One of those streams that looked promising on the map but was not fun overall. Be careful if heading here.
- Beauty/fun: 3/10 There are several nice waterfalls but the stream is full of nasty thorny plants. A machete and thick covering recommended… Not fun otherwise. If you are doing it, avoid first sections and early exit to MacLehose for a nicer & short option. Update 2024: The amount of thorns went down significantly (= more hiked stream), in the current conditions 5/10.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 6/10 The only high waterfall is climbable through a ribbon path on the right. Difficulty/not fun comes from the dense vegetation. It might require you to trace back and take unnecessary risks just to avoid the thorns if there is no good enough cover.
- Map
I had seen some pics of people there before. It is a big enough stream to be marked on all the maps I could check: topographical, opencyclemap, even Google maps. Steep enough to have some decent waterfalls and close to another stream I love within a scenic area. Basically all the checks you would look for. The unknown part was how navigable it would be and the answer was: a pain.
Bus to SaiKung and from there start hiking up North. In the map, I have not included the route that you would need to hike up to get to the “start” to the stream. I would advise you to do yourself a favor and directly head to the purple marker, skipping all the initial part. Unless you have a machete and hard clothes covering. I have marked with green the exit that I would advise you to take too. It is not obvious at all. I could not even find any reference point to take a picture of. Check the GPS regularly when you are getting close to it and look for a way within the plants. If it is relatively easy after 50-100m, you are on the correct way. Otherwise, you will be fighting with super dense vegetation. You will end up in the MacLehose trail from where you can go back down again to SaiKung or enjoy the views going up.
Video and pics.
And to end the fun bit of trail running downhill and Chinese Cobra encounter… Beautiful but frightening in one. Good to remind me that things don’t always go as you plan beforehand.
2024 update: As mentioned in the comment by Stefan below this stream has been clearly more hiked post-COVID Covid and therefore the amount of thorns decreased significantly. Improved marks, therefore. In June I hiked Cheung Ching Hang + Ma Sai purple to green on the map + Sai Keng stream dowstream (Garmin track). Here the video of the Masai Part. I took advantage of bringing my thin rope to check the mid way pool of the high concatenated waterfalls.
May 13, 2024 at 1:47 am
We followed the lower half of Ma Sai Stream (馬西石澗), from 65 to 215 m altitude, yesterday. The stream has a tendency to get overgrown, yes, more and more the higher you get within that range. Only at around four spots I noticed thorns, but those was manageable even when barely covered, if careful. I saw no ribbons, probably because this stream is rarely hiked. There are often man-made stone walls on the left side of the stream for reasons I don’t understand, but it still looks natural and beautiful most of the time upwards of 120 m altitude. I think the thorns should not discourage anyone to go there. I am more annoyed by overgrowth/partially dense vegetation in general and the spider webs.
If someone could remove the silly names of the paths in that area in OpenTopoMap (“Loser Gweilo Upper”, “Loser Gweilo Bypass”, “Ganges”), I would applaud that. I don’t think most of that “Ganges” path even exists.
May 14, 2024 at 12:30 pm
Almost all the named streams are more open after Covid indeed. Good to know that there are almost no thorns around now. After my initial check in 2018 I have been there only getting water for a “semi rescue” and checking a bit the bigger falls directly from the paths nearby. I might give it a full try soon.
Regarding the names. Just change them yourself! You only need to create a user in Openstreetmap. Log in and you can make modifications. Even try to chat with whoever put those, to understand why he wrote that. Openstreetmap is a collaborative work. If you use it regularly it would be great if you improve it too. I do it every now and then.
Best.