Sunday, September 1, 2013

Geology Rocks - High Island Reservoir

I decided this past Thursday to do some adventuring. I had recently made a new list of places to see in Hong Kong and had plenty of destinations to chose from.  The furthest and most reclusive location was High Island Reservoir, which I chose to conquer first.

High Island Reservoir is a hike jam packed full of geological goodies and only 1-2 km in length.  The walk around the geo trial itself is not strenuous in the least, it's the 10km trek to actually get to the reservoir that takes a bit of stamina.  It is well off the beaten tourist destination path and Google maps does not provide a route to get there so it took a bit of research to plan it all out.  Since I had all day I took the longest way possible, but there are definitely alterations that can be made to shorten things up a bit.  

In total, from my front door back to my front door took almost ten hours down to the minute.  Getting there I took the 101 to Diamond Hill where I hopped off at Ping Shek Estates.  To get to Sai Kung you have to catch the outer city bus 1A, which is across the street and right next to an outdoor market(holler morning dumplin snack!).  The 1A will dump you out onto the Sai Kung Pier that is a hustlin' and bustlin' with life.  You can also either A) catch one of the geo trail tours being offered by boat for 88HKD per person or B) grab a taxi that will take you there and back for about 200HKD.  I'm cheap, and I need to lose my tub.  So I hopped on bus 94 and exited just after the Pak Tam Chung stop.  From there, I just followed the yellow brick road (the signs) that pointed me in the direction of High Island Reservoir.    

It's a long, quiet 10KM to get to the reservoir if you're by yourself, but well worth it.  Along the way you get to witness really great views of orange cliff sides contrasted against an electric blue sea and every one hundred feet the geology changes drastically.  Nature is truly at its finest on the geo trail, I even had an impromptu meeting of several cows along the way.  Periodically, there are taxis that wizz by and other solo travelers walking as well. If an emergency were to arise, you wouldn't be completely alone out there. There is no cell reception, as to be expected.  Hong Kong was also pretty prepared and had clean portable bathrooms every couple hundreds of feet.  

The geo trail itself is incredibly breath taking.  It is truly awesome to see the remnants of eons of geological history in the making.  Literally, it evokes awe.  You start at the top of the reservoir and walk the entire length of dam where you can get a bird's eye view of the structure and make your way down where you get to see solid walls of layers of rocks that were once horizontal and have slowly straightened themselves upright over the centuries.  Words don't really do it much justice, so take a peek at the photos below:      

Sai Kung 

 Sai Kung

Follow the signs






These rocks were horizontal at one point

A view from the bottom corner

Barriers along the sea wall



keeping myself entertained

Rocks scratching through concrete

Orange and electric blue












it's probably better to go on a clearer day, I happened to have a bit of a pollution haze hanging about





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