From Seberang Perai in the mainland, we drove past the majestic Penang Bridge towards Penang Island

The 1,213ha Nature Park consists of pristine coastal-forested area harbouring a wealth of flora and fauna and its unique assets are 5 habitat types, the only confirmed meromictic lake in Penisular Malaysia, the wetlands, mangroves, mudflats, coral reefs and turtle nesting beaches.

The main entrance at Teluk Bahang, where visitors obtain their entry permit.

Was formally gazetted as a National Park on 10th. April 2003. The yellow dotted lines are the jungle trail we all took

The fishing boat jetty at Teluk Bahang where we took a boat trip across the Teluk Duyung (Monkey Beach) to Pantai Kerachut on the other side of the island.

Descending from the jetty on to the fishing boat.

The excited faces of the researchers roaring to go

The tour boat operator carefully lifting up a poisonous jellyfish to show the length of its tentacles

Jellyfish is in abundance at the sea coast near Pantai Kerachut

The beautiful white sand beach is popular as a picnic and camping site.

The sandy beach is also the nesting place of the Green Turtle (Chelonia mydas) from April and August, and the Olive-Ridley Turtle (Lepidocchelys olivacea) between September and February. The Irrawaddy dolphin (Orcaella brevirostris) and Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiopstruncatus) are sometime seen in the coastal seas of the Park.

The White-Bellied Sea Eagle and their nests on tree canopies can be easily observed at coastal forest. At the Kuala Sungai Pinang estuary, which consists of mangrove forest, many migratory birds can be seen roosting, such as the Brahminy Kite Eagle, the Common Sandpiper, the Lesser Heron and the White-Bellied Sea Eagle.

The team of 13 researchers from UiTM Shah Alam posing for group photo.

The Bay of Glowing Amber at the Pantai Kerachut projecting its scenic skyline beauty particularly at dusk.

The sea cockroach, the two long tentacles at the back are the eyes.

This visit to the Penang National Park is part of the our Research Team's initiative in documenting flora and fauna of our natural rainforest reserves. It was a three days trip, and was a truly fruitful one for all of us. Really beyond our expectation, this very little knowned Penang National Park has a lot of surprises to offer for natural history enthusiast like us. Our sketchbooks, notebooks and image memory cards are full of materials to the brim by the time we end the journey.

Mazlan adjusting the setting of his camera, while Dila appreciating the fresh sea breeze.	Dr.Baha do not waste time in compiling visual data

The beaches at Pantai Kerachut are amongst the turtle's landing sites besides Pantai Teluk Kampi. Some activity in the tree caught everyone's attention.

High up in the pine tree we spotted a huge Giant Squirrel (Ratufa affinis), the world's largest tree-dwelling rodent.

Zooming in their telephoto lenses on the Squirrel high up on the tree above.	Over the suspension bridge overlooking the Meromictic Lake.

Our local guide, Joseph explaining about the characteristic of the Meromictic Lake

Covering a total estimated area of 2.77sq.km., the lake recieves its water supply from 5 river tributeries that flows into it, as well as from seasonal inundations of seawater. The lake also alternately drains and fills at specific period each year. This phenomenon occurs in April and May each year when the inter-monsoon period, a transitional phase between the North East Monsoon (November to March) and the South West Monsoon (May to October), is in effect. This period is characterised by strong winds and powerful waves accompanied by heavy rains. The wind and the strong waves cause sea water to inundate the lake while, simultaneously, blocking the outflow of the lake's freshwater into the sea via sand disposition. An overflow of the lake water will soon erode the aforementioned sand deposits thus causing the lake to be void again until the coming of next inter-monsoon season.

All the way till the base of the hill, this empty space will be filled with water during a certain season of the year. Tom, Dr. Rus  and Jai admiring the scene.

The lake is presently dry, except for small freshwater streams flowing down from the hills

A satellite view of the Meromictic Lake. The whole of the grey coloured river estuary will turn into a lagoon at a certain season of the year only.

The entrance where the river tributeries flows into the sea. During certain months of the year, this portion will be blocked by the sand from the sea, hence turning the estuary into a lagoon.

The invasion of creatures from outer space????

