Way better than expected coasteering with nice scramble and big boulder areas. Half of the island is a No Go due to correctional and others.
- Beauty/fun: 6/10 pretty rocks & big boulders. It would be great to be able to coasteer it all, enjoying the completely sheltered and therefore cleaner bay, but it is not the case with the correctional all over.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 5/10 Some areas are flattish or with easy-to-scramble walls, but there are also fun problems. Relatively protected from swell & wind waves. Kayak required, with logistic uncertainties.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track.
I had recently discovered that there were kayaks available for rent in Mui Wo. Big East swell. My ankle asking for a short outing. Time to check a new island. Janis wanted to join. Perfect. Faster paddling approach 😉
Buses from Tung Chung or ferry from Central to Mui Wo. Walk to the beach, to the Noname store. Sit-on-tops are available, with lockers, and the public changing room with showers quite close. Get ready and into the sea. Video with the full outing.
The kayak route is clear, just follow the coastline and at the end you see Hei Ling Chau.
As mentioned though the first thing you will see is the pier and some of the buildings of the correctional complex. A no-go. We continued for a little while and Janis disembarked on “Wales beach”.
I was not sure if we were going to have any problems. The kayaks owner in Peng Chau had told us that the Northern shoreline starting from that beach was OK. But I could not find any definitive information anywhere. So the plan was for me to continue on the kayak just paddling next to her and maybe swap or whatever later.
The initial part is flattish until you arrive at almost the closest point to Sunshine Island. There is a building with quite a few cameras. “Hi, correctional staff, we come in peace and are only interested in the coastal rocks”😅 Later is when the real scrambling starts.
Fun with varied problems. Way better rocks than Sunshine and with a section of big boulders. The climber enjoyed it while I was trying to take pics and record without crashing against the rocks with the wind waves in the kayak.
Coasteering ended at the Eastern walls of the typhoon shelter. We could see already the watch towers.
Inside there are nice rocks still, but we did not want to get into trouble with the correctional staff. In an ideal world, you would leave the kayaks on the initial beach, coasteer all around the island, enjoying the little beach within the shelter and a later pretty cove (purple waypoint on the map), swim to avoid the exact correctional area spots in the coastline and go back from the start. In a more realistic “I do not want to get into trouble” option, coasteer back and forth or go 4 of you in two kayaks and two coasteer it clockwise and the other two counterclockwise 🤷🏻♂️
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