An Olympian Feat.

Hong Kong Olympic Trail Signpost.

I'm getting more and more impatient, waiting for the weather to be cool enough for hiking again, so today, despite knowing it was going to be hot and despite not feeling all that well, I decided to walk the Tung Mui Ancient Trail, which goes from Tung Chung to Mui Wo. There are several ancient trails in Hong Kong. In the past, before there was much transport available, people walked the ancient trails to get from place to place, to buy and sell goods, to visit family and friends and so on. In 2008 the middle section of this route was renamed the Olympic Trail in celebration of Hong Kong hosting the equestrian events of the Beijing Olympics. When it was designated as the Olympic Trail, the path was repaired, bridges were built and various sign posts and Olympic related images were added to the pathway. The Olympic Trail itself is around 5.6km. However, walking from and to public transport at each end of the Tung Mui Ancient Trail makes the total walk a bit over 9 km.

There are several ways to get to the start of the trail. I had planned to walk past Tung Chung North Park, go onto a path parallel to the railway lines, then come through a subway under the tracks, but as I was heading to Tung Chung on the bus, I noticed signs for a different way that I had come across in online videos, so I changed to that.

I got off my bus in Tung Chung, bought some water, then walked along Fu Tung Street, past a health clinic and a refuge collection centre. I then walked along a pavement on Cheung Tung Road. This pavement was on the edge of a major, busy highway. As soon as I saw a sign for the Olympic Trail, I climbed up steps into the woods and was pleased to get away from the traffic, but there were several flights of stairs and several paths off them. I wasn't sure how high up I had to go to be on the right path, so I made a mistake and went on the lower path. After walking for about ten minutes or so, that path started to descend and spat me back out onto the edge of the busy road again. I knew following the road would also get me where I wanted to go, so I just kept going.

Fu Tung Street.

Map for the route to the start of the Olympic Trail.

Stairway up to Olympic Trail.

Suddenly, I saw a structure, built by the water works department, that I recognised from other people's hike blogs, so I climbed up to it and was soon on a forest path again. After a few minutes, I had the choice of continuing straight or climbing stairs. I decided to be lazy and just go straight. This led me onto a private piece of land owned by the water works department. It had lots of fences around it to keep people out. Unfortunately, I was already inside the fenced off area and trying to get out. So I had to exit by climbing through a fence covered in signs saying: 'Trespassers will be prosecuted' and telling me how much I should be fined for being where I was. To make matters worse, I came through the fence right next to a parked car containing a shocked looking man, possibly a worker for the water works department, who was watching my every move with a disapproving expression on his face. Not a great start to the hike.

Waterworks structure.

Anyway, I was now back at the side of the busy road again. By this stage I had largely given up hope of ever getting on the correct forest path to link to the trail, so I just continued along the road. This was hot and unpleasant. Finally, with a great sense of relief, I reached Tai Ho Wan Bay, the path heading to Pak Mong Village and the official start of the Olympic Trail.

Finally arrived at the turnoff for Pak Mong.

Subway from the route I had originally intended to take to the starting point of the Olympic Trail.

Hong Kong Olympic Trail.

This was in the car park at Pak Mong Village and doesn't look like it's been driven for a while

I pass Tai Ho Wan Bay frequently when I take the bus from Discovery Bay to Tung Chung. It looks beautiful from the bus. However, when I was standing at the bottom of it, I could not even see it properly due to sewage pipes, road works and other obstructions. It definitely looks better from a distance.

Tai Ho Wan from the bus.

At the start of the road leading towards Pak Mong Village there are many plaques about the Olympic Trail. I took some pictures of these. I then found a reasonable place to photograph the water as long as I kept my back to all the construction.

The Olympic Trail Signboard.

Tai Ho Wan.

Pak Mong Village is quite an interesting place with a couple of historic structures. The first one I came to, was an old red brick incinerator, dating from the 1950's or 60's. Villagers used to use this to burn their rubbish. Nowadays it's no longer used, because it caused air pollution and because they can now easily transport their rubbish out to refuge tips.

Pak Mong incinerator.

