North West New Territories

The northwestern parts of the New Territories don't seem to get much love from hikers and visitors to Hong Kong generally.  It doesn't have any of the fame of the Eastern or Northern parts of the New Territories which give stunning views into China and to the islands out to the East of Hong Kong.

It doesn't make a huge amount of sense to me that this is the case.  There are some great hikes out in this region and it's actually far easier to get out to this region in comparison to the areas based in the East.  There are good MTR links and the buses in and out of the region benefit from highways that a generally fast flowing.

One major thing that is lacking though are the beaches and boating opportunities that exist out to the East, so that definitely removes some of the glamour appeal.  The waters out here are the heavily trafficked waters of the Pearl River Delta.  A brisk trade of shipping is constantly flowing up and down from Guangzhou and the numerous cities along the way, making the waters murkier and dirtier in comparison to out East.

The weather was overcast and cooler.  It made the hike far easier and with the lack of any shade, I'm not sure if this would have even been possible during the hotter months.  Maybe this was another reason for this area being less popular with the hikers   We were hiking in a big group and we slowly started to split up as the stronger hikers forged ahead.  It was a bit strange to see our group snaking across the long distance of the trail.  With no cover, you could see everyone far ahead and behind.  I felt strangely connected with everyone, even though there were hundreds of metres between each of us.

At different points, we would group back together.  The jack rabbits at the front would slow and wait for the rest of the group.  We were a loose spring that seemed to stretch and snap back from time to time.  All connected, but only barely.

The arid environment and lack of cover made it easy to look out into the distance.  In any other situation, I would feel far more alone during such a hike, but any time I looked forward or back I could see hikers coming to and fro.  None of them were necessarily close, but it made it feel like we were all in the same room or all together at some common event.  Any loneliness was gone.

As we neared the end, we realised we were running out of time and we wouldn't make it to our final challenge of Castle Peak.  Some of the boys were hoping to get this peak ticked off on their list of challenges, but for the rest of us it wasn't worth the time.  We needed to get back to the city.

The convenience of hiking in Hong Kong is such that even with this last moment change in decision, there wasn't too much of an impact.  We just took the next closest turn instead of continuing on the trail and within thirty minutes or so we were all approaching the main roads and civilisation again.

We all took out our phones and started the search for cars to take us back to the city.  The simplicity and ease of it all never ceases to amaze me.