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Penang Hills and Trails - Mount Olivia |
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This page is one of a series on 'Hills and Trails in Penang. Click here for the index. I would place this as a Grade 2 walk although with the long steep ascent to start with some might give it a Grade 3. Click here for a list of the known PBA rain gauges. Please visit my Penang buses page for information on accessing the starting point. Take the 10 bus to the Kebun Bunga and walk along the Upper Circular Road until you see a steep set of steps on the left. After about 1100 steps turn right at the junction and almost immediately fork right on the level - see below. (The steps continue upward on the left and are part of the Bukit Cendana walk.) It's a well used track so you can safely assume that the decrepit 'no trespassers' sign just round the bend is a classic case of bureaucratic covering of the rear end. The path drops down to a concrete bridge over the main stream into the gardens and then climbs up to Rain Gauge 2. There were over 30 of these once and some are still monitored but this one didn't seem to have had a visit for a while.
Continuing upwards the trail eventually comes to a T junction on the main ridge in the area. To the left the trail leads to the Crag Hotel or Western Hill with minor paths back down to the Batu Ferringhi Aqueducts or Tanjung Bunga. All but the last are major expeditions not to be attempted lightly. At some stage helpful signs have been erected in this general area, but they are in need of renovation. We had opted for a late start so we took the anticipated easier option to the right. It was a pretty good trail, and the rain which had accompanied us for the last half hour or so was easing so we could see Komtar and George Town through the trees.
Of course the path was now rather slippery, only pride was hurt:
There was a similar view of Tanjung Bunga as the one from the top of the steps to / from the Kebun Bunga which showed we had a rather longer walk than I had anticipated. However, the path soon levelled out and broadened and it was a gentle stroll down all the rest of the way. It seemed it had been adapted for the use of 'mountain bikers' with several artificial small hillocks and jumps. There were regular numbers on trees and at '18', there were signs for the 'Lily Pond' in the Kebun Bunga which would have allowed a circular walk, but we carried on
This is classic hash country, in the old days many Australians from the Butterworth Air Base lived in Hillside in Tanjung Bunga and this was their back garden. There was plenty of paper around and several interesting near vertical paths off to the side of the trail which looked very hashable. There were few gaps in the trees, one of them offered the least flattering view of Seaview Garden I have ever seen (it's the one right at the back, our apartment is below the ridge of the hill so we can't see the blocks shown here and in any case the telephoto effect distorts distances). Eventually (marker 8) a small trail lead on towards the Guillemard Reservoirs and Mount Erskine but we carried on down the main track. A huge pile of rocks had appeared next to it and there was the constant noise of intensive construction in the area. The picture totally understates the egregious and intrusive nature of the new tower blocks, three of them already over 30 stories high and with seemingly more to added. Conclusive evidence if it was really needed that some Malaysian Chinese, like their Mainland counterparts, can be completely corrupted by greed. I felt very sorry for the people living in its shadow who have to put up with the non-stop noise and then have to live forever with these monstrosities. Equally culpable are the state government which must have given permission for the construction and those who have purchased or will purchase apartments. Looking at the first picture, some people would say that just makes me a first class hypocrite. There's more than a grain of truth in that but a lot of the problems with these new blocks are those of scale which only a site visit would show.
I have to say this experience spoiled what had been a very successful hike. The trail finished at the back of the Fettes Park market on Mount Erskine Road, perhaps not the most distinguished of the island's many markets. We turned left and followed the road out of town and then turned right into Jalan Fettes. By now it was time for an early dinner and then a short walk down to Island Plaza for the 101 bus back home. Mount Olivia? This was the name given to the hill north of the Kebun Bunga where the Raffles had a house during their (short) stay in Penang. We skirted it on the way down. |