A meromictic lake is a lake that contains a partially mixed or wholy unmixed water layer that combines with the main water source during a given cycle. This process is known as Meromixts. At Pantai Kerachut, the lake comprises of both fresh and salt water unmixed and with differing temperature, as the salt water being of heavier density remains at the bottom layer. The term Monimolimnion refers to the calm and current less state of the water layer in the lakebed while the term Mixolimnion refers to the free flow state of the meromictic lake's upper layer of water. The margin between the two layers is known as the Chemocline.

Tracking the jungle trail from Pantai Kerachut uphill, back to Teluk Tukun. Ema looking up close at a mushroom

Encountering a colony of pitcher plants along the route	Hard to believe that such plants could be found at such low altitude, by the coastal shore

A rare sighting to behold, the colony of exotic pitcher plants growing in abundance on the forest floor.

This pitcher plant is of the ... species

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants (meat-eater), whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. Carnivorous plants usually grow in places where the soil is thin or poor in nutrients.

Foraging, flying or crawling insects such as flies are attracted to the cavity formed by the cupped leaf, often by visual lures such as anthocyanin pigments, and nectar bribes. The sides of the pitcher are slippery and may be grooved in such a way so as to ensure that the insects cannot climb out. The small bodies of liquid contained within the pitcher traps drown the insect, and the body of it is gradually dissolved. Like all carnivorous plants, they occur in locations where the soil is too poor in minerals and/or too acidic for most plants to be able to grow.

The Pitcher plants growing on vines that climbs up high into the tall trees in the forest	Some has withered and turn brown in colour.

Tom setting his camera, capturing a timelapse shot of the cascading waterfall.

The smallest of the forest orchids species, growing on the waterfall rocks	Capturing the moments on camera

The unique white flower of the Bamboo Orchid	A rarely seen Long-legged centipede (Thereupoda clunifera)

We spotted another species of pitcher plant along the trail.

The Nepenthes pitcher plant variety hangs from tendrils	Only about 7cm long is carnivorous, the tendrils extends from the midrib of an otherwise unexceptional leaf

Some pitcher plant group of species (such as Nepenthes) are placed within clades consisting mostly of flypaper traps, and some pitchers may have evolved from flypaper traps by loss of mucilage, a thick gluey substance produced by most plants and some microorganisms. Mucilage in plants is thought to aid in water storage and seed germination, and to act as a membrane thickener and food reserve.

The plants themselves are often climbers, accessing the canopy of their habitats using the aforementioned tendrils, although others are found on the ground in forest clearings, or as epiphytes on trees.

One of the river stream that flows down to the Miromictic Lake at Pantai Kerachut.

The direction signage, midway across the trail from Pantai Kerachut to Teluk Tukun

A type of wild mushroom growing on a fallen rotten log.

The natural attraction of Penang National Park includes Hill Dipterocarp Forest, Mangrove Forest areas, Sandy Beach habitats, and the open coastal seas.

Stands of Seraya (Shorea curtisii) trees, a common feature of coastal Dipterocar Forest, can be easily seen on the steep slopes around Muka Head. There are over 1000 species of plants recorded which are dominated by the DIpterocarpaceae, Leguminoceae, Apocynaceae, Anacardiaceae, Euphorbiaceaeand Moraceae.

The majestic..... tree soaring high up into the sky

Mazlan admiring the texture of the bark of the ..... tree	The Jelutong (Dyera costulata), a hardwood timber species.

The umbrella-like formation of theTongkat Ali leaves, looming high up the canopy	The hardwood of the ... species, treasured by those in the furniture industry

The poisonous bark of the Rengas tree (Melanochyla fulvinervis) produces a chemical called Phorbol which may cause skin allergies or dermatitis.	The Meranti tree for timber hardwood

This Penang National Park claims to have 243 recorded species of fauna, which consists of 36 mamalian species, 44 reptilian species, 163 bird species and diverse insect and amphibian species.

Finally we reached back to the end of the jungle trail, on the other side of the hill at Pasir Pandak

On the return journey we purposely took a ferry ride from Georgetown back to the mainland

Although tired, it was truly an enjoyable journey for all of us, everyone was extremely pleased with the research experience as we all recalled on the journey back to Kuala Lumpur. We can't wait to go back again in the very near future.