a list of the known PBA rain gauges.

Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point.


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.


This account is linked from my Penang Peaks page which lists peaks over 400 metres as well as other places of interest and viewpoints. To find other hikes which visit this peak please check the maps of this are using this link.


The hills of northern Penang rise steeply from sea level. Like their southern counterparts, most once had rubber planted up to a height of roughly 200 metres (with the notable exception of what is now the National Park), although all were abandoned many years ago and the only traces left in places are terraces and very old rubber trees. From a distance these former estates look like 'jungle' and they are slowly reverting to that state. With the exception of the cultivated east face of Penang Hill, most of the hills are now either Forest Reserves and / or catchment areas and are afforded a degree of official protection. In practice, unlike in the southern half, enforcement is rarely needed and despite the warning notices, apart from the military area of Western Hill, hikers are free to come and go. The nature of the hills is such that they are made up of a series of ridges and historically paths were established along them for water conservancy purposes, particularly the establishment of rain gauges; today while the rain gauges are effectively defunct, most paths survive for recreational purposes. To access them, steep paths, also following inclined ridges have been established, some of these have rain gauges along them and some have become degraded owing to overuse. There are very few paths between ridges, the better known examples are those along the Tiger Hill valley and connecting rain gauge 9 (RG 9) with the former Crag Hotel.

Some time back, looking at a (topographical) map of Penang, I noticed that two peaks and associated ridges stood out as being almost unreported by hikers, namely Bukit Pulau Betong and Bukit Batu Ferringhi. The former (smaller and in the south) I visited last year (2016) and again this year (2017). To my knowledge, only Peter van der Lans had attempted to reach the summit of Bukit Batu Ferringhi (BBF) and that with decidedly mixed results, while on at least two occasions he had ultimately succeeded, the ascent owed very little to elegance and the descents had very mixed results indeed. Now it was my turn, Yuehong had a group of old school friends visiting for a week and this gave me the freedom to do something out of the ordinary which I would never ask her to do. While I have no time for GPS, I am a great devourer of older maps and on several occasions I have identified routes using ridges which are not used now but were many years ago. I have a copy of a 1960s UK style ordnance survey map of the island which I have found to be reasonably reliable and which shows a path up the ridge from the pump house at the corner of Jalan Lembah Permai in Tanjung Bunga to the summit, but no path further along the ridge which joins it to rain gauge 18 (RG 18). A less reliable local 2003 map showed something similar.

It was a toss up which way to mount the assault, in view of Peter's problems, I originally intended to come via RG 18 but that is nearly 3 hours from the Bayview Beach Hotel in Batu Ferringhi even before the unknown area was reached and the weather forecast was for rain later. So I chose to go from the PBA so that if I had to retreat I would at least have covered some new ground for me. As you will read, this turned out to be a very good decision.

Two days later I did this hike in the opposite direction, it was at least as challenging. I have later made some changes to the account onwards from Bukit Batu Ferringhi (13th March 2017) in an attempt to make it easier (or rather less difficult) to locate the ridge to RG 18. Given that this was the third time I had traversed it (twice westward and once eastward and I still had problems), be warned and take extreme care before committing yourself to a particular direction.


This is a view of BBF from near my starting point. The ridge I wanted to follow 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 recently. After taking this picture, I must have got so excited about the prospect that I left my walking stick behind, by the time I realised I was too far away to go back. As a result, my hands are now covered with prickle marks although I did recover the stick on the way to dinner in the evening, it was not in public view.

Historically, the PBA's operational staff were mainly Malaysian Indians and this is reflected in the small temple by the gateway. Despite officially being restricted, the road up is popular with morning and evening exercisers which made it is easier for me. On the left on the other side of the Sungai Kelian valley is the Haunted House. It is impossible to mistake the kicking off point with its red and (new) blue signs.

