Pok To Yan North stream (箔刀屻北坑) with its various tributaries is recommended only for the most hardcore “I want to see all streams”.
- Beauty/fun: 4.5/10. Clean water but with low flow. Several not completely vertical waterfalls. Messy exits through dense forest or even denser bush.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 7/10 A few smooth slippery rock ascents close to waterfalls as soon as wet, confusing navigation and/or lose rock areas, kind of short but without possible easy early exits.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen and Garmin track of blue line & green line.
Several times after rain I had clearly seen from Tung Chung MTR C exit some waterfalls on the hills under Por Kai Shan. One day fully geared (pruners, clothe cover, etc) and with little time I decided to check them.
The best entrance from the road is here.
The stream has two ends. One here
marked on the map in red, cause it becomes (June 2020) a thorny mess pretty soon.
You better continue a bit more on the concrete and go up on the right here in front.
In no time you will arrive at a fence and a water control area.
Update Sep2020: Ina found another entry on the East side of the stream. Marked with pink line and picture for reference of how people were going up through that side.
Pass and you are on the stream. Clear water.
And several little pools.
Pics where Ina appears are from another day when we hiked one of the tributaries down, with slightly less water. Go up a few meters
and you have a little pool. I have seen couples coming up to here.
In no time you will arrive at the first fork. There are ribbons on both sides. The initial right tributary might be the best option.
Immediately you will be walking next to waterfalls. Not completely vertical, but that can be tricky to scramble if the rocks around are wet.
Look back and you will continue seeing the buildings behind.
Getting into a more jungle section
and looking back again down.
Not a very good downstream route option 😅
The
thin
waterfalls continue
for quite a while. Only one of them I needed to climb on a parallel side path, as a bit too high and slippery on/next to it.
Finally, the water starts disappearing
and the navigation is less clear.
Although I was able to find my way relatively easily in the woods. A few ribbons around and not specially closed. Beware of loose rocks in the upper section.
Eventually, you will arrive at a lot more defined path. Turn left and you can hike up till Pok To Yan itself.
Turn right and downhill
you can go back to Tung Chung. Steep, but not especially technical, even there were ropes around.
The Green line now. Very same start till the aforementioned fork. This time following the leftmost tributary. At least, one more in the middle missing.
Initially, it looked promising.
With a bit more water and vertical waterfalls.
But after arriving here,
the waterfall that I could see from the MTR,
there is nothing interesting more. Soon the navigation complicates. Not so clear, even if seeing some ribbons around. I could not find any path whatsoever, even if it is marked on openstreepmaps. So pure bushwalk, not long, but not fun either. At least not thorny.
Connect with the main path and down through a slightly sandy path towards Tung Chung.
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