Pulau Jerejak

The position where we're currently anchored lies on the south-east side of Penang.  We're just off the island (pulau) of Jerejak, an almost uninhabited island except for a small resort and a ship building facility on the far side.  Note: the little red arrow symbol indicates our anchored spot.

From our position, we can see the odd macaque monkey and the occasional monitor lizard as well as the beautiful white bellied Sea Eagle gliding above.  We've also been treated to a passing pod of dolphins.  It's a bit of a strange anchorage as, at the change of tides, we swing every which way with wind against current.  The waters in the narrow channel between the two islands can see some fearsome currents at times.

Some paths were actually navigable

Pulau Jerejak was once a tuberculosis and leper colony which was then restructured as a prison island for Malaysia's most wanted criminals.  It has now been returned to its natural state of a tropical forest preserve.  

That said, we, and Chris from Out of the Blue II, went for a casual hike one morning.  We were given a map to follow a few of the trails but reality was a vastly different scene to that shown on the brochure.  The many fallen trees on the so-called cycle path make it impossible to manoeuvre and the neglected and dilapidated trail we took simply ended on a beach far from anywhere.

 
 

Suffice it to say, we got horribly lost wandering through the woods and down along the shoreline with an incoming tide and no paths of any description to be found to get us back through the jungle.  We came across a floating fishing platform where several men told us there were no tracks.  Despite this, we tried a myriad of options, all dead ends, so eventually gave up and tried to retrace our steps - not that simple with the ever rising tide. 

Well, at least we got some exercise and, as it was mostly in a heavily treed jungle, it was pleasantly cool (well a cool of 30°C is all relative in this climate) but at least it was shaded.

The temporarily closed suspension bridge (probably been for years!)

Shrimp nets