This past Saturday, I went on a pretty amazing hike for most of the day. I woke up at 7 am to meet some others to travel together to the hike location. I met three girls from Mainland China: Eva, Wingtiki, and Victoria. Together with Orlando, also from Mainland China, we headed to the train station. One transfer and we are at the meeting point for the whole group. I meet another girl from Mainland China: Zhong Nan, and the two guys that organized the hike: Stanley and Stephen, who I am pretty sure are from Hong Kong. Also here are Henry from Finland, and Jessica from New York, both of which I have already met. From the MTR station, we take two buses to get to the beginning of the hike, and pick up Anna, also from New York, and Dave from Hong Kong on the way. Altogether, there are twelve of us, representing 4 different countries.

The hike starts out pretty easy, as it is almost all downhill. Also, for about the first half of the hike, the path is a concrete sidewalk type deal, making the trek easier. We pass through a small deserted village and several small altars to the mountain god before reaching a small beach with a pier. The view from the beach is pretty fantastic. You can see boats and a large number of windsurfers off of another beach as well as mountains off in the distance. We take some pictures here before continuing on our way. The trail snakes through the forest some more, without too many ups and downs. At about the 1/3 mark of our journey, we reach Wong Shek Pier. This is our lunch stop, so we take a break. Bellies full of sandwiches, water, bread, wife cakes, and ice-cream, we trek on.

We have to walk next to the road for a bit and then pass through someone’s back yard before reaching the continuation of the trail. We see some pretty nice flowers, some bluish-green bamboo, and a wild bull on this part of the hike. The ones ahead of me got some pictures of the bull, as it was making its way farther into the trees when I arrived. All along the hike, there are openings in the trees where you can see the water, which is pretty close to the trail, as well as mountains farther in the distance. Not too far into this part of the hike, we reach another, larger, beach. Right after the sand stops, the mountain starts, with a thick growth of trees, bushes, and grass. We put our cameras to good use again before continuing.

This next part of the hike turns out to be the most difficult. It is all uphill, and we are apparently climbing part of the hill that started at the beach. There is most definitely not a nice concrete sidewalk anymore. Mostly just rocks and dirt, sometimes with the rocks arranged into semi-staircases to assist in the ascent. We end up taking a break partway up the mountain because the hike is so strenuous. Refreshed, we attempt to get this difficult portion out of the way. However, just as we are finishing up the steepest climb, it started raining. At first, we just don our rain jackets and opened up or umbrellas. Then, it startsraining harder, so we decide to stop under some trees and wait it out. After a short while, the rain subsides and we hike on. From here to the end of the hike, it rained off and on. After this brief spout of heavy rain, the dirt is now mud, and the rocks are very slippery. The downhill sections are now a bit more difficult. We get a fellow hiker that we recently met to take some group pictures overlooking the water. We hike for a bit with the mountain to our left and a view of the water and mountains in the distance to our right. We get a brief view of another beach before reaching a stopping point.

Here, the original plan was to hike a loop on this peninsula and end up at the starting point where the peninsula connects to the rest of the land. However, after group discussion, we decide that this part should be left for another day as it would tack on a good deal of time to the current hike. The path heads into the forest where we are unable to see the water for a while. We pass a weird boat-docking building before coming to a small pier. We can see a beach where it appears that diving and surfing are taking place. On the pier, it starts raining harder, so we open up the umbrellas again. Just after the pier is Hoi Ha village and the end of our hike.

We take a minibus back to a harbor area near the hike’s start. Here, we eat dinner at a possibly Thai restaurant. Luckily, Jessica and Anna from New York are also vegetarian, so we order three dishes together to share. They are quite good and not too expensive. After dinner, we exchange email addresses and head back home. I greatly enjoyed the hike even though it was a lot more work than I typically do on a Saturday.