Day 3: Hiking

I think I already posted this photo- but I like to keep things together. We metro'd to Choi Hung station on the Kwun Tong (green) line, then hopped the bus 1A to the Sai Kung pier, where they had a nice visitor's center, lots of seafood resturants, and a nice used english bookstore. We picked up sandwiches for lunch.

From there we took a 30 min. cab to Tai Long Wan, where the trailhead began. The sign said the entire trail would have taken 4 hours... our pal told us it would be 1.5 hrs to the beach, and 2.5 out.

It was a beautiful hike, perfect weather. The trail was well taken care of- cement steps and railings, and towards the end there were also streetlights. On the beach were some homes and meager open air resturants. We enjoyed the wide open beach, sand like powder, and completely empty. It seemed most people were hiking through. After reading and some romping in the ice-cold, glassy water, we continued on. The sun had begun to set and my legs began to wobble with every step.

"Timon, I don't think I can make it... I'm super weak sauce," I said as I promptly collapsed in the sand. 2 more hours seemed unbearable to my legs of rubber. There had to be another way- with the resturants- surely the soda and groceries were brought in by truck or boat. As we deliberated and trudged on, we saw a group of people begin to get on one of the boats tethered in the water. We looked at each other, then T took off running after the boat. Now, this was not nearby- it was clear across the shore- about the distance of a football field. Timon got there while I was still halfway, dragging myself. He threw his shoes off, and with money in his fist yelling, "How much?!" chasing the boat in the water. He was knee-deep in the water making his way on the bouncing boat, I began running and taking off my shoes and trying to fight my way onto the boat too. We were both on, when another couple with tickets showed up and we got bumped off. I was in such a confused frenzy, I kept asking, "where does the boat go?!" My leggings were soaked, and we stood out of breathe as the boat left us catching out breath. There was an old man laughing at us, and muttering something- but we couldn't understand his Cantonese.

Eventually we managed to get off the beach. We crossed a super rickety bridge over a nasty lagoon. to get to the resturants and ticket booth. The bridge would shake and sway with every step- rough 2 x 4"s and drift wood strapped and nailed together. There were two deflated animal balloons showing where the entrance to the bridge was.  a

 

Below is the view from the boat that rescued us back to the pier. The waters were rough and we had a hard time getting the boat going. The captain(?) was pulling us away from shore (small 15 passenger boat) by the anchor. Then the anchor came out and the waves shoved us farther onshore. The captain threw the anchor ropes to the two dude behind him- two thin guys in their 20s and told them to start pulling, and he jumped out of the boat to push from the behind. Water was sloshing into the boat from the front and back, and we held onto the rails and were all bumping into each other. There was a sense of panic and excitement in the air. The two guys were sliding around (we were all barefoot in a boat with water, and they were pulling that rope in as hard as they could) Evenutally the captain got us off shore, and pulled the huge anchor on boat and we were off. It was dusk- and beautiful- the mountains and waters it was amazing!