Penang Hills and Trails - Sungai Rusa Heights
Don't believe a Word the Farmers Say

This is one of a series of pages on walking the hills of Penang, click here for the index. This is a Grade 3 walk as there are short 'off piste' sections and it is quite long. This walk corrected a lot of the wrong impressions given in our Dead End Checks hike in January 2015.

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

We returned to this area a few weeks later and continued beyond the cultivated area through the jungle to the well known road which leads to the 5 way junction and the Air Itam Dam. Click here for that report.

Whenever we walk from Sungai Rusa up into the hills, we are always told that there is just one family living in the area and there is no way out up the hill and we should turn right when we meet the wide path and head for Air Puteh. Previously, when we walked up from the area to the left we had been consistently told that there was no way through to the upper Sungai Rusa area. As today's walk showed, this was all total crap, a perfect example of Penang farmers having not the slightest idea what goes on beyond the end of their own small patch on the hillside.

I'd long looked up towards this area, but like most hikers, I don't fancy the idea of having to come back down the way I went up if it can possibly be avoided, so explorations here were consistently deferred until I was forced to come by the prospects of boredom elsewhere. Yuehong was advised that this could be a not very long and rather boring walk, which in retrospect was not a very good idea.

If you look up from near the Sungai Rusa mosque there is a lighter green patch which was likely to be bananas. To its right and rising above is rubber, we'd not been there but had observed its characteristic change of colour in the dry season. We knew how to reach the rubber but had never climbed through it before. We have detailed the initial climb in one of our selected walks, but basically you follow the Jalan Kampung to the base of the hill and go straight up, the first landmark is the base of an old house.

There's scarcely room for zig-zags as it's rather steep but it gets the main climb over quickly. The first and second junctions lead to the same house to the left of the route and when we came to the concrete road we went left, normally we had gone right for the Air Puteh valley.

I knew only that the road would not go far as I had been up to the end briefly, there is a small hut.

Opposite was exactly what was needed, a well used path that would leave the fruit orchard and go up through the rubber.

With the upswing in prices, tapping is going on here although the trees are not in the first flush of youth. There was a rather different view to the south-west corner of the island, Pulau Betong is hidden by the tree on the right.

This was looking back at the first 'reverse' where the banana plantation was on our left - that exploration was saved for later.

Anticipating a minor climb, Yuehong had taken a modest breakfast and her fresh fruit revival pack was called into use.

The path wound to and fro, being mainly old concrete, on the other parts we could see that motorbikes had been here recently. Not too far from the top of the rubber, the path became pedestrians only.

Another zig-zag and while we could see daylight beyond the rubber, the path didn't look too good. However, there was a cleared area to the left with fruit trees. It was time to take stock. Looking down that's the government training camp in Sungai Pinang with Bukit Batu Itam in the distance. Looking along, that's the fruit growing area to the side of the road guarded by the electronic gate between Titi Kerawang and Sungai Pinang. We had looked at crossing to here from that side but had failed (Dead End Checks) two years ago, mainly I suspect because at the time the area we were now in was a mess and also because we were more interested in going up than across.

The climb up to the main ridge was clearly going to be a scramble so I invited Yuehong to take a rest. Fruit trees seem not to like the winds in such an exposed area and as often happens there was a small area of young rubber. 

Ahead and down the other side was secondary jungle of the most revolting and impenetrable kind, presumably the area had been cultivated not so very long back. To the left and following the ridge was primary jungle and to my eye, it would not have been very difficult to follow it, I went about 50 metres and turned back as it wasn't in today's plan. There wouldn't have been much height to be gained but the horizontal distance to the next known rubber would be over 500 metres looking at the topographical maps. 

Almost imperceptibly, two ridges join here, the one we had used was slightly to the right and ahead. We had been to the other end earlier in the trip (Air Puteh Explorer) and, suffice to say, that's not a transit I will be attempting any time soon. That's not it on the right, that's the fern lined path back down to the top of the rubber!

I confess I had checked out the next section before I looked at the top of the ridge. It wasn't wonderful but it was easy enough to go down the steps and make our way to another former farmer's house.

This was the view looking back, and I confess this was as far as I had got on the previous visit. Below was another house.

This house and the next one along the road represent real 'faded glory' as they had a mains electricity supply - one pole noted was BJTB 54, I recall that the pole where the two wide roads diverge is BJTB 35. At this point we could have simply gone down to there and out but we were going quite well today for new discoveries.

Having at long last learned to ignore advice on the subject of paths from farmers - and in any case no-one was here this time - we carried on. There was a second lesser path going slightly down which can be checked another time.

The path climbed into the rubber which seemed a little strange as we had seen no junctions on our way up earlier. In fact the path came to an end as this was a separate estate.. 

However, the terraces stretched ahead round the hill and fortunately they had been cleared recently.

Eventually we came out at a point we recognised and started down.

Soon we reached the point near the banana patch, we took a rest and made the short scramble down.

Here there was yet another abandoned house and a farmer's lean to shelter. Since we were going down, the gentleman's advice was worth listening to. Behind us were two paths, the upper one I quickly established was a dead end, the lower probably went to Sungai Rusa although that almost certainly meant it linked to the house near the top of our morning ascent as opposed to offering a new route - one for another time.

Our informant clearly came from Sungai Pinang as he confidently ushered us in the direction shown behind his shelter. Now this brought us immediately into the durians and then to this open gate which I am sure I recognised as being firmly shut when I had approached it from the opposite direction some time ago (although uncharacteristically it seems I did not record it). We now had a bit of a debate as I was 60% for trying Sugau Rusa and 40% for Sungai Pinang.

Yuehong was tired, the Sungai Rusa path house had five dogs, she liked the look of this path and was 100% for Sungai Pinang. I wasn't going to argue, in any case Sungai Rusa doesn't have the right kind of coffee shops for me. It was a lovely path and for future good luck we paused at this economy sized temple.

We ignored two paths upwards, there were a house and a hut visible on each although they may obviously have continued. All too soon we came to a very familiar junction, above and to the right is a gate and the path leads back up to the wide road with the BJTB electricity poles. So that was the end of the day's exploring and we headed down the zig-zags to the 4 way junction with the hut.

No question, it was turn right here to pass the falls and wind round below the house with the decorative plants and down to the round-the-island road on the 'big curve'.

Now, I had been keeping a close look at my watch for a while, because Pak Razali was due shortly on the 15.50 501 from Teluk Bahang and within 10 minutes we were on the bus for the short ride down to Sungai Pinang. Yuehong had spotted this new open air restaurant and on an earlier visit we had confirmed that the day it was closed was Wednesday and today was Tuesday. It was indeed a 'discovery'. Open just 6 months, the food was simple but excellent and the bill modest. All being well we should be back in a few days as I have another short walk planned in this area. After that it will need some thought as at the moment we aren't due any more walks which might finish here. 

Well refreshed I wandered off to get fresh stock for our fridge at home and caught the return 17.30 501. It was just as well that we made an immediate connection at Teluk Bahang as there was a large unseasonal storm brewing and we made it back to the flat just in time. Yuehong had, as always, recovered from her lack of sustenance but soon disappeared for a good night's sleep.