March 8th, 2009 | in
Everyday life,
Hiking in Hong Kong |
Comments Off Had to be back early today so decided on a hyper fast Sai Kung circuit (as usual). To compensate for the relatively lower fitness level, I decided to leave earlier at 8.30AM.
All went according to plan EXCEPT for one little detail – I GOT OFF AT THE WRONG BUS STOP!! I have done the Sai Kung circuit over 50 times (kid you not) but for whatever reason, today, I got off several stops before Pak Tam Au – just after Pak Tam Chung by mistake. It was a split second decision (maybe I was too engrossed in the Trump book I was reading, maybe the scores of people getting down misled me, I am not sure) but the distance to the actual stop was too much (and too boring) to cover by foot.
So, got innovative and decided to do a new circuit. Stage 1 Mclehose + some of Stage 2 and then a left at the Sai Wan junction to reach the Sai Wan pavilion and a decent run to Pak Tam Chung.
Started at 10.15AM and finished at 12.43PM and exited on 96R at 12.48PM. So, 2.5 hrs and (I am not sure how many) KMs.
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Pictures here
Three strong forces of nature -the wind, the rain and extended Sunday sleep- failed to dissuade 17 of us from showing up at 10.30AM in Diamond Hill station for an Alex-led Sai Kung hike.
At 10.45AM, we boarded bus number 96R to Pak Tam Au, the starting point for the hike. The first part of the mission was to take on Stage 3 of the Mclehose trail, amidst cool, rainy and misty weather (perfect for hiking). In fact, it was *so* misty today that one might have probably had trouble seeing even one of those gigantic H&M Madonna billboards in Central! (H&M should probably have a weather budget as well to clear all the HK mist)
At around 12.30PM we passed by Cheung Seung where a sweet fragrance from the nearby To Fu Fa shop beckoned.
After treating ourselves to some dessert, we continued tramping on Stage 3.
Kai Kung Shaan (Chicken “Kung” hill) was next on the list of hills to climb. It took till almost 2.45PM for the 17 of us to be on the peak of this hill. Nathan pointed out that the signboard on the top of this hill read “399″ meters. Not, 400 or 398 but 399! This prompted him to jump as high as he could in order to touch the 400M mark! (The effort was probably unnecessary since the eye-level has to be at least 1M above the base level which must be at the 399M height -yes, I was the smartest kid in class-). So, we continued on Stage 3 and eventually reached the end of the trail at around 3.30PM. Two trampers, Fabio and Paulo decided to take an early exit. Seeing them leave seemed to cause Ben to lose confidence in his tramping abilities. He made the usual lack-of-time excuse and decided to “chicken out”.
After the mandatory group picture, 14 of us continued on Stage 4. The weather turned damp and very windy (again, perfect hiking weather). In fact, it was windy enough to even make a heavy cow fly, which is why Vivek, in all his foresight, probably called this hike “The flying cow hike”. As we flew over Stage 4, we were divided into two groups, the Flying group (7 people) and the Gliding group (4 people). The flying group took a cue from Zhang Ziyi in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and did a kung-fu fight and flight all the way to the top of Ma On Shaan (well, near the top, fuel didn’t last). We reached an altitude of 560M before veering off in the Ngong Ping direction.
It was 5.30PM when we reached a junction. The signboard there gave us 3 options (a) Gilwell Camp (b) Hang On Estate (c) Tai Shui Tseng. We wanted to end the hike at Sai Kung. So, we began the process of evaluating the merit of each option before unanimously deciding on one of them (long live democracy). We concluded that Gilwell Camp sounded too boring, Hang On estate was only for people who always “hang on” instead of making decisions and so, we wisely picked Tai Shui Tseng (who said you need maps to go hiking?!) Following this brilliant decision, in less than 45 minutes, we reached the Sai Kung town center and departed ways.
Facts and trivia:
Weather: A+ (windy, cool and damp)
Hills: Kai Kung Shaan (399M) (reminds me of those $9.90 labels in super markets)
Ma On Shaan (750M) (we did 560M only)
Distance covered: App. 15KM
Duration: 8 hours
Fatalities: 0 (hmmm, weird..)
Video on how windy it was:
Watch Windy
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Pictures from this one are here. All hiking photos are here.
The sun NEVER helps!! We went along the Sai Kung beaches and then headed up to Sharp peak. The humid, hot and sunny day DIDN’T help one bit! That made the hike hard!
After that, I regained energy and we did Mclehose Stage 3 (pretty tough). Total duration: 6 hours.
Sharp peak: 450M and Kai kung Shaan: 300M
Look at the “orange algae” in Sai Wan. Pollution is a big problem in HK!
Like a volcano!
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Pictures from this hike are here.
Setting: New Year’s Eve – The last day of the year 2006.
One might have expected a low turnout since it is more likely than not that people would choose to laze away the last day of the year on booze and sleep instead of exercising on the mountains. But, the total strength in the morning wasn’t the least expected – It was an unbelievable 22! In an uncanny resemblance to the mainland China stocks, the numbers seem to go up even in the toughest of conditions! But then again, I did the headcount, so a “correction” may be forthcoming!
On this mildly warm New Year’s Eve, the 22 of us who showed up waited at 10.30AM in Diamond Hill MTR station to enjoy an easy coastal walk along the Sai Kung shores. We boarded bus number 96R to get to Pak Tam Chung, the starting point for the hike. A beautiful Hong Kong day greeted us as we disembarked from the bus! The clear visibility, gentle breeze and abundant sunlight presented the perfect conditions for walkers and photographers alike.
We strolled along the Mclehose Stage 2 trail until we spotted the perfect place for a group photo and lunch. We enjoyed lunch in a calm atmosphere – spectacular views of the azure sea beckoned on one side and splendid views of a beautiful reservoir generously filled the other side.
We resumed walking again at around 2PM and headed off to the starting point of the Sheung Yiu country trail. This is when the walk got one notch more difficult for those wearing shorts – namely me and only me! The trail was overgrown and full of sharp leaves and occasional thorny branches.
The trail eventually led to an area which had a rather modern building. Alex pointed out that the building was newly constructed. He had visited the area around a year back when the place was quite a contrast – old, rickety and mosquito infested. But now, they even had ferries going from this place to Sai Kung. Eight trampers took advantage of this ferry service and took an early exit to Sai Kung at $50 a person for the ride.
The remaining 16 of us carried on walking to Pak A village. Fai, Balaram and I decided to take an early exit and chose to jog our way back to Pak Tam Chung from this village. The rest of the trampers continued onto Po Pin Chau and took taxis from there to finish the hike.
Overall rating:
A pleasant and soothing walk to pull down the curtain on the year 2006!
Thank you, Alex, for leading the hike.
Happy New Hiking Year to everyone!
(PS: I’ve never had a flair for geography and this report may consist of errors pertaining to locations)
Tags:
Everyday life,
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