Big island full of huge sea caves, slabs, peculiar rock formations, and tons of cliff jumping opportunities. Definitely only for the most experienced.
- Beauty/fun: 8/10. Long challenging route. Big and deep sea caves. Peculiar rocks. Beautiful tidal pools.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 10/10 Have I already mentioned enough that this is a long route? 😉 With no easy exits and the ferry schedule marking the max time. Completely exposed to swell & wind. Slow slab sections, tons of high scrambles, and few easy flattish areas. You will need to be fast scrambling or swim several sections to shortcut.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & Garmin track.
We had this route planned for early April, but due to some last-second problems, we needed to cancel it. In mid-May, getting close to the end of the coasteering season we gave it a try. Too hot already?
There are no many ferries going to Po Toi. Only on weekends and public holidays. On Saturdays actually, there are even fewer, arriving at the island too late for this route. So on Buddha’s Birthday we met in the pier in Aberdeen and took the first ferry departing at 8:15. Land at 9:05. A bit less than 9 hours on the island (18:00 last return ferry).
Walk for 10-15 minutes on the hiking path and the start of the coasteering.
Almost immediately on the slabs.
Above the easy version. Later a lot smoother and with smaller footholds, if any. Long section where to test your shoe grip and patience.
We did not do it completely, swimming a bit more than a quarter. Here the turn to easier rocks and little later
the tidal pools. In lower tide, they get separated from the sea. Tons of crabs, small fishes, and corals.
A flattish section afterwords and the first clear high cliff jumping spot
and sea cave.
This has a “sunroof”. After the initial section, the roof opens. You can see it even in Google Maps.
To be climbed with ropes another day.
More scrambling,
second cliff jump (bad timing with the photo) and
cave.
More scrambling
and third cave. This one dry, high, but kinda shallow.
More slabs,
jumps,
and the fourth cave. I didn’t bring my dive torch due to wrong pre-trip information. I should have. This is a really deep one. Almost straight line in for 100m. Pitch dark after a little corner. You can barely watch anything in the video below illuminated with my phone light.
Arriving at the mid-way point islet we realized that we were a bit late. So time to speed up.
But the second half was not easy. Some more slabs
and tons of scrambling up and down.
Tyler slightly dehydrated swimming longer sections. Quite choppy and with strong currents in some areas, Paul preferred to go back to scramble. So Tyler waited for us on the few little shaded areas he could find. Finally arriving at Noah’s Ark.
Here and moving forward we found several ribbons heading to a path up the hill. We decided to continue though. Let’s finish the whole thing!
Above the last tricky section, mainly because of the waves. And end up a little later next to the temple.
We had still time to have a fast super late lunch at the restaurant and catch the ferry back at 18:00.
Tyler’s video.
Colin’s photo and video album with almost step by step pics of what you would see, excluding the inside of the deeper caves. Very different tide and sea conditions too. Here the forecast a few hours before starting for us (so that I can remember). Basically high tide for us most day long.
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