Just at the top of the steps, were these joss sticks, I guess associated with the small shrine off the valley path part way up. Very soon, I got to the point which I had previously identified as being where my path went off. It's not easy to tell from this picture but that's what looks more like a small gully running up. Many ridges have these features, the paths got worn and became streams when it rained. In most cases another parallel path was established as it had been here. Although that too was now hardly used, the two were a very handy way of ensuring I kept close to the ridge as I went up.

It didn't look very promising, but I wasn't at all concerned. These are old rubber terraces and all I needed to do was follow the hash paper up, that would ensure a clear route.

If I had needed evidence that I was on the right track, this stone would have provided it. Soon the rubber finished but the paper continued, I suspect that the date on the paper is misleading and an excess had been used, in nearly 6 months it would have largely disintegrated. I knew I had to cross the pipeline at some stage but I was surprised that it took me a full half hour to reach it.

Left would take me to the Sungai Kelian Valley and right down to the secure PBA area. Neither option was of any interest today.

At this point, the hash paper vanished, I wasn't too surprised as the THKs promote themselves as Penang's simplest hash. The climb was still straightforward, the ground was clear and in places what I assume was a fire had left open spaces. Fortunately, the ferns had yet to colonise it. Sometimes, I could detect and use the former path, at other times it was blocked and I had to find my own way round and back to it.

More path and another open area. In this case the 'gully path' was visible although covered in leaves. I had now been climbing steadily for just over an hour, things didn't look too bad, yet.

Another 20 minutes of 'Off and On' the path and I came to a large rock which would provide a good landmark if ever I was to come back down this way. The path went round the side to the left (ie the second picture is looking back).

Inevitably eventually the path led straight into a fern patch. If it had been well used then it would have been relatively easy to walk through, but not this time. I looked left and right and decided the right hand side was easier to skirt. After, I made sure I returned to the path.

Sometimes, the vegetation closed in but there was a way through. The gradient now eased and I passed a couple of distinctive boulders. Mostly, though it was a question of meandering through the canopy.

Finally there was a large fern covered flat area ahead, from Peter's reports I was sure this was the summit of BBF, it was necessarily a bit of an anti-climax. I had often wondered if it had ever hosted a rain gauge like the others in the area, but I could see no sign of railings and anything else would have been overgrown by ferns.

It was now 11.00, the day was still young and most importantly the sky still seemed almost clear of clouds. I decided to go on and sensibly decided that any celebration might cloud my judgment later, not that it made any difference as it turned out. Broadly RG 18 lay ahead along a ridge at least 1km away, the map suggested one minor peak in the way. In the event this was optimistic, the resolution of the maps is poor and I guess the resolution of the map makers faced with such terrain was even poorer. All I knew from experience was that extreme care would be needed every time a decision had to be made, it being long known to me from sad experience just how easy it is to lose a ridge path during a descent. 


The next section has been rewritten (13th March 2017) to reflect my still less than perfect experiences, repeating this walk with Peter van der Lans and Rexy Prakash Chakao. The original pictures have been removed and replaced.

When I had come in the opposite direction, I had come to the conclusion that some 'fern bashing' was inevitable. I also knew that on coming out I would have to turn left along the edge of the ferns and look for a tree with distinctive markings. With a remarkable degree of trust, the other two followed me. Since we were almost exactly using the route I had created a few days earlier, it could have been a lot worse.

This part at least went exactly as planned and I found the tree. So far, so good, perhaps I shouldn't have cracked that first Tiger, but while I knew there was one more tricky junction, I had got here very easily...

Peter was eagerly anticipating the next section, it was fresh territory for him. It was almost a trail as we climbed slightly to the next minor peak where I was looking to turn left.

However, I couldn't see an obvious turning and when we started to descend again, the alarm bells rang and we had to go back. In the event, it was all the way back to the BBF ferns! This was truly a time to engage the brain properly and off we went back along the same section for a second time westwards. When we got to what was as near the highest point of the minor summit as made no difference (some 5-10 minutes from the end of the ferns), I called a halt. I knew this area had caused me some grief coming east too, so I left my companions and blundered off left to look for a gentle descent and soon enough found it very quickly. Fortunately, there is a distinctive slightly clear area here part way down and a big fern patch just below the ridge on the left which act as landmarks. I think it is an understatement to say that my companions were somewhat incredulous, they were even more astonished when I assured them that ahead there was no possibility of making such a mistake again. So it proved but, of course, there was still an hour's worth of hiking through the jungle before we got to RG 18, it actually took rather longer than it had on my solo bash - from my limited experience with Peter and Rexy we tend to lose time along the way to socialising and exchanging experiemces.


