With a
slightly getting-warmer weather and maximum height of 490 meters, technically
this is a two booter, but quite a tough one.
The walk is about 15-18 kilometres and has few good ascents. At the beginning, the trail was relatively
flat walk hugging the coast. Then we
headed inland and hiked over the hills towards Man Cheun Po and further.
Twenty four trail
walkers turned up at the meeting point. We
took a bus to Tai O and luckily did not do the prison tour so by 12 noon
we were on the trail. We huffed and
puffed our way up the hills and stopped for a short lunch just below the
summit. We did a short detour to the
Flying Dragon via a monastery. It was a
beautiful day with blue skies and few clouds with the temperatures just
about perfect. This part
of the Lantau trail meanders around from one summit to the next with clear
views of Lantau Peak.
We reached Sham Wat Road around 4:30pm and several trail
walkers left. Three decided that they
would make a head start with the beers at the lovely Stoep seaside restaurant
while 8 of us continued to Ngong Ping.
The trail is usually an easy 1 hour uphill hike or that’s what the
elders sold to the newbies – yeah right!
Trail walkers hike is incomplete if we don’t get scratches or get muddy
of bush whack. The government has closed
the trail due to recent landslides and this made the trail really
exciting. At several places the trail is
totally washed away and we had to make our way over loose rocks. At one point, Elise decided to demonstrate
how to sit in various impossible positions for 15 minutes on a tiny precipitous
ledge. The view in the evening light was
glorious with the sun coming down over the hills.
We capped the recent Lantau hike and a perfect hiking day
with a fantastic meal at the Stoep.
