Beautiful route with history, distinct rock formations, challenging spots and more. The Prison and the PLA complex make it tricky though.

  • Beauty/fun: 7.5/10. Various interesting rock formations, small creeks heading to the sea, challenging walls. A bit boring end, doable fast. The uncertainty about the legality decreases the fun.
  • Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 8/10 There are no easy mid way exits. Long. The most technical walls are in the middle of the route which is completely exposed to waves too. In general, good grip porous walls but with several “mossy” slippery sections.
  • The map

And Colin’s.

A big area of the Stanley Headland is part of the Stanley Fort. It houses the Hong Kong garrison of the PLA Ground Force. Additionally you have the Stanley Prison in the initial part. Do their controlled areas get to the water line or can you coasteer there? Not sure. We know people who were shouted by the guards next to the prison area and who had helicopters flying above their heads coming from the Fort. Your choice. If you get definitive information about the legal situation please let us know on the comments below.

Pics in the post are from a day swimming around. A bit less than 7 kilometers. We only “landed” twice. First on Lo Chau, second just after Tai Tam Tau. Definitely that way no problem whatsoever with police or army.

Starting point Stanley Main beach. Head to the right side of the beach and just after the pier

you will start your coasteering. Initial part is really easy, but in no time you will arrive to scrambling/swimming areas next to the prison. Just a little further the nice secluded beach of Pak Sa Wan. The tiny island of Lo Chau in front. Picture taken from there with Greg watching all the fish below, meanwhile I was resetting all my gear. The prison just behind the beach.

After you pass the beach the scrambling difficulty increases. The big satellite dishes above.

Turn West and you will find the WW2 pillboxes .

This section of the shoreline is by far the most interesting.

There are several of those WW2 structures and all kind of rock and slabs to scramble on.

Leaving the satellites behind

we arrived to the waterfall area. Like in Cape D’Aguilar, I guess that requires rain in the previous days to be there. It might be cleaner though, without illegal housing above.

A little further we found a group coasteering in opposite direction.

As soon as you start turning North the shoreline gets way less dramatic and significantly easier. Smaller boulders and rocky shore.

I have found a video with a different entry, through Rhino rock (marked on the map above too) down to the coastline around Lo Chau and then unsuccessful coasteering of the Southern part. They needed to go up to the Satellite station and somehow ask to be let pass through the military compound. I guess…

You can see a big chunk of the most interesting coasteering parts anyhow.

Update April 2021: Coasteering it all this time. The map

See full screen and Garmin track.

Starting from Stanley Main beach, soon scrambling under the houses there.

Later a really nice boulder section under the prison

before arriving at the flatter area and beach. Some more scrambling after till you arrive at the delimited area of the PLA.

Moving forward significantly more difficult coasteering. With the first slab sections.

Going up almost to the bush line with the satellites above us and the pillboxes just on the turn of the peninsula.

There are several of them connected by a concrete corridor through which you can shortcut a bit. But eventually you will need to go back down to the shoreline. Long slab. The ladies working hard to avoid jumping into the water.

This requires very high scrambling (the gap below, for example, is approx 7m high) and very grippy shoes.

Eventually even Diana needed to get wet. Initially she was thinking about climbing that first wall up and traverse 5-7m high… Free soloing not allowed but for Colin 😆 so I asked her to jump to the water. They took advantage to swim a longer section, while I did it shorter to check the waterfall and rocks after.

Very impressive rock formations.

The last slab, not too steep but with a very high drop on the left… Before starting

the easy last section. No slabs, little scrambling and tons of rock hopping.

There was a little bunker and a pier in front which looked the PLA uses. So try to pass as fast as possible.

End at St. Stephen’s Beach or continue very easy coasteering till Stanley Back Beach.

Update November 2021: Too wavy but we wanted to give the route a try. We did approx 1/3 of the route (Garmin track) and trace back to the exit through Rhino rock. Path marked with purple ribbons from the coastline in a dry creek initially, bushy, but not thorny, up till the rock and then easy on the well hiked path.

Everything you should know before coasteering and open water swimming.