Wilson Trail : Jardines Lookout and Mt Butler

By Saturday lunch-time the typhoon had passed.    I thought it would be nice to go for a country walk and enjoy the fresh air.   I suggested trying stage 2 of the Wilson's trail from Parkview, 6.6km over Jardines Lookout and down to Quarry Bay.   Rika foolishly agreed and we set off soon after the rain stopped.

Rilka on the Wilsons trail near Jardine's Lookout.

Hannah standing in the back of the baby carrier.

Video:  view from Jardine's Lookout (433m)

View from Jardines Lookout down to the suburb of 'Jardines Lookout'

After Jardine's Lookout we followed the Wilson Trail down the hill towards Mt Butler (436m)

Rika on the path down from Jardines lookout with Parkview in the distance.

South east from the south side of Mt Butler to Tai Tam reservoirs.

Video:  rare footage of Hannah walking.  Also climbing the stairs up Mt Butler with Hannah encouraging us from the child-carrier my back  ("hurry up, faster, I want an ice cream, hurry up").

I'd expected the path to head down the hill but instead it went up again most of the way up Mt Butler.   The younger and more gullible members of the party were disappointed to find that the ice cream shop at the top of Mt Butler had closed down.

This was tough going.   Rika began to develop a limp and a 'thousand yard stare' even before the mosquito bites on her legs began to swell up.

Video:  View from Mt Butler

View from Mt Butler looking north over Taikoo Shing, with the end of the old airport visible in the upper left.

From Mt Butler we turned left along Sui Ma Shan (Pony Mountain).   We had a good view of a band of storm clouds coming in from the south and the rain-storms down in Central

Video:  view from Sui Ma Shan (Pony Mountain).  High-rises at North Point and across the harbor to Kowloon.

Then it began to rain, really rather hard.   We had come prepared with umbrellas and a zip-lock plastic bag.  However we were on the top of an exposed ridge, and although there was no thunderstorm warning in force,  the lightening conductors set along the path spooked me enough to forbid putting up our umbrellas.   So we could only seal our phones and wallets in the zip-lock bag and prepare for a soaking.   We hobbled down the ridge as fast as we could.

Photo:  lightening conductor on the Mt Butler section of the trail, just before the sky opened.

This part of the trip was a lot like standing in a shower with your clothes on.  It gave us a good opportunity to discuss english idioms such as 'soaked to the skin', 'drowned rat', 'mad as a wet hen'.     Eventually we made it down past the towers of the Braemar Hill wireless station, and I deemed it safe enough to put-up our umbrellas, just as the shower passed.

Bhuddist shrine to Kwun Yam (Guanyin, Kannon) the Goddess of Mercy.  In the woods at the bottom of Mt Butler

We squelched slowly down the steep steps down through the woods where we saw several buddhist shrines.  And finally down Sir Cecil's Ride to the Mt Parker Road, and back to civilisation.   We had a rather damp lunch at McDonalds where the locals gave us odd looks.

High-rise at Tai Koo Shing

The walk had been much tougher than I'd expected, although to be fair the guidebook had accurately described it as 'fairly challenging'.   Rika was quite upset - especially about getting soaked through, and then having to limp down steep stairs for the last 40 min  - but fortunately she was far too tired to complain and so I got off fairly lightly.  Or perhaps the goddess had heard my prayers for mercy on the way down....



Postscript:  You can see the route we took in this photo taken on Sunday from The Peak.  Jardine's Lookout is the dark hill the right, then Mt Butler / Pony Mountain to the left with Mt Parker behind and the long ridge going down to Quarry Bay

Typhoon Doksuri

On Friday Hong Kong was forecast to receive an almost direct hit from Tropical Storm Doksuri at around 10pm.   It was not a particularly strong storm but it is unusual to have one so close.

Typhoon flags 1 and then 3 were raised.  Before the storm arrived the air was unusually still as tugs towed boats into the typhoon shelters.

Protective netting being placed around the glass windows of the ICC atrium.

 Protective netting placed over the skylights of the ICC mall

Storm clouds closing in.  ICC at 7:30 pm

Saturday morning rainstorm at Parkview.  The green netting protects the windows of the clubhouse.

Bicycle to Ma On Shan

After the ballet class we honored a promise to Hannah and took her back to Shatin for bicycle riding.

This time we were out for 3 hours and went all the way to Ma on Shan along the Ma on Shan water-front promenade.

Looking south from the MaonShan waterfront towards the entrance to the river

The waterfront promenade is really very pleasant with views across the Tolo harbor to Tai Po and the mountains at Pat Sin Leng.

Looking West to Hong Kong University and Tai Po on the right.

Looking north from Ma On Shan park across the Tolo harbor towards PatSingLeng.  For a while I thought I might actually be looking at 'Far Cathay'.  But when I checked my map I realized that even these mountains are part of the New Territories, so still 'British' (sort of).

Video panorama from MaOnShan park:  panning from East to North to West

This time we also went out without a support vehicle since Rika rode a normal bike rather than a family cycle.   We thought that Hannah would cycle the whole way.    She put in a pretty good effort but eventually did get tired.  So Daddy ended up cycling much of the time with Hannah in the child seat at the back and Hannah's bicycle balanced on his handlebars.

Sometimes 'super-daddy' surprises even himself with his versatility (and modesty).

Hannah had a good time but she was in a somewhat contrary mood.  Rika thinks she is worried about school.

Ballet Open Day

Today was the last day of term at JM Warts and Dance and an 'open day' .  This was a rare chance for us to attend the class and see our little verruca in action.  

One thing I learnt was that the teachers are very good with kids.   For example, instead of criticizing or nagging the children she demonstrated what they were doing wrong and asked 'is this right?'.  The little girls loved singing out 'no its not!'

At the end the parents were briefly allowed to take photos.

Another thing we learnt  is that JMW are very good at marketing.  The second part of the open day was demonstrations from more advanced classes.   "This is what your little verruca will be doing next year..  and after 2 years (HKD 40k).. and after 5 years (HKD 100k)...  and after 10 years (don't ask)... "    Hannah went in wanting to quit and came out asking to be signed-up for 2 classes per week.

Dame Margot Fonteyn opening the JMW Happy Valley Studio in 1978.