12 years of marital bliss, madness and laughter and so we decided to celebrate our 1 dozen years with a new, kinda risky hike.
So we decided to hike up D’Aguilar peak which had been staring at me for years whenever I passed by to hike the Cape D’Aguilar trail. And guess what we were the only two human beings on this trail.
Difficulty: 7/10 it’s a risky hike, it consists of scrambling over rocks like apes and bushwhacking
Duration: approximately 2 hours , 5 kilometres
How to get there: You can take the Mtr to Shaukeiwan and exit at A3. Take the number 9 bus opposite the exit to Shek O beach. From the sitting out area, get on to the beach and just behind this restaurant with two black dogs , there’s a path.
Due Covid-19 the beach was closed, however, we told the security guard we wanted to get on to the hiking trail and he permitted us to enter through the barricades.
We turned left, follow the pictures you will be able to find the start of the path up D’Aguilar peak.
And that’s where the climb started. Over 325 meters elevation, the entire peak.
Ideally, we should have worn gloves but Nigel and I aren’t very comfortable with gloves so we climbed bare handed. Also one should cover their legs, I did but my best half didn’t. However, he was fine.
At the beginning, there were tiny concrete steps embedded into the rocks, however not for long.
We could see an absolutely empty Shek O beach from a wee bit up.
It was a climb up, we had to hold on to rocks and had to pull our heavy bodies up. 😁
We kept following some ribbons that were tied to branches.
We reached a part of the peak which was plain rock and we again had to go on all fours to climb.
But as we climbed, the views got better and better.
We stopped and took in the sights of Shek O, Dragon’s Back and Po Toi island in the far distance.
We could see the round hill which we had to reach. We had over 2/3rd of the climb left.
Again a bit of bushwhacking, followed by steep rocky slopes.
We came across a rock that resembled a baby elephant. It was quite amusing.
And another rock which resembled a pig’s nose.
We kept at it, enjoying each other’s company and banter as we climbed happily together.
We could see Stanley in the distance at a certain point on our climb up and Shek O beach looked pristine in the distance.
We continued and again stopped to take in the views. It was a pretty clear day and not too cold thankfully so that made the climb fun too.
At this point we took the left as the right path leads you down the hill. ( We made that mistake and had to climb back up.)
We came to a rock which looked like someone had pushed their face into it. 😁
Here, there was a very narrow edge that we had to cross so we were a bit careful, lest we slipped or lost our balance.
We spotted the satellite station in the distance and realised that the top was not too far. However, the shrubbery was far taller than us and we had to bushwhack quite a bit.
We were getting close and finally we reached the top of the peak.
We climbed over the rocks to get near the trigonometrical station.
We got down carefully and on to the concrete path via the satellite station area.
The satellites looked pretty impressive. We got on to the concrete slope which led to Cape D’Aguilar road.
We could see the lighthouse in the distance and Hok Tsui village below.
Finally we reached the road near the signboards pointing towards the Cape D’Aguilar satellite station. We turned right and walked towards the bus stop. Here, you could turn left and go towards the Cape D’Aguilar Battery , Bokhara Battery and crab cave, and the lighthouse and Thunder cave, https://hongkonghikinglover.com/2018/01/27/cape-d-aguilar-easy-trail/.
Ideally, we would have taken the number 9 back to Shaukeiwan, but since we were hungry and it was our anniversary, we took a cab to Stanley and had delectable burgers, beetroot for me and bacon and cheese fir Nigel with chilli fries and sweet potato fries, lemonades and a fantastic banoffee pie at Beef and Liberty 😋😋.
This was a day well spent and a meal well earned.
This is a hike for intermediate and advanced hikers and not for beginners or small kids. Not dog friendly as dogs are sadly not allowed on Shek O beach.
Also, one must wear proper footwear on this hike as you could hurt yourself. I carried a hiking pole more for protection against snakes 😄 but not necessary.
This is a very pretty, picturesque hike and a must do. However, do not litter and take your litter home.
Do try this hike and let me know how it was. For more hikes follow me on
https://www.facebook.com/honkiehiker/.
Stay safe and happy hiking!