Phil Mercer

Thursday, October 04, 2012

Spider

 

Before coming to Hong Kong I only really knew a few things about it. The skyscrapers of a financial powerhouse, the craziness of the old Kai Tak airport, the escalator thing, the half sunken queen Elizabeth in the harbour and the handover - which I remember watching on telly.

What I hadn't realised was the amount of green space all around Hong Kong. Following our trip to Ocean Park I knew that one thing I wanted to do while here - was some hiking.

So Gareth took me for a walk to The Peak. What's more it was the country way and in conditions I'm just not used to you. The heat and humidity make it a bit of a struggle and I'm not as thin as I used to be, so was sweating a goodun! However when I get going I can keep plodding with the rest of them!



The start was just out the front of the apartment but required us to go in to the Hopewell Centre (one of Hong Kongs more recognisable skyscrapers) opposite, take the lift up to the 17th floor and then come out the other side further up the hill! Bizarre! From there it was a good constant slog on concrete pathways right up to a saddle in the hill near the Police museum. From there we headed down the southern side to join up with part 3 of the Hong Kong trail. The full trail crosses the island, but we only wanted to do that one section that took us around Tin Wan Shan at a level about halfway down. It really had the feel of a rainforest, with no city noises just birds and insects buzzing around. Some of the butterflies were just fantastic. Monsters when compared with the ones back at home.

We nearly walked head first in to a rather large spider's nest as well! No idea if it would have killed us... But surely it was a possibility!

You could tell the rain washed along the path regularly and any bridge over a stream carrying warnings not to cross in times of flood. Actually it was the road back up the hill to The Peak that had suffered most. When we turned to climb Peel Rise we were confronted with barriers almost blocking the road.

We decided to chance it and hope that we could get through. It was quite a slog up what was originally a road over the island... but was so narrow and windy it put the Wrynose in the Lake District to shame!

Eventually after a long slog, sure enough we came up against a smallish rock fall and then a way after that half the road had fallen away. Still plenty of space for light footed pedestrians to get through though.

It was just a short climb from there to The Peak. When you walk in - all dripping with sweat - you go through a feeling similar to that at the summit of Snowdon. That knowledge that you're better than all those lazy tourists who cheated and got the tram up!

The view is stunning. Looking down (or across in some cases) at the huge numbers of skyscrapers. You could get lost in it for hours.

After a spot of lunch and an ice cream we then headed down via Lugard Road and numerous steps, passing through the old Battery positions and eventually down in to the city.

A well earned pint completed the trek. As is tradition.

Location:Hong Kong

# posted by Phil @ 5:48 pm

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