It's the last day of 2007! This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for too long. The seasons have changed, too. We're way past autumn and supposedly deep into winter, but it's only started to quite cold today. It was ten degrees this morning - that's probably as cold as it will ever get!
So here's the long overdue post on Sections 5 & 6 of the Hong Kong Trail. We attempted this route in mid-November when the days was still quite balmy. The trail starts just opposite HK Parkview on Tai Tam Reservoir Road, beginning with a long flight of steps to warm up the cold muscles!
This trail goes upwards all the way to Jardine's Lookout. The steps seem neverending. But when you finally reach Jardine's Lookout, you can take a breather while apprising yourself of the historic nature of the location.
From Jardine's Lookout to Mount Butler, the trail slopes gently downhill for a bit before sharply rising again for a fair distance. It's got magnificent views of Kowloon and Central, though. If you're in no hurry, stop to catch your breath every few minutes or so :)
Mount Butler coming up in the distance. We're heading for that little 'hole' which is southeast of the peak.
The three chimneys in the distance: Power station on Lamma Island
Huge, yawning granite quarry. I wondered if Quarry Bay got its name from this, but it's still quite a distance from here.
Looking across the Mid Levels and Victoria Harbour, you can just about make out the up-and-coming International Commerce Centre being constructed in West Kowloon (now the tallest building on the far left, soon to be tallest building in HK).
Lying beyond the boarded-up entrance: mine, mystery or just much ado about nothing?
Trail worn out by decades of wind, rain and hikers.
The old Kai Tak airport through the usual haze. Nothing's left of it now except for what used to be the runway. The red object somewhere in the middle is MegaBox.
Mid-levels and Central, with Two IFC on the far right.
Meteorological station or something on Mount Butler
Section 5 ends with a descent on Jacob's Ladder - several hundred steps (I can't remember how many!)
Jacob's ladder.
We continued the hike onto Section 6, a relatively easy route compared to Section 5, but we took a wrong turning along the way and deviated off the trail. For hundreds of metres we didn't come across any trail markers, which should have rung several alarm bells, but the reason we continued to press on was quite possibly the fact that the route had inclined sharply downhill for quite a distance before we realised we were off the trail and we were quite reluctant to retrace our steps UPhill! We should have 'crossed' the reservoir (you can see it in the picture below) but because of poor signage at the junction, we went on ahead and got ourselves onto a different trail completely.
Upper Tai Tam Reservoir: so peaceful.
This is the route we were supposed to have taken.
There are many trails in the area, many of them criss-crossing others, and by a stroke of luck, the trail we were on rejoined Section 6 of the Hong Kong Trail after about 2km. Quite relieved, we were!
Beautiful blue skies that day. Why don't we get more winds from the south?
Suddenly, we emerged from the forest onto a busy road. From the signages on the buses that sped by, it was the road leading to Stanley: Tai Tam Road. We caught a green minibus that took us to Stanley, where we had a late lunch and stroll before we caught another bus home.
Stanley Bay
Lunch in Wildfire in the Murray Building: calamari fritters
Some pizza with spinach leaves: not very memorable!
The last bit of the tea set.
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