Exploring further the remote islands on the North of Hong Kong. Cute and relatively easy if you are ready for long swims or have a support boat.
- Beauty/fun: 7/10. Caves, peculiar rock formations, cleaner water than average HK, remote seldom visited.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 6/10 Protected from swell waves, few high scrambles, long route, and long swim sections, not fun but for the most hardcore (alternative routes proposed).
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen and the Garmin track.
This year, due to a small injury, I decided to skip my particular swim-run challenge on the Northern Islands. Nevertheless, I wanted to pay the area a visit and with Tyler planned an alternative route.
Nowadays it is easier to arrive at the area with ferries on the weekends & holidays from Ma Liu Shui to Kat O.
9 am catch the ferry and pass next to our original end destination.
Devil’s Fist. On the map, you can see that we were planning to start on Kat O and finish at the peculiar rock formation.
The ferry continued its way and around 10:30 we arrived at Kat O pier. Starting in the village,
walk on concrete up to the Western shoreline. Get everything ready and into the water!
The initial part is very flat.
But with nice clean water.
Just after the “Elephant trunk” rock
the coasteering becomes more interesting.
With higher cliffs around and some beaches.
There are some fun scrambling opportunities if you feel like it.
Completely avoidable with short easy swims. Further East the caves start. Here Tyler getting into a double-entry tiny cave and Colin sliding into a crack above.
Just a little further arriving at the biggest.
Tyler had read that there was a big bat colony here, but we were not able to see them. The dome is quite high and the climbing is not the safest, with very poor rock quality.
Just a little further another cave. This is very picturesque from the inside, but not especially interesting.
And arrive at the Easternmost point of the island from where to see Shenzhen.
If you want an easy day out just continue on the coastline. The route is very similar to what we had previously coasteered. The hiking paths on the hill (see map) can be quite bushy. I hiked some a couple of years ago and gave up without leg protection. With more hikers coming to the area I’d expect easier, less dense, hiking at least until the elephant trunk rock.
In our case, it was swimming time! Get the fins and paddles out of the bags and swim to the tiny island midway towards Crescent Island.
Very nice spot for a short lunch break and to reassess our plans. We were already late and chances of getting on time for the speedboat to pick us up at the Fist were slim.
I knew the Western shoreline of Crescent. Nothing spectacular. And Tyler had heard from kayakers that the opposite side was nicer + good snorkeling in some areas. So we decided to land in the closest area and coasteer as much as we could of that side. The island has a nice beach, although with quite some trash that day…
All around the bay is flattish.
And only when turning East
and South
is when
gets a little steeper. Relatively easy anyhow.
In this area, there is also a tiny hole good for a fun pic. Check picture #41 in the link. We did not see it as Colin was pushing the pace. Fun fast coasteering
with several short swims.
There are more little caves, but nothing like those in Kat O.
A few tafoni sections.
Seen the very nice beach of Double Island in front.
It was too late already. Almost 5 pm, our original pick up time. So Tyler called the driver and explained to him that we were not in the Fist but that we would wait for him at the South beach on Crescent island. Here the driver’s phone numbers and the places he operates at.
Everything in Chinese, yup. You need to be able to speak Cantonese and express yourself clear enough to explain where you are, as he has no WhatsApp or alike through which to send your location…
Video by Tyler.
We would have to arrange the pick up at 18:00, be a lot faster in the Kat O coasteering section + swims to be able to do the full route including the red line. The coasteering in that part of Double Island is not difficult but would take some time and the swim to the Fist peninsula is a long one. Beware of boats there!
Alternative routes. The aforementioned green line, just focusing on Kat O. We would have had plenty of time to do the whole interesting part of the island and return back to the ferry at 15:30. If doing that you could spend some time checking the hill lookouts or the South East tip of the island too.
Purple would entail quite some swimming too, returning back to the starting point. Through the short version directly to the South of Kat O, or really long again including all Crescent Eastside. You need to be fast for the ferry or arrange a late pick-up.
March 2023: We went back to Kat O to do the green line. Initial part with Wayne and Janis. Once we were arriving at the elephant trunk rock, Denvy and I decided to try to do the whole island. Almost 😅 The Garmin track of the day. To do it within the ferry schedule we should have gone a lot faster from the very beginning and not stop for the bat caves (they were back! Video below) and others. In any case, I showed Denvy the nice coastline that starts just after Mun Tsai Wan (pics 9/10). We shortcut a bit through an initially slightly bushy but clear path. We did not coasteer the Westernmost peninsula that I knew from before. And directly do the last coastline part that I had missing from Sham Chung back to the village (pics 10/10), which is not especially interesting.
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