Hiking in the New Territories

I recently discovered an opportunity to meet new people and to ...hike! I am not a gym girl, treadmills are not for me: I need an effort out in the air, close to nature and I need a direction and a landmark. And considering that I had been missing a proper workout, finding this meetup group was a big deal for me.

My first opportunity was the preparatory hikes to the Hikathlon, a charity event with two routes - 6km and 12 km - with the same starting point in the New Territories. Back home in Poland, 6km even on a challenging terrain feels more like an after-lunch walk, but I had not done that at 33-35C and in 70-80% humidity before and had no idea how my body would respond to it, so I decided to take it slow.

The 6K proved very pleasant despite the heat. The route was mostly through the forest, so we were almost always hidden from the heavy sun. It was hot, but not as hot as my farewell Tatra hike in mid-June.

The hills we were cutting through were covered in very thick forest, the trails were often hardly visible under tall grass, there were plenty of bushes and flowers and ...spiders. Lovely!

Here and there the view opened onto the beautiful shores of Plover Cove Reservoir, a lake made from the ocean, and also onto the Mainland China  (Shenzhen) on the other side of the Starling Inlet. Unfortunatey, the air was too thick and misty (or, as expats always say here, too polluted) for the beautiful views.

I did end up drinking a whole lot of water and the challenge of 12K started looming in the shape of all those bottles of water I would need to carry when I came a week later.

The 12K was very different. It was not just twice as long. Only its first 2 km were in the forest. The rest lay on a fully exposed trail, under the ruthless sun, with challenging slopes. When we had made it to the top, our expectation was flat route for some time and then discent, but more challenges lay ahead and were only starting... 

I had not realized that almost half of the 12K route led atop the Pat Sin Leng mountain range with eight peaks... So even if the tallest peak was 591m, then cumulative height we climbed that day but far far more. Up and down, up and down with sun in zenith and heat at over 33C.

The views would have been breathtaking, but for the mist again... I remember that back home the view from Babia Góra into Tatra Mountains was also quite misty unless you spend the night on the peak and take a look just as the dawn breaks when the air is still brisk. So, I always thought that visibility was a matter of air temperature and humidity... But apparently, the misty views on these pictures have a lot to do with air pollution in Hong Kong.

We had not even reached the first peak, when we thought we were past the third... The route back was just as long and hard as the route ahead. The rest we needed was form the sun, but there was not a tree in sight.

On one of the peaks, I started losing faith that I'd be able to continue at the same pace and was told: "Don't worry! This one ahead of us is the last!" When I eventually climbed it, I discovered that was only the seventh peak. The tallest last was still ahead of us.

This was one of those few times when you appreciate others telling you lies... This was also a great lesson in endurance. We always CAN more than we think... Our mind limits us much more than our body. Or rather, our fear limits us, not our abilities. Never doubt you CAN! Fear has big eyes, they say... There would always be a moment to look back and say "Yes! Made it!" And that's another reason I love hiking: once you are half way through, you cannot back out...

So that's a brief report on the past two weekends. Tonight, I am going for a NIGHT HIKE (7 to 11pm) on the Hong Kong Island and it is just too bad that I do not yet have a tripod, as that is just a wonderful opportunity for some great shots of Hong Kong skyline by night...

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UPDATE 11:30 PM: I am just back from my night hike and feel wonderful! I had never hiked at night before and this was a wonderful experience. Flashlight on the forehead, severall bottles of water in the backpack, we started from a fairly ambitious climb of nearly an hour, after which it was an up-and-down, up-and-down affair. The views of Hong Kong skyline, both of the island and Kowloon were incredible. And even if I had a tripod, the photos would not have reflected the view that opened on both sides of the mountain. It was remarkable. On one of the trails I could see the Happy Valley, flooded with light with teams practicing football and joggers circling the race course, smaller than ants. There was a special pleasure in locating my home building from so far away.