When Nick mentioned the idea of hiking in Hong Kong, I said, "Sure, I like hiking." I didn't stop to think that any "hiking" I have ever done in the past was in Louisiana or Indiana, where hills practically don't exist. My memories of exploring involve walking down a creek at Lake Bistaneau, looking for the graveyard in the woods behind Camp Wawbansee, or finding a cabin on my Grandma's land. None of this prepared me for the most dangerous, exciting, and grueling hikes of my life!
The first night, Nick and I climbed to the top of Hong Kong's second tallest peak by moonlight. From here, we saw the Wisdom Path and the "Big Buddha." After much panting and many rests on my part, I finally made it to the top of the peak. I slept in the "temporary shelter" that we found at the top, and we awoke in time to see the fog roll up the mountain and then disappear in time for the sunrise. We were sad to leave, but we had to meet Brian and Diadra for our second day's adventures up Sharp Peak and down to the beach Tai Long Wan.
But how do I even describe the second day? What should I focus on? I will begin when Nick, Brian, Diadra, and I heard grunts in the woods that sounded exactly like a wild boar. We stopped to listen more closely and realized that the sounds came from above us in the trees. We wondered, are there such things as tree pigs? After a few moments we could see shapes jumping and swinging in the trees - monkeys! They grunted, snarled, and shook the trees until a pack of dogs from the nearby village ran into the trees and scared them away. Then we continued along our way to Sharp Peak.
Sharp Peak only needs one word to describe it: intense!
Nick and Brian basically sprinted up the mountain, while Diadra and I struggled and lagged behind. Clambering up the mountain let me see an amazing view, but sometimes I just felt like I might die. Death (or at least broken bones) was an even greater possibility on our way down - the sun set, so we hiked down to the beach in the dark, aided only by our flashlights and the moon! Naively, we thought our adventure had ended at the beach. We set up our one tent (the second tent was forgotten in Shenzhen) and trekked to a nearby restaurant. On our way back, as we approached where our tent should be, I couldn't see the dome shape that should have been our tent in the dark. Brian ran ahead to investigate, and soon he ran back like a mad man. A wild boar had destroyed our tent! Brian scared the boar away, but not until after the boar shredded the tent, chewed Nick's cellphone, tore holes into Nick and Brian's backpack, and slobbered over our other belongings. The boar ate all of our food (and apparently Brian's knife) in the process!
What could we do? We found that our vodka and cranberry juice were in fine condition, so we drank, built a fire, and laughed at the ridiculousness of our trip. Hong Kong camping was crazy fun, and now we have a pact to go somewhere once every full moon. Hurrah!
3 comments:
Heyyyy
Wondering if I can link to this entry in my blog.
=)
beautiful pictures...sounds like an amazing time despite obstacles!
lol I love the sign that says "maybe you shouldn't climb sharp peak?" or something chinglishy. Attacked by boars haha that's a story to add to trevor's "things to look out for in China"
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