Sung Kong has nice coasteering with less distinctive features. Waglan is small but has interesting rocks, an arch, and the old constructions around the lighthouse.

  • Beauty/fun: 7/10 remote islands, not as impressive as those in the geopark. Several not very deep caves. A nice arch and interesting rock formations in Waglan. The ghost town and the unmanned lighthouse. Illegal landing (?)
  • Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 7/10 The islands are very exposed, with no landmass protection from the waves coming from the East. There is no possible early exit, but the boat picking you up back. Surprisingly we did not see almost urchins, but yes barnacles and several quite slippery rocks for water exit.
  • Map

See bigger map and the Garmin track of SungKong & Waglan literally running in quite some areas, as we did not have time to explore it all.

There are no public ferries to any of these islands. Therefore you will need to arrange it on your own. In our case we gathered a dozen people and hired a small fishing boat, departing from Blake Pier in Stanley.

A bit more than an hour later we landed on the South West of the island.

This is the easiest coasteering in the island. The waves tend to be smallest here and there are several flattish areas. I have marked a place where you could leave kayaks if going that way.

Little by little the scrambling becomes higher or you need to jump into the water to avoid it. Arriving at what I have called “Sunk Kong Chai”, the small island attached to the main one. The channel between them both is very thin. The fast group here going to circumnavigate it (blue line) while I continued with the slow team.

Just after the connection, you have a fun safe 5-7m jumping spot on the cliff (watch video). If you continue on the cliff itself you will need to descend an almost perpendicular 10m wall (marked on the map).

You could avoid it swimming around the corner. Moving forward the slope increases and you will need to jump into the water several times or be comfortable scrambling high.

A high cave entrance (watch Tyler’s video with the drone footage)

This and other caves in the area seemed are full of biting midges or sandflies. Very itchy and lasting bites. So if you see little flying insects, smaller than mosquitoes, keep in the water and escape the area asap.

Another tricky area, suitable only for good climbers.

You better jump into the water and find an easy exit back to the rocks later. In this area is where it can get most difficult as facing East, most probable biggest wave area.

Further on gets easier.

Until you finish the full loop. Take the boat and go to Waglan. We discovered afterward, that strictly speaking, is out of bounds to the public. But neither the captain of our boat nor the fishermen that we found there mentioned anything…

The island used to have a nice pier.

But after the typhoon in Sep19 the bridge is missing… So it simplifies your boat approach but it will require you jumping into the water anyhow till it is repaired.

The island is very thin and you can go to the top in no time. It is divided in two with a little channel in the middle too and the lighthouse on the hill that can be seen almost from anywhere.

Interesting rock formations and as many different routes (closer or further from the water line) as you would want. The Western side again is the easiest.

Almost on the very tip, you have an impressive arch (known as Pig Kisses Dog, watch Tyler’s video to see kind of why). In our case, we were in a rush and decided to cross it and see the Eastern shoreline.

As expected significantly rougher.

Additional to the usual coasteering fun you can add visiting the old abandoned “village”.

The South Eastern part under the lighthouse looks the most difficult to coasteer, although we didn’t have time for doing so. Instead of the 1 hour we spent there, we would need at least a couple to check it all leisurely.

Go back to the pier and boat back to Stanley.

Video with what you will see.

And a nicer one of Tayler with drone footage included.

And more pics on Instagram.

Everything you should know before coasteering.