The next historic building was a seven metre tall, two story guard tower. The sign next to it said it dated from 1939. I would have thought it was older. This has small windows on the upper floor and gun ports. It was originally used to defend the village against pirates and bandits. After the war it was used temporarily as the village school. Nearby there is a large, two metre tall, stone, divided down the middle into two almost equal parts. This is nicknamed the sword testing stone, as it looks as if it was sliced neatly into two using a sword.. There is a similar structure with the same nickname on top of the Tiger's Head Hill behind my house.

Pak Mong Guard Tower.

Sword testing stone.

I could not get very close to these structures, as they were behind a fence marked private and with pictures of rather fierce looking dogs on it. I could have stepped through the gate, but I felt I had already done enough trespassing for one day.

There is a stream flowing through this village called Pak Mong Stream. I had seen it earlier flowing down the mountains. Many people walk this stream, actually in the water and climbing up the falls. I have zero intention of ever trying to do this. If you want to see how it is done, find another blog.

Pak Mong Stream.

Pak Mong Stream.

Pak Mong Stream.

The waterfalls forming the Pak Mong Stream that flows through Pak Mong Village.

I then arrived at the impressive village gateway with its lion guards. There were some little shrines, probably devoted to the earth god, at the ends of the village. Finally, just before leaving the village, I arrived at a public toilet, very handy for hikers.

Pak Mong Gateway.

Lion guard.

Shrine.

Village shrine.

From here I followed the path to the next village - Ngau Kwu Long. There were beautiful views of this village across the fields. This village also had a public toilet. I noticed most of the villages, don't actually want people coming into them. This is probably because there will be lots and lots of rubbish throwing, noisy hikers at weekends and on public holidays, but it could also be a COVID related thing.

Ngau Kwu Long Village.

Ngau Kwu Long Village.

House on route.

From here the path continued to Tai Ho, which again closed its gates to passers by. I took a picture through the fence that closed off the village to outsiders, then continued on my way.

Entrance to Tai Wo Village through the fence.

There was lots of beautiful scenery and nature all around me. I passed several burial grounds near here and I should have come to a viewpoint but missed it. I still saw the views though by turning round on the path as I climbed up a hill. The views looked over the 55km long Hong Kong Zuhai Macau Bridge, which is the longest bridge-cum-tunnel sea crossing in the world. This cost a fortune to build and has hardly been used for ages due to the fact that going to Macau or Zuhai until recently necessitated about two weeks of quarantine.

Scenery.

Scenery.

Grassy meadow.

Graveyard.

View over Hong Kong Zuhai Macau Bridge.

Fungi on a log.

The walk I was taking had been recommended to me by a friend. She said it was easy, nearly all flat and was fine to do on a hot day. She's obviously a lot fitter than me. The walk wasn't particularly steep and would be really easy in the cool months, but the temperature was around 33 or 34 degrees Celsius and while some areas were shaded, others were fully in the sun. I started to realise I was not feeling too great, I was drenched in sweat and I had definitely had way too much sun. I kept going and the path kept climbing. Eventually, when I reached a shaded part, I just slumped down onto the edge of the path, feeling pretty exhausted. I wasn't sure whether to go on or go back or just sit there till around December when it might start to cool down. Suddenly, I heard someone coming along the path behind me. It turned out to be an Australian man out for a walk. He looked at my slumped, lifeless body and said: "Keep going, another 50 metres, you are at the top and there's even real seats." I think he saved my life. After thanking him, I picked myself up, put one foot in front of the other, and made it to the top of the hill. Honestly, if you did this hike in winter, you would not know what I'm whining about, you would say: "What hill?" but the summer sun is a killer here.

Soon I came to a place where the path I was on, met up with the path from the Tiger's Head Path. I've only walked that path once. It was memorable. I injured my leg climbing up the mountain and completed the rest of the hike in intense agony. Fortunately, my legs were functioning well enough on this hike, it was just I had had way too much sun.

Anyway, I ignored the turn off, I wasn't going back to Discovery Bay yet. First, I had to get to Mui Wo. I passed several bridges, some Olympic pictures on the pathway and came to a shelter, viewpoint and trigonometric marker. I remembered all this from my pain filled previous walk.

