Coasteering Tai Tau Chau (Shek O)

A good coasteering initiation path in the South of Hong Kong Island.

• Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): Mid-level coasteering, 5/10. In our case, it was bit trickier due to the wind and big waves. Good grip rocks, several points where you are going to be relying on your hands, but always with clear feet steps. The most dangerous part was due to detouring up and down to avoid the waves. Exit point all around with a concrete path in the middle of the peninsula.
• Shortish. With calm sea doable in bit more than two hours.
• Approx. map

And the Garmin Track.

For those completely new, coasteering is the activity of exploring a rocky coastline by hiking, climbing, jumping, and swimming. In this case I took three friends to explore the peninsula next to Shek O. MTR to Shau Kei Wan, minibus to Shek O. Walk through the little maze that is Shek O village up till Back Beach area. From there start walking on the rocks East direction. The goal would be to keep as close to the shore as possible. Jumping into the water if necessary.

Or climbing up a bit and going down back again.

Whatever looks safest. Here I let them rest a bit meanwhile

I was trying to check if the down route was doable.

Not really. It would have required quite some technique to jump exactly in the correct time into the wave and move to the opposite side securely. So we decided to go back, take the hiking path in the middle of the peninsula and from the top

find a new way down. This was by far the most dangerous part of the day. Relying on ropes set by previous hikers is never completely safe. You never know if it is not partly rotten.

Here a video with most of the adventure.

And more footage, this time with a drone of quite some of the places visited. This way looks lot easier and calm.

Hong Kong has a wonderful coastline for this activity. More to come.

Pics by Pedro

Tyler’s video in early March with 2020 with a lot calmer sea.

Instagram pics in 2020 including also Ng Fan Chau.

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Everything you should know before coasteering.