Thursday, April 28, 2011

Hiking @ Pantai Kerachut, Penang National Park

We were in a very energetic mood sometime back then. One day we decided to check out the Taman Negara Pulau Pinang. There are 2 main trail, one heading towards Muka Head, where the famous light house is, another towards Pantai Kerachut that have a shorter path (which we chosen).

When you reach the main entrance, register yourself at the counter for free. You have to report yourself again when you return back after tracking. This is to ensure no one get lost in there.

It tooks us around 2 and half hours from the entrance to Pantai Kerachut. It is not a too difficult trail, I will said it's easier than jungle trail in Tokun Hill at Bukit Mertajam. But both of us, too bad stamina fellows... it was damn tired.

The bridge marks the ending point of the trail, as well as the sea in front of you! It feels like we found the oasis in desert.

There is a Meromictic Lake here, special natural creation of its kind, few in the world. In Meromictic Lake, the layers of the lake water remain unmixed for years, decades, or centuries. Unlike the normal lake, at least once a year, physical mixing occurs between the surface and the deep waters (Quote from wikipedia). This lake in Pantai Kerachut known to be dry in some season. It was dry when we were there.

There is no food nor drink along the trail, get prepared yourself. V make us some nice sandwiches, love it!

In case you all do not know, Pantai Kerachut is one of the beach that have turtle hatchery in Malaysia. We get to see baby turtle! They will be released back to the sea once they grow bigger.

The beach is extremely hot as it is 2pm in the afternoon... we can't get ourselves jump into the sea. Standing on the sands is like standing on a hot plate... all we wanna do is... go home... @_@

We do not have energy to crawl back anymore, plus we were running out of drinking water, thus we took the boat which cost us RM10 per person, back to where we came in within 15 mins...@_@. There are boats sailing to and fro Pantai Kerachut, we just happened to catch one that have extra seats available. If you plan to go Pantai Kerachut without tracking, you can choose to take boat also. There are several counter/shop for boat services outside the national park entrance.
of coz not with these boats, they are for fishing

Back to real world, time to grab something to gain back the cholestrol we just burned. My all time favourite Weld Quay Seafood Restaurant (海墘(大树脚)海鲜饭店). It is almost right opposite Penang Island Jetty. You can see a big tree grows right through the roof of the shop.

This is where we called off the day. :)

How to Go Pantai Kerachut, Taman Negara Pulau Pinang:
Drive from Georgetown towards Batu Feringgi. Straight all the way.
After Batu Feringgi small town/market, drive straight again you will see a Caltex petrol station on your right.
In a short distance, you will reach a round about, take 12 o'clock direction, drive to the end, you will be reaching Taman Negara entrance in a minute. Parking space available at fee of RM3 (if not mistaken).

GPS Location:
N 5 27.561
E 100 12.396