Hiking up Bukit Engku Busu, Lumut

Bukit Engku Busu is my first hill hike for the year and up to date, I've been up there three time. The hill is located at Lumut, right behind the Lumut Police Station or just before reaching the Lumut entrance of the Naval Base . I can't really remember the last time I went hiking up here but sure enough it was ages ago, back during my schooling days.

[caption id="attachment_588" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Bukit Engku Busu Trekking"][/caption]

The hill is only about 300 metres up but still it is pretty challenging for the inexperienced. Bukit Engku Busu is also part of the Lumut Forest Reserve and comparatively to Broga Hill, this hill has a pretty dense forest vegetation. It is a real jungle trail up there with lots of huge, long roots engulfing the forest floor. Some say if you are to begin your hike early in the morning, somewhere around 6ish am, you may come across some scorpions and even snakes. Thankfully, I never came across any since my last two hike uphill was in the evening. There were mosquitoes instead and they are the only motivation to keep you going up because the more time you take to rest, the more bites you'll get. =)

[caption id="attachment_589" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Engku Busu Jungle Track"][/caption]

Some of the views you'll get from third quarter uphill is the Naval Dockyard view and some clusters of islands surrounding the area. As you hike uphill, you also get to listen to the engine sounds of the ferries commuting from Lumut to Pulau Pangkor.

[caption id="attachment_590" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Naval Dockyard view from the top, just approx 5 minutes before reaching summit"][/caption]

Right on the top of the hill which we took somewhere around 38 minutes to get to, it's just an open area with not much of a view. Well actually there are views up there if you don't mind going a little bit further into the bushes which in our case, we didn't bother to go looking at all. From the top, there is also a route to climb down hill towards Teluk Rubiah which is in Manjung. But from what I see, the route is pretty dense up with bushes and I'm not sure if people still go down that way anymore.

[caption id="attachment_591" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="Fallen tree at the Engku Busu track"][/caption]

Anyways, Bukit Engku Busu is still your best bet to keep up your fitness level and to pump up your heart on a very good cardio exercise. I still think our 38 minutes up and 33 minutes downhill was pretty slow. Other daily hikers can easily scale up and down in less than 60 minutes. Despite all that, mountain or hill hiking is not about reaching the summit at the fastest time but it is all about having the greatest feeling of conquering a difficult feat with sheer determination, effort and the strong mindset to constantly pushing your limits to reach the top. A feat that is worth the effort and that is exactly how I feel every time I reach the highest point of any hill and hopefully in the near future, a mountain.