Small but quite interesting island in Soko. Quite some sea caves, a tiny arch, big trees and a couple of smaller islets at short swimming distance.

See full screen & the Garmin track.

After Tau Lo Chau the boat brought us to 大高排 Tai Ko Pai (4), one of the islets in front of Cheung Muk Chau.

Full of birds not happy at all seeing us disembark in their little haven and going up to the top of the little hill (0:24) from where we could see the next stop: 小高排 Siu Ko Pai. For those non Cantonese speakers, “Siu” = small, “Tai” = Big. So the even smaller islet. Not much to see on it (0:47)

Before starting the return swim we realized that the current was quite strong, SW to NE direction. Therefore we went as much SW as possible considering that Alexa is not the strongest swimmer. Coasteer back to the starting point (football included) and swim to 樟木頭 Cheung Muk Chau (1:21).

The (dry) hikers who had landed there were not happy as they could not pass the very first cliff (the left one on 1:24). In our case we went on the outer part and suddenly… Ouch… Some people from the group dragged by the current. I guess they didn’t realized about it when they jumped into the water in Siu Ko Pai after being there for a long while. Unable to properly swim relying on PFDs and swimming buoys… Rescue time… In previous occasions I know that others had been dragged by the current towards the far Lantau, rescued mid way by fishermen. So I pulled one back to safety and helped with a second. After the extra swim training 😅 we continued coasteering anticlockwise. Just a little later (5 – 1:50) a deep cave. I needed to use the watch torch and I didn’t go completely in. Buddies were waiting outside and eventually there was quite some plastic trash.

The island has tons of inlets that the rest was shortcutting with wades while I was trying to scramble fast as much as possible. That way I found this tiny arch (2:37) too that most did not see.

The Western shoreline is marked by the huge tree and a couple of caves. I have marked approximately where the square cave tunnel is. A few from the group were looking for it from the water and they were not able to see it as the tide was too high. From above it was easy to spot (3:43). The water was not clear enough to see if it was deep enough and we decided not to jump from above. Entering from the opposite side (3:59) we confirmed that it was less than 1.5m deepe with that tide and the jump is approx 3m high. Just slightly later the the last cave (4:23) of the day. Cute crawling height with a tiny beach at the end. Exit and get into the speedboat for the return. Conveniently the 11A bus departs, first stop, from Shek Pik and therefore we didn’t have any problem to return. Which is not the case frequently on Lantau on weekends.

Everything you should know before coasteering and learn also about currents and others in the open water swimming post.