Bridge.

Bridge.

Fencing stone.

Triathlon stone.

Swimming stone.

Athletics stone.

Cycling stone on the Olympic Trail.

Shelter.

Trigonometrical Marker.

Selfie with Trigonometrical Marker.

View over Mui Wo.

After enjoying the view, I headed on down towards Mui Wo. I walked through the pleasant little village of Wo Tin. There were great views, but of course that also meant there was no shade.

Wo Tin Village.

Lanterns in Wo Tin Village.

Farm in Wo Tin Village.

View over Mui Wo.

I stopped at Silvermine Cave. I had failed to find this on my previous walk, which I blame on my severe pain levels on that day, as there is a huge sign for the cave written on the path, a prominent shelter and a large notice board, plus it's possible to actually see the cave from the path!!! I still missed it. Anyway Mui Wo was once called Silvermine Bay and this cave was the entrance to one of the mines. It's sealed up nowadays and it's only possible to go into the cave a very short way.

Sign on the ground and pavilion, Silvermine Cave.

Silvermine Cave.

Silvermine Cave.

I continued down the hill to Silvermine Bay Waterfall. There's one woman in Hong Kong whose blog I sometimes read. She says she has never failed to feel really disappointed by Silvermine Bay Waterfall. I have to admit I rather agreed with her. It's difficult to clamber into a good position to get a good photo of it. It's usually not got very much water and it's always covered with people. I did not linger here long, just long enough to manage to graze my elbow against a rock and start it bleeding. Honestly, I'm just not lucky on this walk.

Silvermine Bay Waterfall.

Silvermine Bay Waterfall.

Past the waterfall I soon reached the end of the Olympic Trail. There are several information markers here.

Mui Wo Information Post.

I decided I would head through Pak Ngan Heung, a little village with a lovely Man Mo Temple. In the past, any disputes about the price of silver obtained from the nearby mine used to be settled here.

Gateway to Pak Ngan Heung Village.

Man Mo Temple.

Artwork on Man Mo Temple.

Inside Man Mo Temple.

It had felt like miles from here to the bus station and ferry pier when I had hurt my leg. This time I thought it would seem much shorter. It didn't really. It actually is quite a long way.

Mui Wo is a pretty place. I saw ponds, farms, flowers, fruit growing on the trees.

Pond, Mui Wo.

Farm.

Flowers, Mui Wo.

Pink flower in Mui Wo.

Bananas.

Papayas.

I also passed lots of photogenic houses, crossed the river, bypassed a herd of cows and ended up at the beach.

Mui Wo house.

House in Mui Wo.

Boat outside house.

Bicycle.

Village house, Mui Wo.

Village house, Mui Wo.

House in Mui Wo.

Cow grazing in Mui Wo.

Cow and car.

I crossed some streams and the River Silver. I noticed a rather thirsty dog had made its way down to one of the streams to have a drink.

Stream and thirsty dog.

River.

The Silver River.

Some maintenance work was being done to the beach and the beach path, so unfortunately it was all a bit of a mess. It's normally really pretty here. A lot of the work was taking place outside the Silvermine Bay Hotel.

Mui Wo Beach.

Silvermine Bay Hotel.

Mui Wo has lots of good restaurants. If Peter were still able to hike, we would have gone for a meal at this point. Near the ferry pier there were lanterns and Chinese flags strung up, as it was Chinese National Day on October 1st. There was also a huge parking area for bicycles. I've no idea how anyone ever finds their bike again.

Mui Wo restaurant.

Silvermine Bay Hotel through the decorations.

Walking to the ferry pier passed National Day decorations.

Now where did I leave my bike?

I had to wait quite a while for the bus and was really relieved when the driver finally let us all on it. Air-conditioning has rarely felt so good. I realised I had a terrible headache from too much sun and this wasn't helped by the guy who sat across from me, playing a video on his phone at top volume. We passed some lovely scenery on the journey back to Tung Chung, but all in all, I was pleased to get home and into a dark room containing several bottles of water for a well deserved rest.

View from the bus on the way back to Tung Chung.