Next to Bluff island you can find another premium coasteering spot whose highlight is a 30 meters arch to swim through.
- Beauty/fun: 9/10 Tons of sea caves, some deep enough for requiring a torch to go into. The characteristic geopark rock formations. Several spots with nice sand and snorkeling option. A pity that so much plastic trash is accumulated in some areas.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 9/10 If you try to do this one fully self-supported. It requires kayaking and long coasteering with no possible early exit. The rugged and more impressive East shore has no protection whatsoever, therefore waves can be a serious issue. If you want to keep the swimming to a minimum, routing is not simple, with several high or tricky scrambling areas. In a completely calm day with a boat to let you in the start and pick you at the arch + quite some swimming 5/10.
- Map
The pics and map are from a day that we went there using a boat + a tender. This simplified a lot the whole adventure. You can rent speedboats/kaitos around to drop and pick you up, but you better be good speaking Cantonese for that. Finally, the long journey would include: taxi from SaiKung town or Pak Tan Chung. Road towards High island reservoir East dam. Around Mac15 mark stop and find your way towards Pak Lap Wan.
Kayaks available at the restaurant (you may want to call them well beforehand 3129 3055). Around 4km paddling to the Northern tip of the island, where there is a nice rock beach where to “park” the kayaks. It’s where we landed the tender and start the coasteering.
Rugged shore with tons of different rock formations.
Caves to go into.
High cliffs from where to jump.
You have it all till the arch.
Further away the fun does not end. You can see huge boulders just as soon as you pass the arch already. And after turning back North direction the shore becomes less rugged, way less exposed to waves, but still with nice water and caves to explore. You can spend tons of time in this island. On the top of the hill, I was able to find a little path that allows you to see quite some of the island from above. But I have not gone yet far enough to know if you could arrive at the arch through this “shortcut”.
Videos and photos of the trip.
Update 2021: A better map (how to download to your phone offline maps) including the original route and the full island counterclockwise done in July.
See full screen & the Garmin track.
We had friends that hired a junk boat to do the original route and I took advantage to check the full island with Tania. She is pretty fast and we were able to do the whole thing with a few swim shortcuts + check the return hiking path (green line, bushy in some areas but clear) in a bit more than 4 hours and a half. Some pictures
& a short video with the route.
The most interesting parts are definitely on the Eastern coast starting from its very South. But the Western shoreline has its charm and several very good cliff jumping points. For me to remember mainly, the day’s conditions.
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