The first stream under Needle Hill that I’d recommend. Cute, a couple of big waterfalls, relatively easy and short. Perfect for a few hours fun or to combine with more.
- Beauty/fun: 6/10 not bad at all for a relatively small stream that shouldn’t have much flow, but frequently does. Two big waterfalls, cute woods.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 5/10 just only for the climb next to the upper high waterfall, that I guess you can avoid. All the rest is short and easy, with tons of ribbons and side paths if you want to keep dry.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track (of a longer day checking a few of the streams around, the rest to be explained later).
Heung Fan Liu Stream 香粉寮坑 had tons of ribbons and side paths after Covid. It seems more hiked compared with other small streams around. February, after a few days of rain, I brought a bunch of buddies there.
Walk up from the Tai Wai MTR Station. Quite some concrete, road initially, then paths connecting the small houses around and arrive at the bottom of the stream and mini dam. Go on the left side of the pipes and arrive at the first big waterfall.
I would not recommend you climbing it unless you have full gear (watch the video at the bottom). There are easy side paths to hike not far from it. In both sides. In our case we went on the right path. Slightly sandy slippery but easy, partly within the woods, partly with views of the city below.
Once on top time to hike in the stream itself. Picturesque and cute. On the next two pics on the right
Tania trying to climb a waterfall. You could do it dry if you are good enough climber. It was her first time trying to crack climb (liebacking) though. It is not the most intuitive initially, so… I just went up on the easy left path, set her the rope above so that she could securely climb the fall directly in and wet 😄 A bit too early start of the wet stream hiking season for the cold blooded lady. But she was able to manage it without problem. Slightly sunny and no wind.
A little after there is a flatter section, but in no time you will arrive back to another with small pools and waterfalls. Good scrambling before
arriving at the second highest waterfall. A lot bigger than what it looks in the next pic
She is quite some meters apart from it. The fall is approx 5m high. I didn’t try to climb it. Instead I brought them through the left side path where JV was coming from on the upper right pic. Good root holds, easier than it looks initially. If with weaker hikers you could avoid all this mini section by taking a left side path just below, just before the lower 2m waterfall.
Moving forward just small pools before arriving at the exit. As explained in the previous post I would go West & connect with the Left Ridge. In our case, we took it heading up, pass Needle Hill and down Seven Chords stream. You could go down otherwise on the purple line (timings on that based on another day on my own fast pace, jogging on the concrete).
Video by Tyler in canyoning big flow mode.
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