Tai Lam Chung Reservoir ( Thousand Island lake) ~ Easy

Valentines day; I decided to spend it with my loves; my husband and my son ( dogs included). So we three, Nigel , Mikhail and I decided to visit the Thousand island lake ( Tai Lam Chung Reservoir).

A little about the reservoir: Tai Lam Chung Reservoir is a reservoir in Tai Lam Country Park, Tuen Mun District, New Territories, Hong Kong. It is the first reservoir built in Hong Kong after the Second World War. Formed by a main dam across the Tai Lam Chung Valley, there are three supplemental dams that cross the nearby valley. The construction work of the reservoir commenced in 1952 and was completed in 1957. Its water storage capacity is about 21 million cubic metres. As soil around there was poor and frequently affected by hill fires and afforestation work in 1952 losing many species and plants. Plants were cultivated around the reservoir to strengthen the area.

Tai Lam is the second largest country park after Lantau. Section 10 of Maclehose traverses through this trail.

Difficulty: 2/10 a sloped climb of over 200 meters elevation. However, total elevation is only 274 meters. Approximately 40 floors climbed 😁 as per the Apple Watch.

Duration: 2 hours from So Kwun Wat Tsuen Area 4 near the Tin Hau Temple and back. Total hike is 7 kilometres.

How to get there: We took the MTR to Admiralty. Then took the red Tsuen Wan line and got off at Mei Foo to take the MTR to Tuen Mun. Total travel time is 47 minutes by train. You can add another 5 minutes of walking within the station. From there you exit at F2 to take mini bus 43 or 43 S from Ho Ping Road from San Hui market.

https://goo.gl/maps/uxXY1hvB2CmZidfC9

It’s approximately HKD 7.7. However, we took a taxi from the taxi stand just outside the F1 exit.

It came to HKD 60. However, it saved time as we wanted to get home to our dogs too.

We reached So Kwun Wat Tsuen where we saw many green taxis and mini bus 43 there. The mini bus stop is there too.

We followed the crowd. There were a lot of people; young and old; tiny tots in strollers, dogs. 😁 We passed a car park and kept following the Maclehose trail sign posts.

Take a right when you reach the car park sign.

And along the way we saw some goats. It’s the year of the ox but I guess I am born in the year of the goat and was excited to see these animals chilling on the road.

There was a gradual incline, however the path was all concrete. We came to sign posts. We followed the sign which pointed towards the reservoir islands viewpoint.

We passed a blue box toilet and kept climbing. We got to a sign post again and just followed the sign pointing towards the reservoir.

Got to see a part of the reservoir as we climbed. It was hot and sweaty. Mikhail wasn’t happy but he trudged along.

Mikhail was getting hungry so he had his first sausage roll. We had carried sausage rolls, cupcakes and C+ drink as a bribe to get him to hike with us 😁.

We continued climbing up the slope. Many took snack breaks along the way.

We got to see a bit of the reservoir islands as we climbed. We came to another blue box toilet and continued on that path. That path was muddy, rugged and narrow. We had to excuse ourselves many times to overtake the crowd.

There were a few steps that we had to climb and then again down we went. So here a stroller would be inconvenient.

The trail was very pretty and cool. We enjoyed the walk till we came to the viewing point.

Finally we came to a set of steps to our right, we climbed and that was the viewing point.

There was a long line up the flight of steps

There were the islands in the distance. It was a pretty sight.

Some visitors decided to cross over the danger sign for pictures but the best views were from the viewing point itself.

We retraced our steps back and walked downhill.

Mikhail and I walked hand in hand and I realised my 10 year old was getting taller.

We saw a mobile ice cream truck and tucked into some delectable vanilla ice cream.

We passed by goats and their kids again grazing and munching on grass.

We walked to the mini bus stop abd took the 43 to the Tuen Mun Bus terminus just outside exit C2. From there we took the train to East Tsim Tsui.

We exited at P towards Wing On plaza and decided to lunch at Woodlands Vegetarian restaurant since I have turned vegetarian and it’s my birthday tomorrow ( the husband agreed.) We gorged on some chaats, cauliflower manchurian, paneer palak ( cottage cheese and spinach gravy), filter coffees and Uttapams ( fatter rice crepes).

https://www.woodlandshk.com. The manager is very kind and accommodating and so are the staff.