The Southernmost island in Hong Kong. Various rock types in a relatively small area. Little visited and therefore with quite some birds around.
- Beauty/fun: 5.5/10 remote island, a few fun scrambles, a couple of cliff jump options, various rock types; but quite small & with Lantau murky water.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 4/10 with two swims and staying close to the water line. You can make it way more tricky if you try to stay completely dry: really high scrambling required with bad rock quality atop & jungle in the center of the island. Doable but highly not recommended. As I explained in the Tai A Chau post these islands are not well protected and big SE swell is possible. Check the wave forecast before heading there.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track.
Carlos from Ganghike had been asking me to join their outings for a while. I had never met him but a few buddies of mine had gone all over Hong Kong hash running and on the coastline. He frequently arranges big boat groups to go to the furthermost locations in HK. This time they were heading to two of the small Soko islands. I hadn’t been there before and available that weekend. Time to join.
MTR to Tun Chung. Bus to Shek Pik and walk to its Pier where we had “captain” Tina with her boat ready for the 30+ people.
First destination 頭顱洲 Tau Lo Chau. Transfer to the speedboat and land on its West side. Each group would go on its own. Some in dry mode (a few guys with a DSRL, drone & more gear), some coasteering, a couple of French guys SUPing. In our case, we started coasteering clockwise. Initially, I was trying to see if I could stay dry full route. Fun short scrambles while the rest was with water up till ankle or knee high. A bit later it gets flatter before arriving at the most remarkable rock structure on the North: (1) Mandarin duck rock. Pic under on the right and 0:40 in the video. I decided to give climbing it a try. Very doable. A tiny tight passageway & chimney climb (1:00) to the top.
Actually you can see me atop on this lengthy post of one of the hikers. Once we got into the East coast the rock type changed again. There is at least one high scramble if you want to continue dry (1:34) before you arrive at (2) Devil’s Cliff. The inlet on the above picture (1:54). The rock quality is really bad there & therefore I decided that it was time for a swim. Later I’d discover that one of the hikers did it atop and confirmed that it is quite dangerous, including a very high scramble with 💩y rocks.
Later on we found a tiny cave (2:20) just good for the picture and quite some birds and eggs 😯
Tiny swim (2:41) to the Southernmost point in Hong Kong: Tsim Shek Pai. Check the water depth for a cliff dive (3 – 2:55). And end up the full loop and a bit more trying to find the best spot for the speedboat to pick us up.
Next stop Cheung Muk Chau.
Video by Michael Ng unsuccessfully trying to hike dry the whole island, including some drone footage.
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