Coasteering on the red rocks of Mars. A peculiar small island in Saikung with complicated access, nice water, a few beaches, and dry hiking paths.
- Beauty/fun: 6.5/10 beautiful colored rocks, nice structures and Saikung clear water. Very small for the logistics required.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 6/10 if trying to scramble as much as possible and just wade once. With a few more wades/mini swims can be a 4/10.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track.
There is no direct public transportation to this island. So you will need to rent a boat in Wong Shek pier to go there or relay on your swimming or paddling. If ready for a long day out you could go to Grass island (its coasteering route post) hike on the main path, find the way down to the Northern coast (one option marked on the map) and swim a bit more than 1km to Port. There is a Water Sport Centre in Wong Shek. If you have the required certifications you could rent a kayak from there.
In our case, Tyler had access through their kayaking network to a few kayaks in Ko La Wan. Approx 1 hour paddling from us to Port. We decided to land on one of the beaches on the West coast. Perfect spot. Easy and with no danger of the tide coming up. From there onwards really easy coastal walk till we arrived
at the Southernmost point. Turn and find the super red-colored rocks.
With quite some interesting formations. Really recommended for those loving geology.
There are a few inlands that you could shortcut wading/short swimming or scramble a bit.
Arriving at the first 3-meter climb.
Not complicated, but check carefully the rocks you are pulling. Some are not the safest.
A bit later arriving at the cave. Not especially deep and full of trash…
A video with a little part of the Coasteering, mostly around the cave, for further reference.
Just coming out some fun scrambling.
And the wade with waves.
Even if the forecast was pretty mild.
The Easternmost point has nothing especially interesting but the clear water.
Once on the main beach (the one above), we went to take a look at the usual landing point and the start of the hiking paths.
A video with the those path within the island, if you want to take a look.
Back on the coastline a bit more of scrambling
before the two beaches easy walk.
Time to start the kayak back
to Ko Lau Wan after passing through Tap Mun, pic just above.
We had a little problem with the ferry in Ko La Wan 🤦🏻♂️ It seems that ferries in this kind of remote locations behave like buses. We had taken for granted that being on the pier on time was good enough. But nope… We did not wave to the ferry when it was approaching and therefore it did not stop… HKD200 speedboat hire penalty for us, for not knowing the “rules”
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