Spectacular coasteering in the South East of Hong Kong island. Nice rock formations, caves, some history, and an impressive waterfall plunging into the sea.
- Beauty/fun: 8/10 I like the various rock formations here. The waterfall in the middle of the way is an impressive sighting (go after significant rain days, the stream is not very big).
- Difficulty: 8/10 Even on a calm sea day the route is not simple. You need to swim long sections or scramble difficult or high walls. Outer islands around do not provide full coverage and waves can come in easily. One early exit only, next to the waterfall, but kinda trespassing private property.
- Map
Public transportation, buses going to Shek O, only up to Cape D’Aguilar roundabout. So usually, to avoid several kilometers of concrete, we take a taxi from Shau Kei Wan MTR station, that can take you to the entrance of the Radio Station.
Continue walking down the road and you will arrive at the Institute of Marine Science. See the white whale sculpture and get ready to start walking on rocks. It’s nice to spend some time around checking the little cave-arch, views towards Po Toi & Shek O, lighthouse…
Then head westward. Initially, the coasteering is easier but soon, after the radio station, starts requiring more difficult scrambling or swimming.
The waterfall is halfway through. Polluted water by villagers above… As I explained before, you have one possible exit here: ropes and others set on the rocks on the East side of the waterfall. Video with the whole thing.
A bit later there is one section where the wall gets very steep. Nice slabs. Still “scramblable” very close to the waterline if with really good grip shoes and some technique. Here getting already to an easier section.
After the cave
the rock structure changes with white big boulders that you can navigate in different ways, including wading in the shallow and quite often clean and nice water. Once you arrive at the remains from WW2 you can go up back to the road through a path with ribbons. Marked also in the opencyclemaps.
Otherwise, continue on the simple last section up to the little beach before the quarry. Next to a concrete platform
find a stream going up to the road.
Relatively easy to scramble up
Some ribbons and ropes set (on the verge of breaking in Nov 2020).
You could wait at the roundabout for the bus or continue till the main road where all the minibus and buses from Big Wave Bay and Shek O go through.
Video and photos of the whole route
July 2022: After some weeks of rain we went again to this route. The waterfall looked great, but not the seawater, quite murky. I tried to test the new Five Tens on the slabs. Fun. Most of them doable but some were tricky as wet from the rain. Tania swim shortcut a bit more. If you do so in some slabs it is difficult to come back up so you might need to swim longer, end up way in front, and need to wait for those scrambling. As she did. Garmin track & the pics on Instagram.
May 29, 2019 at 4:26 pm
For reference – confirmed as of spring 2019 that it is illegal (maximum penalty of HK$25,000 and 1 year in prison) to enter the water or the intertidal zone (below the high tide mark) of the Cape D’Aguilar Marine Reserve. Moreover, AFCD staff are based on-site near the lighthouse and are monitoring the area with security cameras. The route in this post is FULLY LEGAL, but you must be careful to stay out of the water until you leave the marine reserve completely (not difficult – the section inside the reserve is protected and flat, no swimming required to move along the coastline). The waterfall is not in the marine reserve. Don’t even think about swimming to the two islands off the tip of the cape – you will be caught by AFCD staff immediately. Stick to the route outlined in this post.
June 3, 2019 at 12:34 pm
Boundary of the Marine reserve added to the map for reference.
Thanks Tyler for reminding me to mention it!