Holiday is hiking day!

This is our first week of holiday in Hong Kong since we arrived in august. We live at the border to the Country parks of Sai Kung, so we decided to spend some time exploring the hiking possibilities here and then go to Lamma Island at the end of the week. Bob and Yvonne Stearns lives in Tcham chuck Wan just at the entrance to the country park from where you can find some lovely hills and hiking tracks. From their house we have often looked up at the hills outside their window and Bob always said: “I want to go up there on a hike”.So finally the October break came and we packed our small lunch boxes and water bottles, tied our hiking boots and put on loads of sun cream and mosquito repellent and started our hike to the Tai Tun Mountain. We were six in the group. Beside Bob & Yvonne, Catriona and I, we had Christine Lau, our Cantonese friend and language teacher and of cause Pfoten the beagle dog along. The estimated time for this hike is 3 - 4 hours, depending on the condition and of which patch we were going to follow. There is the easy ones for families, and then the indistinct and seasonally overgrown ones, which also led to the peak, and who doesn't want to go there. We started of on the family track which led us deep into the country park and just around the peak we should start to clime up the more difficult patch to the top. Like I’ve mentioned before on these pages; Hong Kong hosts 52 different species of snakes, among them the Burmese Python, who can reach a length of 6 meters and therefore also could be a very dangerous one to cross your way, and just at the beginning of the track leading into the park we were met by this sign....

Because we had Pfoten the Beagle dog along, we stopped for a moment; looked at each other and then everybody at her; the Beagle dog. She didn’t seem to worry about the possibility to be standing face to face with a 6 meter long Burmese Python at all, she just looked back at us like she was saying; “come on, why aren’t we moving any more, this place is gorgeous and filled with delicious smells”, and of she went again with her nose deep down to the ground like a vacuum cleaner and her tail wavering in the air like rotor blades on a helicopter. Ok, maybe it was just because she can’t read and didn’t know what that sign said. Anyway we continued our walk after her, trying not to think about the 6 meter long bone crushing muscle, who apparently lived (and ate) here in this area.We didn’t meet any danger on the first part and after a little lunch break we came to the first steep and bit difficult stage of the hike. The climb to the peak of Tai Tun. So far it had been like a walk in the park, solid and well organized tracks, but the next part was a bit challenging; a steep indistinct and overgrown path with big and some times loose rocks and high obstacles to overcome. Should Pfoten go with us up there? Could she manage that with her small legs, and was she at all able to stand the physical endurance this climb would demand? Nobody wanted to -or could- carry her all the way down from there, if she suddenly decided to act tired. Bob decided just to go, cos he wanted to reach and see his house and the bay of Sai Kung from that peak. Yvonne too, all though she was wearing sandals and for Catriona it was a piece of cake, she was born in the highlands of Scotland and used to run up and down the mountains with her dog. I was a little nervous at the beginning but because I had seen on the map, that following that path over the peak was the shortest way to come down to the little kiosk at the entrance of the country park, where they sold nice cold beer, so I didn’t argue either and just followed Bob. And Pfoten, the beagle dog, went up with an astonishing speed; she overtook all of us up there, but stayed then between me and Bob at the front. Maybe she in fact can read, and therefore wanted him to deal with the dangerous snake somewhere out there.On the top we realized it was the wrong one, and we could not see Bob & Yvonne’s house from there, there was another peak maybe one kilometer to the south. Christine was tired and without any passion for hiking, the only thing that kept her going was in fact that it was her only way out of there, so one by one we tried to pump her up and to encourage her to enjoy the fresh air and the beautiful view over the mountains of her home country. Pfoten was still going strong and she obvious loved hiking. Normally she is tired after 1 hour, and after two hours walk, she normally wants to be carried, but no, she was still trying to take of, rotating her tail in the air. Finally we could enjoy the view at Tcham chuck wan, the Country Park and Sai Kung bay, and we really enjoyed that.It was starting getting late and we just had to go the maybe 700 meters in direct line way down to the waiting cold beer at the kiosk, but on foot on a mountain it is of cause more, but nobody thinks of that when you just have to go down. And then it happened; one step leads to another, one loose rock, Catriona’s right foot twists around and she fall down on her leg. One hour later she is airlifted by a Helicopter and on her way to East district Hospital on Hong Kong Island. We got escorted down the mountain by the country parks mountaineers and 2 hours later we arrive at the hospital to see Catriona. But this is going to be another story. In fact it is no story, and a shame that it is no story, because Catriona has now got a broken leg.