Carnivorous plants

Here is a quick and shallow introduction to the world of carnivorous plants. It is like an oxymoron, a a vegetable that eats meat. But they do exist! These plants are normally found in the tropics. Malaysia is blessed to have a few of these insect eating plants. Take a hike along most nature trails, keep your eyes peeled open and you can see them growing high on the trees. They don’t grow high, they climb on taller trees to go higher.

The picture below is your everyday pitcher plant. The pitcher, contains a liquid that dissolves insects. It is not instant fizzle, it takes a long time to dissolve. There is a leaf like cover on top of the pitcher opening. I don’t know who got the idea but NO, the cover does not close when the insect falls into the pitcher. Why cover and stop insects going in when the more insects that fall into it, the happier it is.

The picture below is also a pitcher plan, but these are from the Americas.

Below is a typical Venus fly trap. When an insect lands on the “leaf”, it will close and catch the insect. These apparently are not local to Malaysia and they are imported for home cultivation. Some people find these cute. They are not big plants. Quite small actually.

Where are we?

Statues and arches decorate the lobby of this building.  Any idea where this is?  =D

Finally the Kerachut Beach

Haven’t been updating the photos :p

Arriving at the beach itself… plenty of nice purple flowers to greet us.  It grows effortlessly on the sands of the beach.

As you can see, there are hardly anyone on the beach.  I guess not thay many people would trek two hours to reach a beach.  Those who do are normally in a group, doing it as a group activity, or team building perhaps.

Meromictic Lake

A meromictic lake is a lake that contains layers of water that do not mix. Apparently, there are only a few such lakes in the world and Karachut has one of them. Most of the time, the lake in kerachut is dry. Not exactly bone dry, it is a bit muddy. You won’t want to step into the lake during the dry season.

When the monsoon hits the place a few times a year, the river mouth will be dammed from the pounding waves, blocking the river from flowing out of the lake. At this time, the salty sea water will also be pounded into the lake. The heavier salt water will sit at the bottom of the lake and the lighter fresh water will be at the top of the lake.

The picture above is the view of the lake from the beach.

There is a detour in the hiking trail that takes people around the lake. This is the view of the lake from the side.

Small Living Things

Along the hiking path, concrete bridges were built so cross over muddy paths and small streams. These concrete bridges look out of place in the jungle. They are mostly plain and devoid of all life forms. However, with the humidity of the tropical jungle and the ingenuity of the living flora, moss thrives in the gaps of these bridges.

Web of wonders

Jungles are so rich with life.  There are so many things that you can observe.

An almost perfect web awaiting an unsuspected victim to fall trap. Notice the spider is at the center of the web.

Just a little sunshine…

A continuation of the hike through the jungle trail series.

Despite the lush tree canopies all around, just a little ray of good ol’ sunshine that comes through is enough to encourage more plant growth.

A walk through the jungle

Part of the jungle trail that we took to get to Pantai Kerachut.  The beach is about 1.5 to 2 hrs hiking distance away.  Would you be willing to walk that far just to reach a beach?

Serene

Nice shaded picnic table overlooking the serene sea.

This is found at the start of the hiking trail that leads to either Pantai Kerachut or Pantai Acheh in Penang.

Sunset

sunset over kelantan river. This is the river that floods when the monsoon hits.