This is what I originally wrote on the occasion of my first visit when I went much further down before I realised things were not as they should have been, at least on the second occasion I knew to look left. This is probably the single most difficult turning (I wouldn't call it a junction) I have found on the island. What I called the view looking back to the minor summit was actually an area off the ridge to the right of where Peter and Rexy are standing in the picture above, given what I had just been through my slight confusion is understandable.

Unfortunately, it too was covered in ferns and the natural way round was to the right..

So I left the ferns continuing straight on as the map suggested. I knew there was a minor summit ahead and that at that point I would need to turn left (more than) a bit and descend maybe 50-100 metres in height.

Let's just say that I was, in hindsight, guilty of a major misjudgment, and being offered a way out, I took it. In fact I continued taking pictures for a while as I went down, but after 10 minutes I realised that things were going pear shaped and I put the camera away. While I was now well below the level of the ridge, visibility was such that I couldn't tell whether it was to the left or the right. I continued down until I could see a stream some way below me and a hill beyond. I tested right but the stream was getting further down, so at least I knew I had to go left. That was easier said than done but at least at one point I could see the ridge, of course by now it was well above me. Ridges hereabouts tend to have steep drops on either side so common sense dictated finding my way back up before looking for it. If ever the phrase 'off-piste' was needed this was it and for a couple of minutes I questioned my sanity and whether a GPS might after all have been a good investment. It didn't last long as I got to the ridge and found something which looked like it might have been a track once upon a time. It was just over an hour since I had taken the photograph above and I had burned a lot calories unnecessarily. This was the view looking back towards the fern covered minor summit and the view down - which I wouldn't dare show here - was good news only because it wasn't very steep. In fact very soon the route became approximately horizontal. Hallelujah!


This is the landmark fern patch and my description carries on as before.

Landmarks in this kind of area are few and far between but this giant boulder sitting astride the ridge would be a welcome sign when I do the route in reverse.

There's no point in giving a narrative for the next pictures. I was never stuck for finding a way through and the ridge was sufficiently narrow that I was constrained automatically to follow it. I doubt it was even 1 km but it took some 40 minutes to complete. The first fern patch, I didn't recognise but the second I did, I could almost taste the long overdue Tiger. Why do we do these idiot things? I think the answer is usually "Because it's there" or similar.

I promptly declared a 10 minutes national holiday.

I had been on the go for 5 hours and I knew I was still another 3 hours from a bus home. The only good news was that it was clear that the promised rain would not be showing up. It had taken me 2½ hours from the summit of BBF but the net time was probably half that - I'll know for certain after I have done it in reverse, always assuming I keep to the ridge this time...

From here it was down a lot, along a bit and up more than I would have liked. I had a view back of what I assume was BBF and RG 17 allowed me a second minor celebration.

I had seen enough trees for today, I just wanted to get home because my bad knee was quite rightly complaining. I was just grateful that there are far worse descents on the island than this one and the walk out from the mid point of the Fettes Aqueduct is very gently graded.

Now 24 hours later and looking back, I'm very satisfied to have proved it 'can be done' and I'm looking forward to having a crack at it in reverse. If anyone else on Penang has done this walk, I'd happily buy them a few Tigers so we can enjoy sharing the experience.


Batu Ferringhi Area

Key:

 ____ = Concrete Road

 ____ = Path

 ____ = Easy 'Off piste'

 ____ = Seriously 'Off piste'

(Not all paths are shown, there are many more.)

Click here for information on the maps.


Rob and Yuehong Dickinson

Email: webmaster@internationalsteam.co.uk