New year ; new hike…. naaaa !! Everyone doing that, so the hubby and I decided to do something old but it turned out to be a hidden trail to the mount Parker radar station ( observatory with the two white balls) and it was new after all.
Difficulty: 7/10 not for beginners. If you miss a step or a branch you will fall.
Duration: approximately 2.5 hours ~ 10 kilometres from Sai Wan Ho
How to get there: From Sai Wan Ho Mtr exit B cross King’s road and walk through the street filled with loads of vegetable , meat and fish vendors.
We walked straight and then turned right and took the escalator up to the shopping center. We exited at the Ikea merchandise pick up point and took the right.
We kept walking up the slope and to the start of the trail to the Shaukeiwan Reservoir.
We continued up to the reservoir abd turned right.
We ended up on a rugged path and kept climbing towards the Mount Parker trail.
We kept climbing till we reached a rock which had a big red stain on it with the sign boards pointing toward Mount Parker and Kornhill. We took the immediate left and kept walking on that path.
The path was pretty and we got lovely views of Kowloon, Devil’s Peak and Chai Wan from the trail.
We came to a very tiny stream and a big rock and just a few steps to the right we saw an opening. We decided to climb up through that path to see where it would take us.
There was not a soul on this path ahead or behind us, not a ribbon or any marking. We just climbed.
It wasn’t steep at the beginning but slowly as we climbed, it started getting steeper. We had to climb using branches on both sides.
As we climbed, the views got better. We saw a rope but it looked old and the tree that it was tied to was at its end. Learning: don’t always depend on ropes. You never know when they’ll snap.
This must’ve been left years ago by some hiker.
The climb grew steeper and we had slide across the edges holding to branches of trees.
We kept climbing and finally we reached the top; the concrete path leading to the Mount Parker Radar station or Hong Kong Observatory.
We crossed over and found a hidden path which led us to the big white golf ball look alike structure.
We walked around it and then headed on the concrete path towards the smaller golf ball lookalike structure.
The views were fantastic! The blue skies and the pristine water below.
We continued back on to the concrete path this time and walked down towards Mount Parker Road.
We then turned left at the big white sign, walked down the steep slope and followed the sign towards Greig road.
We walked down Greig road and headed home.
You can take the MTR from Taikoo exit B or there is a bus stop too with loads of buses that will take you to your destination.
This hike wasn’t an easy hike and definitely not for beginners and not to be tried on rainy days.
This hike is for intermediate and advanced hikers.
This is dog friendly as they could do this hike. Medium sized and big sized dogs could hike up this path.
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Happy Hiking! Have a super 2021 and stay safe.