Here’s a map of the area: https://www.screencast.com/t/VzEjTBiL8G
It was still sunny when we arrived at the park so we decided to push our luck for a hike. Park entry is free but you need to report to the park headquarters and fill in a form telling them where you intend to go. Here you get information on park etiquette and also on what trails are open. On this day we could walk along the north coast as far as CMCS, the Center for Marine and Coastal Studies. It's a nice walk along a jungle trail with frequent ocean views, but the trail from there to Monkey Beach had been closed for some time. Partly because we had done that one before, we decided to go on the only other trail that was open that day, the one across the center of the park to Pantai Keracut , a.k.a. Kerachut Beach.
Before setting off we thought we should get some breakfast, since we'd left our house that morning without. There are not many restaurants along the main road, that near the park, and they seemed to be catering full meals for westerners for twice what we thought we should pay. One of the owners said we could look further, but what we might find would be 'dirty'. We've never encountered that in Malaysia at the most rudimentary restaurant, never a problem with the food. So we walked back to the main gate where there were kiosks offering boat rides to Monkey Beach (since you couldn't get there on foot due to whatever was closing the trail), We then noticed if we turned right there, there was a local nasi campur restaurant on the corner that served food buffet style, and had fresh coconuts, and tasty fried bananas for a fraction of what the "clean" restaurant was charging, so we filled our stomachs there, and smacked our lips in spicy delight,
We returned to the park and walked to the small kiosk at the trailhead just inside the gate where you were supposed to stop and show the permit you had filled in at the park office. The idea seemed to be to keep track of who entered the park and who returned the same way. But the kiosk was closed, probably because keeping track of who was there would have been impossible because of the touts who often convinced tourists to hire those boat taxis from the jetty atTeluk Bahang, either one way or both.
After the kiosk, the walk proceeds along a beach where there is a concrete trail passing benches and tables set up invitingly for picnics. There were hardly any in use. We took a few pictures to show our kids what a pleasant place this would be to come with our grandchildren.
I'm not sure about swimming here. Our granddaughter got badly stung by jellyfish around the headland on the beach in Batu Ferringhi, and you might have to share the water with monitor lizards. The lizards would likely be more concerned about sharing the water with you, but here's what they look like when they wander in off the beach here.
The shelter was popular with monkeys, as were the pools on the jungle side of the brook, where monkeys liked to come and conduct monkey business.
Just past the shelter the concrete path ends and the trail heads uphill along a trench where people used to use water buffaloes to pull lumber from the forests here for transport over to Georgetown to be used in construction there. This trail would be very slippery when wet, so we kept our eye on the weather overhead, so far so good. It was an obvious path, not unobstructed, as where we had to climb over a tree that fell across it.
The trail went up for a long way and eventually turned downhill. After around an hour and a half we descended a steep part where we emerged on this sign telling us we had almost made it to Pantai Keracut.
The path now led around the meromictic lake that is one of the curiosities here. That's a lake that is fed by both fresh and sea water. Being of different densities the two waters don't mix but instead layer one atop the other. I know from diving that salt water has greater density than fresh water, so the fresh water will float on top of the salt water. You can read more here
https://www.tejaonthehorizon.com/travel-stories/hiking-meromictic-lake-penang/).
Just before the beach you reach a suspension bridge that crosses over the mouth of the lake where the sea water enters on the right tide.
Once over the bridge you find a sign that points the way to the turtle conservatory at the far end of the beach.
Walk down the beach and it looks like this.
Meanwhile, back on the beach
It's a nice beach, but the sign here prohibits you from going swimming
There were dark clouds forming when we reached the beach, so after taking these pics, we turned tail and headed back, encountering only slight sprinkles on the trail, which we retraced back to the visitor center.
From there we walked over to Cat Beach. On the way down the road we found a vendor selling sugar cane from a cart by the side of the road which he poured into a plastic bag for us, added ice, and handed it over with a cord holding a straw in place so you could hold on to the loop in the cord and drink the deliciously refreshing liquid through the straw. Sad to say it was a plastic straw, but there was no cold alternative apart from a can of carbonated sugar water or processed fruit juice purchased from a mini mart.
Cat beach was not easy to find on our own. We walked along the main road using Google Maps to tell us where to turn north and navigate the back roads to find the approximate spot on the beach where we thought it should be. We would never have been able to just go there, though. We had to ask locals on the beach which way. They all seemed to know where it was, and they helpfully pointed the way. In the picture below, we are almost there.
The attraction of cat beach is a ramshackle set of structures at the edge of the sand which someone seems to have rented or bought and fixed up well enough to set up a homeless shelter for cats.
They apparently thought to set up a cafe to help finance the enterprise, but it's all pretty run down now, smells like (you guessed it) and the Cat Beach Cafe is pretty unappealing (because of what you already guessed),
Plus the guy who's stuck there hits you up for donations (says he hasn't been paid, and shows you vet bills, implying he has to pay them, though he is clearly an employee, a watchman and cat herder).
Still, this area makes a great day out in a beautiful part of Penang. The fresh-rendered iced sugar cane juice really hit the spot after 4 hours hiking, and cost just 3 ringgit for a large one (same price as one-way on the bus for two persons), and as you'd expect, there are plenty of foodie opportunities between here and Batu Ferringhi. Besides breakfast at the nasi campur we got something on the roadside comprising shrimp floss grilled in a banana leaf to take home with us.
Here are some more descriptions of some of the walks in Penang National Park
- https://www.tripsavvy.com/penang-national-parks-hiking-trails-1629641
- https://www.penang-insider.com/best-things-to-do-teluk-bahang/
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