Penang Hills and Trails - Another Nibbinda Circular

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 with a minor element of Grade 3. 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.

More than 3 years ago we did a not dissimilar walk in the opposite (anticlockwise) direction. Today's walk took advantage of our greater experience in the area immediately below Nibbinda. We started and finished at the famous spice house on the Air Itam Road. As has happened before, our attention was drawn to a Wagler's Pit Viper in a tree. It looks extremely well fed and as I have said before, I guess it is something of a family pet. 

I wanted to come up this way as I expected, correctly, to find the concrete paths to be damp and slippery in places. It was good to see some rubber tapping, so far this year the signs were that the rubber price had again retreated to a point where it was not economic. We turned left at the first junction and continued on the lesser path.

Right on the U bend where we would turn off, a tree was down, rare evidence of the recent storms. The green slime is clearly visible on the paths although it is the thin black version which is the more dangerous. Immediately behind was another fallen tree, this one a jackfruit. Ahead the way was now clear to get to the next path up the hill.

Ahead should have been familiar, except that a massive clearance had taken place since our last visit. Many (unmanaged) rubber trees had been felled and with bananas much in evidence, presumably here as elsewhere, durians will follow. In the short term, there is less of a problem crossing to the upper well managed estate although Yuehong did ask for a hand up.

There is now quite a nice view out, the only blemish is the unsightly new (low rise) flats on Jalan Sungai Rusa out of Balik Pulau.

This tree was well laden, it also had new flowers so it is clearly a happy bunny. We followed the levels and climbed up the 'car tyre steps' to meet the Nibbinda access road.

Slightly down and across, we took the usual path to avoid going through the monastery area. Along the way we met, the second significant obstruction of the day. Once upon a time, I would have been told to sort it out, now Yuehong just ploughed straight through it. I got the secateurs out and cut myself a path, but by now Yuehong was off in the distance.

It's a straightforward climb, but it helps to know that the required turning is the third on the left.

At the end of the level section, Yuehong called a refreshment break, I could hardly object! Afterwards, we carried on up and the proximity of the rubber meant that the climb was nearly over.

We came to the T-junction and turned right (left would lead to the 'Big Tree Hill' where we had floundered around a couple of days earlier). We turned right again at the next junction and walked along the ridge in an avenue of young rubber.

Next, I rather spoiled things by requesting a left turn into the rubber terraces rather than going on to the monastery. These quickly became steep fruit terraces and Yuehong's face made it clear that she was less than convinced it was a good idea. However, the fact is that there is no proper path down here...

You just need a bit of care and the two sticks are very helpful. As most of the ground cover seems to have been removed with herbicides, it's susceptible to erosion. However, we soon hit what must once have been a path.

There are better on the island, but the good news was that we could see our target path not too far below us. There is no single best way down, eventually the informal trails become formal and the concrete led us down to this familiar bridge.

Well at this point, I was expecting to put the camera away as all we had to do was walk down the path until it became a road and then carry on down to Balik Pulau. However, Yuehong had spotted a durian and unlike the one on the day before, this one split open as soon as I tickled it. It was, quite simply, the best durian of the trip so far, yummy! We could have had a second but that would have been greedy. Afterwards I drank a toast to my wife and thanked the day she invested in some contact lenses.

We met the estate owner just the other side of this obstruction, for the time being access is by two wheel vehicles only. It's quite a long way down but pleasantly shaded, Yuehong's knees didn't complained and she strode out towards the bus station. She had forgotten there was a short cut back to the car along the edge of the hill and so was a very happy bunny when she found we were back at the car, especially, as I had expected, it was now in the shadow of the adjacent bamboo.

It had been a good day although after dinner in Sungai Pinang it got even better when Yuehong fielded a call from the Toshiba engineer. He had the parts for our broken washing machine and more then a week of hand washing was over. Yuehong's smile was almost as wide as when looking at a ripe durian on the hill...