Tung Ma To (東馬肚坑 – East Horse Belly stream) South tributary is a spectacular difficult jungle stream connecting with the Hunch Backs.

  • Beauty/fun: 7/10 after several days of rain the main falls are massive, the 39 meter one above them all. It can get way less impressive (6/10 if you are OK with jungle routes, even lower otherwise) after a few dry days, even in summer time. Another way up to a very scenic landscape on the top of Sai Kung and Ma On Shan. Jungle slightly thorny areas initially and bush walk connecting back to main paths would detract some marks.
  • Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 8/10 There are several almost perpendicular climbs, 3-5m high. On the upper part concatenated. Complex navigation with tons of different ribbons guiding you to easier or trickier paths. Extra point due to big sections of loose rocks. Beware when with a group, do not throw stones one to each other inadvertently. Helmets, pruning scissors and even a rope recommended. Serious accidents have happened here before.
  • The map (how to download to your phone)

See full screen, the Garmin track going down to Heng On MTR, or an easier route out (marked green on the map) of the stream but a lot more tiresome way down to Sai Kung instead.

You can take different buses to the start of this hike. I have marked two alternative entries. The brown one might be the most straightforward. The one that I used (blue line) will require you to walk on a little road for a while and somewhere around here

turn West and find a small stream that you would need to cross to connect with where you would arrive through the brown line. Mostly paved path that will bring you up till where the bike is.

My plan was just to check the entrances of all the streams around and not hike much of them. But when I saw the big waterfalls (red circled) I decided that this stream deserved a bit more of initial exploration.

The paths around looked clearly not hiked often. Good that I had full cover with me within the backpack. It can be a bit thorny till you get to the main stream itself. Once in it I could see very clean water,

nice pools to dip into

and a pipeline that arrives up till this point. First clear fork. The video below starts exactly here.

I climbed in the middle and explore a bit of the right tributary. Less ribbons there (June 2019) and it seemed it had less flow. Therefore I decided to climb on the left tributary that is Tung Ma To itself. In no time I was rewarded with a huge waterfall.

Without any reference (person or else) in the picture it is difficult to guess how big it is. But trust me: massive and 39 meters high.

For slightly better perspective check the video. It had been raining continuously in the previous days, so it might have been at its best.

Here it is where you need to take the decision. Previous hike is significantly easier. You could go back down. Moving forward it is where you will need to scramble high and sometimes a bit tricky. No early exits possible, but the top of the mountain. There are ribbons and precariously set thin ropes guiding you on the left side of the waterfall.

Once on top you will be walking on continuous succession of waterfalls of different sizes and flatter land.

On the map I have marked the second main fork. There were ribbons in both tributaries. Slightly more in the South tributary which is a bit less steep. So I continued on the left side.

In the video, 2 minutes 25 seconds, you can watch the highest waterfall of all in this stream. For a proper pic of it I would need the drone. Too steep, with some steps and no angle to take a pic of it from below. So I took couple of videos from the bottom and mid way up, hanging from a tree.

There were tons of ribbons around, a bit confusing. You need to scramble on the right side of the waterfall. There are succession of little walls to scramble, balcony like. You have trees around to hold to. Also loose rocks. Tricky for those not prepared. Not very clarifying pic looking down…

You will find some old ropes in some of the scrambles. Continue up and you will arrive at the “Heavenly path” or “Skyline path” (彌天棧道). This is not a main path yet, but clearly more hiked. There were newer ropes in the crossings of small creeks and others, definitely from big hiking groups.

On the map you can see that you can find couple of ways up to the top of Ma On Shan (the mountain itself). I took the closest. A bit of relatively clear (checking the GPS) bush walking till I arrived at the top.

It offers spectacular views in a clear day. From there sandy, a bit slippery downhill and connect with MacLehose trail.

In my case, I was in a hurry, so I decided to run back down to Hen On MTR station. But you could end up in Sai Kung or several other locations.

Video.

We went back again to rappel too and this time we took the green exit line instead. Significantly easier, meaning less steep and changes of accidents. A bit more bushy though. Video of that time, with a lot less water flow and therefore a lot less espectacular.

And Instagram pics.


Everything you should know before stream hiking.

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