Mother Nature memanggil-manggil

Detoxification after "Keracunan Ubat Gegat"

Destination: Taman Negara Pulau Pinang @ Penang National Park

This is our second group trip to Kerachut, the first in January 2008. This time around, there were 10 of us, 6 from previous trip. We started hiking at 9am from this entry point, with some kuih-muih and roti as our breakfast.

 all happy and bersemangat wajah... can we trust their stamina? jeng jeng jeng...

Some snapshots

There are few different trails, to Monkey Beach, MUKA-head Light House, Pantai Kerachut and some other beaches. We took the furthest trail - Pantai Kerachut... more secluded and has an unique lake... For more info, you may want to read this

Our motivation for this hike was: AYAM (yes, Chicken)...

In each of our bags, we were carrying a box of either Snack Plate or Dinner Plate from KFC, for our lunch. So.... you want chicken, you gotta reach destination first. Ha!
hike and hike, we continued hiking and trekking despite all the obstacles.... chewahh... obstacle konon...

uits but... dun play-play ok... we were stopped by Mr. bonzer monkey, with an intimidating look, provoking to snatch our food. But thanks to our teamwork spirit... we managed to overcome the threat... no worries... we didnt slaugther nor hurt that monkey in any way... haha...

And the challenging trek! the slopes and all... Proud to say, we reached our destination, the Kerachut beach after 1 hour and 45 minutes hike. (compared to last year - 3 hours) Well, this time around, we took less photos and most of us were in good shape and stamina... ehem ehem.... ahakss... (after one year building back stamina :P)

Ladies n gentlemen, what greeted us in Kerachut Beach?

There's this hanging bridge built across the lake+beach (as depicted in this pixxie below) Where the sea connects with the lake.

As written at the signboard:
The Lake that you observe is known as the meromictic lake. In Malaysia, this kind of lake can only be found at Penang National Park. As a matter of fact, the lake is only available at 19 places around the world.

Meromictic refers to the 2 layers of sea and river water which does not mix with each other. Fresh water is relatively lower in density as compared to the hypersaline sea water.

From the website:

Others attractions include visiting the seasonal meromictic lake, visible for only six months of the year. The lake has two layers of water of different temperatures. The bottom layer of sea water is normally warmer than the surface fresh water.

How different can it be after 6 months? Look at the picture above, where I highlighted the rock in red arrow and circle. That was the photo taken last week (May), whereas this photo below was taken last year in January, where i circled the exact same rock. (roughly around 11 am t0 12pm)...

The water levels and flows are different. In January, the water flows out from the river/lake to the sea, it was fresh water.

So dat explains the clarity of the water and how we swam and 'slept' in the water for hours forgetting the sunburn.

This time around, the salt water from the sea flows in (resulting into meromictic lake), water levels very high, and couldn't see how deep it was. As a result, we didnt jumped in the water at that same spot.

After feasting over the kfc chicks... We walked further down the beach, rested on rocks, only to be smashed by waves. Haha.. but that was fun indeed... The guys on the other hand chose to trail back few metres in the park to dip in the fresh water. Zuraini and I went there later to de-salt-ify and de-sand-ify ourselves :P:P~

Mandi-mandi... Lepak-lepak... 4 hours passed by in a flick of a lense...

To get back, we rented a boat. We have ealier placed a booking for a boat at the entry point (jetty), before we hiked.

Bumpy ride di lautan bertingkat tingkat :D

These 2 rocks are famously known for they are in form of some animals. Can u guess what they are?

We ended this trip with teabreak along Feringgi beach (Laksa, Rojak and Ais Kacang)... This trip also served as a farewell gathering for abang azrul who will be back to Lembah Klang. Good Luck and Best Wishes. Do join us, Parlimail bila-bila free wokeh ;-)

I end this post... with bak kata pepatah...

Berakit-rakit ke hulu... naik speedboat je bila balik...

Yeeehaaa..... Sekian, Terima Kasih