More coastal hiking than coasteering while crossing out the last significant sections of the “uncivilized” coast of Hong Kong. Easy & uninteresting.

See full screen & the Garmin track.

Checking further the outings map I realized that I had this section between the Red Bridge & Lai Chi Wo pending. I could see in OpenStreetMap that a big section of the coastline heading from the North towards Sam A was marked as a path already = coastal walk. All the rest did not look very promising either on the satellite images. But a good long day out test for my ankle. Mid way if needed I could take the easy hiking path back to the starting point from Sam A. Decided. MTR to University Station again and this time ferry at 9 am to Lai Chi Wo. 90 minutes and we arrived at the pier. Video of the full outing.

Concrete for a little while, walk on the side of the small dam and start the coasteering.

Actually, I knew this from my swim run outing long ago. Almost no scrambling required and tons of flattish areas

Nothing relevant up till this concrete path connection.

You could exit here. A bit later the peninsula is a bit prettier with the piers and tiny but very cute islets in front. Yan Chau for example

and if you turn the view 180 degrees, you can see the buildings of Sai Lau Kong. As mentioned, from here onwards I could see the path marked on Openstreetmap. Easy hike but for the almost very last part just before Sam A. A tiny scrambling section, a possibly muddy 10m stretch, and concrete just a little bit after. The pier, the main hiking path, etc. I decided to shortcut here

I like that section of the hiking path (0m52sec onward in the video). Eventually (1m06sec) I went back to the coastline through a relatively solid (not too muddy) marsh. After I have marked on the map (#6) the first inlet I would suggest swimming instead of doing it completely. It is long with all the ins and outs and I needed to wade knee-high anyhow to do it completely.

The only interesting thing was to see a (most surely) smuggler abandoned speedboat hidden deep in there.

After Sam A the rocks get redder frequently and they are slightly more picturesque. But nothing especially interesting for the regular coasteer. Flat. If in a hurry you could shortcut quite a lot. On the map, I have marked a potential early exit (#7). There is a hiking path not far from the coastline. Quite bushy, but clear. I continued on the waterline for a while but eventually here I decided to shortcut again (Map 8 Video 2m32sec).

Extremely bushy to connect back again with the coastline. The vegetation gets into the sea in several sections here. Continue on red rocks and the Red Bridge

marks the end of the coasteering route and start of the bushwalking up to the main path around the reservoir. Done several times in the Northern Island swim runs and when coming from the Devil’s Fist. It has not improved much throughout the years. There is clearly hiker traffic, but not enough to make it too open. Once atop the hiking path is really open and easy to run on. I didn’t go too fast with the old Five Ten chaffing my heel. Ouch. End up at Wu Kau Tang bus terminus.

Drone footage of the area.

Everything you should know before coasteering.