Ooooo West Dog’s Teeth!! The hardest hike in Hong Kong! That’s what everyone kept saying. And justifiably so. But the climb was not as difficult ( I guess that’s because I love climbing) as the path we took to reach the Wisdom Path. We didn’t follow the documented route on blogs but took an absolutely dangerous, risky, treacherous and arduous path which is normally a short cut to reach uphill to Lantau peak. However, we brave hearts did it the other way around which made this hike extremely adventurous.
Difficulty: 10/10 only because of the path we took downhill.
Duration: 7 hours
How to get there: Nigel and I took the MTR to Tung Chung and exited at B. We met our gang there, Urvi, Lamiya and Murtuza all prepped and ready. We crossed over to the bus terminus and took the bus number 11. There’s bus 23 too. We took the bus to Shek Pik Police station. From Tung Chung to that stop it was a 40 minute bus ride. We alighted at the stop and walked back towards the Shek Pik Country Trail.
We had to climb a few steps and walk a muddy path for nearly 30-40 minutes. But it was very serene and pretty.
We continued on our way. The mood was sombre. I guess we were waiting to climb. 😁 But the straight path continued for quite a bit.
We continue on this path and we could see the Shek Pik reservoir below. It was beautiful.
We were getting close to the start of the climb… oooooo!!!! Butterflies 🦋 were fluttering in our tummies.
Finally the climb began. We reached a rock which had Chinese characters imprinted on it which translated into ‘West Dog’s Teeth’. Some of us got our gloves on. Nigel and I didn’t, we were more comfortable bare handed.
I turned behind and got to see the reservoir and clicked pictures of my buds.
And we continued climbing but the sun wasn’t kind; it shone on us with all it’s might.
The climb didn’t stop me from taking in the absolutely stunning views. Azure skies and green hills mesmerised me as I continued my climb with my spidey friends 😁.
Everyone was in high spirits, we felt that the climb didn’t seem all that difficult and up the hill we went.
Now I’m going to let the pictures do the talking 🤪
Up up and up we went. Lamiya and Nigel were feeling uncomfortable. Lamiya found the heat unbearable and poor Nigel had his left ear blocked. But we had no choice we had to continue.
We still had a lot of climbing to do. Two out of 5 of us were not feeling too good. But Lamiya and Nigel trudged on. 💪🏻💪🏻
Every hill we were turning 50 shades darker. 😁 The climb was getting tougher and at one point we felt the mountain was growing.
And more climbing 🥵😱
This climb was tough and long. We were worried about Nigel and Lamiya but we all had to continue. The thought of calling 999 for a helicopter crossed our mind too.
We had passed the West Dog’s Teeth path and now were on the path to Lantau peak. We continued slowly up and we could see quite a few hikers tired, hungry and drained taking a break at the top.
We finally came to a spot where we could see the Zhuhai Macau bridge in the distance. We reached an area with rocks around and immediately to our left we saw a path. Since Nigel was feeling sick and didn’t want to climb anymore, we decided to take that path.
Little did we know that this was the most arduous part of the entire hike; going downhill.
I slipped on the muddy slope and fell on my cushioned behind. Thank God for a big butt 😁. But that wasn’t all, clumsy me again slipped with head downwards and leg upwards. I tore my tights and my phone fell from the pocket. Luckily nothing happened to me or my phone. Urvi grabbed on to my foot to save me too 🤪
Whilst climbing downhill, there were a lot of places where we had to take extra precaution as some parts were risky climbing down.
We continued downhill and Nigel was still uncomfortable. We had a tea break before that but that didn’t help. He said that he just wanted to sleep but I nudged him on saying that we would get down, take a cab home and then he could sleep as much as he wanted. Lamiya was doing well climbing downhill though her right leg was troubling her.
At this point Urvi’s fear of heights set in and she was petrified. However, Murtaza and I were there to encourage her and motivated her to continue down slowly.
Nigel decided to walk down quickly. He threw up along the way but he reached a flat part which was less than a kilometre away from Wisdom Path and 4 Kilometres from Shek Pik reservoir. We were happy to hear that when he telephoned Murtaza amidst our misery 😁.
We continued walking on the rugged path towards the Wisdom path.
The sun was about to set and it was getting cooler.
We were dirty, hungry, thirsty and tired. We walked towards the Ngong Ping village. However, all restaurants were shut as it was past 6 pm ( due to COVID restrictions) . We bought some cool drinks, gorged on sandwiches made by Urvi and took the number 23 bus back to Tung Chung.
And this was the end of a very adventurous day of hiking. Kudos to Lamiya and Nigel for continuing and finishing it off fantastically. Bravo to Urvi for fighting her fear of heights and climbing downhill with élan and Murtaza who fought his fear of heights too.
However, alls well that ends well, but this is a hike for extremely experienced hikers who have fantastic stamina, upper body strength and mental strength. Yes, mental strength is a must too.
This is not a child friendly hike though I saw one child on the trail to the top. This is not a dog friendly hike as I would definitely not want to torture my Dougie and Bella in the heat and risk their lives as there are loose rocks and steep climbs uphill and downhill .
Few pointers: Carry loads of water, something to eat as you need energy, gloves, sunscreen as the path is exposed to the sun quite a bit and I reiterate this hike is not for the faint hearted.
Happy hiking and do follow me for more adventurous hikes on https://www.facebook.com/honkiehiker/.
Take care, stay safe and Kung Hei Fat Choy!