south lantau country trail again!

D & I went for a hike yesterday morning. We chose the lovely South Lantau Country Trail again. We hiked this trail in July before. It was a pretty easy hike, good for warming up our muscle prior to any serious hikes next month. This time round, we spent quite a bit of time foraging for plants that I needed to make terrariums with ... there was a variety of ferns...and some other plants which I couldn't put a name on ... so I took home ferns, ferns and ferns! Guess I'll have an all ferns terrarium! I managed to use the ferns gathered to make 7 terrariums with recycled glass jars! Now I have mini terrariums all over my house!!! This is just the trial phase, as I do not have all the materials needed to make a complete terrarium, I still lack activated charcoal and sphagnum moss .... I'll probably get some on my next trip downtown.

Aside from gathering the plants, D & I did some trail-running to make up for lost time .. it was a new experience for us , we had to focus on the rocky uneven dirt path every step of the way in order to avoid spraining our ankles or even tripping on the rocks and stones. I find trail running very satisfying albeit the risk involved. We might be doing it again this weekend......till then... (photos on side bar)

sha lo wan - smugglers' haven - used to be...

We did another 'warm-up' hike this morning with Happy our dog on the decent Tung Chung - Tai O route by the coast. This time, we didn't complete the whole route, we just hiked from Tung Chung - Sha Lo Wan - Tung Chung. It took us abut 2 1/2 hours to complete this route, about 9 km plus. Great warm-up for our laxed muscle! Happy enjoyed herself so much! She ran and ran and ran! (It has been awhile since she last went hiking with us.) Great time we had! :) We heard from our local friends that Sha Lo Wan used to be a place where a lot of smuggling took place as this side of the island was pretty inaccessible and remote before the airport was being built. Here are some of the photos that we had taken on a previous trip along the way to Sha Lo Wan.

water from different mountain streams are channeled into the sea by this river

huge spider!

Tung Chung town on the opposite side

intricate spider web..

olden-style village houses

shek mun kap - pak kung au (via tei tong tsai country trail)

D & I went for a warm-up hike yesterday after having stopped hiking for a month plus due to the horrendously hot weather in September. We started at about 9.30am , we used the ancient path (Shek Mun Kap (Lo Hon Monastery)- Ngong Ping) but did not go all the way to Ngong Ping, instead, after 2 1/2 km uphill, we made a detour and continued going uphill on Tei Tong Tsai Country Trail which took us to Pak Kung Au @ 340m elevation. It took us almost two hours to complete this 5km from Shek Mun Kap to Pak Kung Au.
As the weather is getting better, I have to recondition my body again for more hikes in autumn and winter... :) Can't wait for even finer weather in November!  (photos on side bar)