Hiking in the countryside was today's plan. Besides the crowded coastal strip HK island has several natural reserve parks and some pretty well-prepared hiking trails. The probably most famous is the HK trail, 50km along the mountainous spine of the island, cut in 8 stages.
I wanted to have my home as the finish so I started from the end of the trail, in Shek O. This is a small beach village at the south-eastern tip of the island. I took the bus and walked some distance to the small surfer village at Big Wave Bay, then found the entrance of the HK Tail. The part 8, where I started, is called the Dragon's Back. It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful hikes in Asia.
Since I had started from the actual end of the trail I had much traffic coming my direction, after all it's the most popular hike here. But there were also calm and empty passages, I liked it very much.
I even saw some wild-life.
After a while the trail leaves the trees and continues on the ridge of the hill.
From Shek O peak there was a nice view down on Shek O itself.
Later, as I left the Dragon's Back and continued on HK trail parts 7-5 I rarely met others, it was so calm and lonely, completely the opposite of the HK I had experienced so far.
In stage 6 and 5 there where lot of peaks to climb, like Mount Butler.
But there was always a rewarding panoramic view. In the back left of the picture, almost faded into grey, that's the Dragon's Back where I started :-)
A great day, will need some rest tomorrow, though...
