You can visit some of the main beaches of Hong Kong island in a different way: directly through the coastline!
- Beauty/fun: 7/10. Picturesque coastline. The surprise faces of the beachgoers when they see you coming. Parts where the water is cleaner than in the beaches themselves. Some sea caves and alike. Easily accessible through the bus system in the South of the Island.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 3.5/10. There are some sections that you will need to swim, but are short. No high cliff climbing required. Tons of early exits. Easy navigation.
- The map
And the Garmin track which is good to see mainly the swim sections (sudden drops under 0m altitude) and little more.
Walk to Tin Hau Temple.
Soon you will see the start of the coasteering itself going down under the swimming pool of this house (in low tide, otherwise you might need to swim).
Most of the way till Middle Bay is next to the buildings.
You can keep dry here easily.
After Middle Bay (picture above) the vegetation starts to get closer to the shoreline
and in some sections jumping in and out of the water is definitely the easiest path.
Saúl wanted to test his climbing capacities though. Arriving at South Bay beach.
Last simple early exit before starting the less simple part.
There are some flat sections in the way to Chung Hom Kok
but mostly the shoreline here is steeper than before.
Not especially technical, but with bit more of hand usage or longer swims. Here, next to a sea cave, was perfect time to take a pic burst to show how to jump safely into the water.
10-20 meters swim and up again carefully (avoiding urchins and barnacles) to the rocks.
The only tricky thing was that, meanwhile I was climbing a section to check if more swimming was required or not, we saw a shark below! 😀 Nothing dangerous but enough to frighten Carlos a bit. A blacktip reef shark, around 75cm long, so not an adult yet. Continuing.
The peninsula of Chung Hom Kok already in front.
Little before arriving at the beach itself you will find and entry into the landmass that could be quite beautiful, but for the trash… Ribbons marking you the way up.
Just avoid it and end up on the beach itself.
Way nicer.
Pics and video 2018
Alternative even more interesting route (or additional fun) in the area. South Bay to Chung Hom Kok through Tau Chau done again in mid-May 2021. Garmin track and pics.
The last cave is under Chung Hom Kok park, exactly here. I went there jogging and short coasteering. Although you could go down directly from one of the pillboxes above.
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