Repulse Bay to Chung Hom Kok is coasteering introductory classic. If you are ready to swim long there is a more impressive route around.
- Beauty/fun: 8/10. Nice rock formations, an impressive pristine beach and some nice walls for scrambling.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 7/10 One kilometer open water swim to reach Round Island is not for everyone. In summer time the boat traffic can be high. The scrambling in the Island itself can be a bit high if avoiding further swims, but with good grip rocks. Relatively protected (from waves) swim and coasteering.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen and the Garmin track.
The section from Repulse to South Bay beach is the less interesting of the aforementioned route. Thereof, we took taxi directly to South Bay beach and started coasteering from there. Here is where we had our first dip into the water.
You could almost jump from one side to the opposite in low tide. There is a bit longer than 50m swim till the next little island to coasteer around. Just after you will find a pebble tombolo connecting with Tau Chau. Here with low tide.
In the North shore there is a little cove, perfect for leaving your stuff behind while you swim to Round Island. We just brought the inflatable buoy/waterproof bag with us with the bare basics in. Even that way it took us (me mainly, Tyler is way better swimmer) almost half an hour to arrive at the big beach of the island. Impressively pristine.
This side is the most protected from waves and therefore there was almost no trash. Initial coasteering on flattish cute area.
Once you start turning the rocks become bigger and the scrambling starts. Here after passing the lighthouse. Zoom to see the fishermen on the rocks and pier.
Under the sun and with no wind even in early January it was too hot for wearing the upper part of the wet-suit.
There are slightly more challenging scrambles if you wanna enjoy the fun.
Before arriving back at the main beach 80 minutes after the start.
Video by Tyler around the island.
We swam back again to Tau Chau and continue coasteering it.
Several more scrambles/climbs or simple swimming instead.
Before starting the return.
It is worthwhile to climb to the top of this middle island. Nice views in front.
And behind.
Go back again to the main Hong Kong island and continue
towards Chung Hom Kok.
If the long swim is too daunting for you, we would suggest at least to include Tau Chau to the aforementioned Repulse Bay route and or skip the initial part, as we did.
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