One last visit to Stanley
This visit was half because our time in the medical residences had expired, but also so that Blaine can spend some more time with his cousins. We spent the night playing wacky family card games. After the kids and parents went to sleep, Blaine and I headed off to Stanley main street, which is quite peaceful yet vibrant at night, since Stanley is the trendy place to be if you would like a Sunday night dinner in the Kong. So this is where Blaine and I sat down for our first and last time at a restaurant in our Hong Kong visit. We ordered two of the most delicious dark dark beer draughts that I have ever come across. The name escapes me, but I am certain my taste buds will lead me to this (possibly Danish) dark beer once more. We drank them in goblets and felt like sirs. After this we headed to our trusty 7/11, got us a couple of Tsing Tsao beers, some chocolate chip cookies and enjoyed them at the rocks next to the ocean and chatted about unimportant things.
One last visit to Sha Tin
For the next two nights we were offered a lovely room by Blaine's uncle, our elective head. The apartment, as I mentioned before, is a South African haven in Asian style.
Blaine has been catching up on the news, a passion of his. It seems that South Africa is
trending quite high up on Sky News. It seems that President Zuma is, as always,
unhappy with the latest matriculation results. It also seems that the rest of
the country is even more infuriated. The ravaging of the Western Cape’s
vineyards are also trending; a fair and sustainable fix is very necessary there.
Unfortunately the shooting in New Town, USA is utterly devastating; I cannot
even express in words how sad I feel for the families involved. Obama will
hopefully do his part.
More hiking
We were invited once more to a hike in the Tai Po Ka country
park. We were joined by our ENT head of department and his family and friends.
What a lovely afternoon hike this was. The pretty girls that joined us helped.
Once again I must remind myself that Hong Kong is still 70% forest. Wat op
aarde. Tsitsikamma smells wafting all around.
After the hike we were even more delighted to be invited to
lunch once again at one of the most prestigious government owned houses in Hong
Kong, Victorian era style, not seen much at all in Hong Kong. Cured salmon,
basil pesto, homemade bread, turkey slices (our dinner the previous night), all
sorts of goat cheeses and rocket leaves were some of the spectacles which our gourmet
sandwiches were made of. Tsing Tsao beer, our old favourite, was at hand once
again. Some smoked nuts were also making the rounds which made me want to start
smoking all sorts of things once I get a smoker. Turns out that all this time I had been oblivious to one fact about the food that everybody else had seemingly known about all along: It was made by the lady of the house, who used to be a renowned sous chef for t
he Rovos Rail back home. Gosh, but now the tastiness made sense.
Sleep was welcomed once again with open arms, for tomorrow a
big day awaits us.
Our route comprising entirely out of public transport had
been routed out for us the night before with countless topographical maps, and
I must say it was worth the planning. Using one minibus, one large bus and a
taxi (for which a lovely couple from mainland China that joined us on the taxi
had paid for) and a couple of double-checking of the maps we were armed with,
we arrived at Sai Kung Country park in 1 hour, a new record.
Allow me write down a couple of things I'd like to remember about this particular trail
- Most stunning and encompassing natural views of Hong Kong to date.
- A physically very gratifying day
- It was Blaine and my last day together as medical student, raucous flip-flop wearing, South African explorers pioneering their way through Hong Kong, paving the way for countless memories (please forgive my arrogance)
- one of my personal best times spent with Blaine here on holiday.
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| A great camping spot that some of our South African friends here in Hong Kong come to camp during good weather. Right on the beach @Sai Kung |
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| And so the 13.4km of moiuntain trail starts; we were turning right. Blaine seen studying the topography. |
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| After a while of hiking...As you can see, during the first kilometer or so, the mist was getting us down. Blaine can be seen searching for the apparently gorgeous panoramic view. We were quite high up at this moment, so we were basically in some low hanging clouds. |
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| Fortunately, just a couple of meters lower and the views started opening up all around us. |
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| The scenery that was exposed was... Well this reservoir is just great. Bluest of waters than you ever did see. |
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| We spotted 3 sneaky snakes on the paths. 3 poisonous Red Necked Keelbacks. Blaine tried to pull one out of the bushes by the tail (in my direction, I might add) to catch a better glipse, but snakes are born slithery. Next time, snake hunter. |
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| Two quarts of Tsing Tsao were a kingly reward for the couple of hours we put in so far. The Tsing Tsao seems to have left its finest flavours and most chilling liquidity for this moment |
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| A couple of locals more than happy to take photos of us...and then with us. We were happy, because we had our Tsing Tsao. The real makoya. |
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| Blaine contemplating where to take our swim from. |
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| No swimming shorts taken + not planning on getting any rash due to wet garments + public beach = A slippery slide down the rocks as God planned us to be. |
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| Blaine is getting quite adept at taking postcard-esque photos. We weren't sad to see this beach go, for we knew there were many to come. |
An unexpected detour, AKA Sharp Peak
Sharp peak looked like a very sharp hill that would be passed on our trail. It is definitely not a hill, and it was also a detour. We had to have a go at it, because it invited us with the sign in the photo below:
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| Curiosity liberated the cat |
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Sharp Peak, one of Hong Kong's top summits, loomed nearer. Our curiosity was immovably aroused.
It really looked more majestic in person, I promise. |
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| We are clearly very experienced mountaineers. Our calves were burning. Fortunately Blaine has upper leg reserved the size of tree trunks from all his water polo. Sadly I know little of water polo. |
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After many a manly groans and shouting of "I'm coming at you, mountain!":
468m above sea level.
The trig beacon at the summit was most rewarding. Perfect spot for some loud shouting. The photo is slightly misleading though, we could see the views quite well. 360 degrees of well-earned beauty. |
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| On the way down, we posed for some manly pictures. |
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| Or majestic ones, hey Blaine? |
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| Sharp Peak giving us a little love before we leave her entirely. My camera stopped working, I believe it was due to altitude sickness. |
The Sharp Peak ascent and descent took us 1 hour and 30 minutes. From here on we jogged downwards, greeting some familiar faces we had passed before our detour. The jog was refreshing and all steep downhill. This was met by 1km of uphills which led to:
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| Section 2 complete! Total time: 5 hours 20 minutes. From here on it was public transport back. |
Last night for Blaine and myself. We were greeted with home made showers and pizza's each. Blaine is leaving in the wee hours of the morning. He shall be missed in my final hours. Final blog post due tomorrow evening.
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