MacLehose Trail stages 4 and 5

I get to travel with work from time to time and this weekend found myself in Hong Kong.  I was in Hong Kong on business for about three months at the end of 2010, beginning of 2011, and never really left Central all that time.  I could see the New Territories from my hotel, but had never thought of going there.  Well, silly me.

After doing some research last night, I decided to try the MacLehose Trail, stages 4 and 5.  The MacLehose Trail is the route for the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker, held in November each year.  It runs from the eastern part of the New Territories to the western part.

It is a wee bit tricky getting to the head of the trail stage.  I left the hotel in Tai Koo about 7am and took the MTR to Hang Hau on the Tseung Kwan O line.  I caught a taxi to Sai Kung and then a bus (either 99 or 299) to Kei Ling Ha San Wai.  This all took about 75 mins.  It took me a while to find out where the trail starts from where the bus dropped me off.  I needed to walk back in the direction of Sai Kung about 2km to find the beginning of the stage.  Some friendly runners pointed me in the right direction.

If you are new to Hong Kong, I wouldn’t be deterred by the journey getting to the beginning of the stage and the unfamiliar names.  I asked several people for directions at different points and everyone I spoke to was friendly and spoke pretty good English (enough to understand me anyway!).  It’s all part of the adventure.

 

Stage 4 is from Kei Ling Ha to Tai Lo Shan.  This is about 13km.  The trail classification notes this section as “very difficult” and a walking time of 5 hours.  It is very difficult in that there is a lot of vertical, particularly at the beginning.  It’s not all that technically challenging, though there are plenty of rocks to navigate.  It’s not treacherous.  There were countless stairs throughout, which I prefer to avoid where there is an option alongside, and often there was.

This morning the cloud was low over the hills and it got quite cold at the tops, so you do need to have the right gear with you.  I’m sure the views are great from the tops, but I will just have to come back another time to confirm that.  From under the cloud layer, I could make out an exotic looking coastline, with lovely coves and beaches that look fantastic.

 

I had two 750ml water bottles with me and that was just enough to get through both stages.  There is a little shop at the beginning of the fifth stage and I could have topped up there.  Otherwise, you will need to carry it all with you.  1.5l would not have been enough for me on a hot day.

There were lots of walkers out on the trails today, a Sunday.  Hong Kong people must be among the fittest in the world.  I was impressed with the sheer number of people out there in the hills, families, old people, the lot.  They were generous with their greetings, with a cheery “hello” and “good morning” from just about everyone.  I felt embarrassed that I didn’t know the Cantonese equivalents.  They also carry radios, blaring out music or talk radio, which is something I’m not used to in New Zealand.  

The stage ends at Gilpins camp site, which is quite easy to find.  Apparently this is not a good place for finding a ride back into town (i.e., taxis don’t pass by) and could be a bit of a walk to a main road.  It’s not a problem if you are going on to do stage 5.

Stage 4 took me about 2.5 hours, with walking up the steep bits and trying to run the rest.  Heroes could probably do it a fair bit faster.

The fifth stage is from Tai Lo Shan (which I guess is where Gilpins camp site is) to Tai Po Road and is about 11km, with a 3 hour walking time.  It is listed as “fairly difficult”.  It is also hilly in parts, but there are more flatter, or undulating, sections in this stage.  This stage is the closest to civilisation as well, with great outlooks over Kowloon opening up.  It is also busier with walkers.

 

You may encounter wildlife – I did.  Wild bullocks were roaming around on the tops of stage 4 close to the track.  They are big animals and a little scary, although they were probably 30m away.  The monkeys, on stage 5, were wonderful.  There is something quite special about seeing animals like this in the wild.  

The signage on the track was OK.  It’s pretty hard to get lost, although I had to ask a couple of times if I was still on the right track.  There are markers every 500m or so and a number of signs saying “MacLehose Trail” in the right sorts of places.  Sometimes there wasn’t a sign, and a helpful person had chalked arrows on the rocks to point the right way.

The fifth stage took me 2.25 hours and I found it pretty hard going.  You come out near a main road (Tai Po Road) at the end of the stage.  I waived down a taxi from there and he took me to an MTR station (Sham Shui Po) and then it was back to the hotel from there.

According to Movescount, there was 1334m of ascent, average HR was 133bpm, PTE of 1.7 and total distance was 23.46km. 4 hours 46 mins.  And I found Roz's Hiking Pages useful and an app called Hiking In HK.

Visitors to Hong Kong who have a spare 2/3 of a day to spare should give this a go.  If you are staying on Hong Kong Island, the easier option would have been to do a part of the Hong Kong Island trail, which is probably fine.  But the opportunity of exploring the wilderness of the New Territories was too good to miss.

Footnote: A few years later, I completed stages 1, 2 and 3.  This post records the event.