Surprisingly interesting small stream opposite to Ocean Park. Big waterfalls ideal to visit if heavy raining & you only have time for a short one.
- Beauty/fun: 6.5/10 after heavy rain surprisingly pretty waterfalls, some extra cultural background, convenient logistics. 5/10 without much rain.
- Difficulty (check this link if new here, this is not your standard HK hiking web): 6.5/10 just because of the slippery rocks when wet. There are a few tricky sections where you want to be really careful not to slide into the precipice. Some loose rock sections. Slightly bushy in the first two sections. Way more on the little hiked third. Relatively short in between sections.
- The map (how to download to your phone offline maps)
See full screen & the Garmin track.
I had again only a few hours free, so I took the MTR and came down in Ocean Park station. I walked up the road, stairs and here I found the entrance to the bronze age rock carvings view platform.
Video starting exactly there (1 on the map).
With the usual (low) flow the first waterfall (0:19) is easily climbable on its left. Amber storm signal at that moment and the stream at its max power. Therefore I decided to climb high on the left wall. Tons of loose rocks and trash atop, so beware. Moving forward the rocks are quite interesting with flat surfaces that could look man cut.
Another 3-4m waterfall (0:53) easily passable on its left, tricky climbable (very slippery) within with lower flow before arriving at the main attraction.
The big scattered waterfall (2 – 1:17). From the bottom it looked like climbable with such nice steps. But it is really slippery and little by little the angle of the rocks worsens. I checked around. The ribbons were guiding you towards the right tributary. But I wanted to check the main left tributary first. I scrambled up in between the two within the bush and once atop I realized how reckless it would have been to try to climb the main waterfall. The waterfall is way bigger than it looks from below with slider like smooth slippery rocks on top (1:34). You can see it on the picture above.
I continued up the stream. A few fallen trees, some small waterfalls, & arrive to the catchwater. I went up the ladder here (3 – 2:33).
Start of the second section. I guess most of the days this must be a quiet creek, slightly bushy. But it was real fun with the heavy rain flow, several sections of concatenated waterfalls included.
At 4:05 the only relevant fork. I think hikers tend to go left, but in my case I continued up climbing on the waterfalls. Full route beware of loose rocks. Pass under the HK Trail road (4:56) and here the start of the third section (4).
I found ribbons from the Crepuscular hikers, therefore I knew that this was going to be a little hiked area (check the ribbons section in the Navigation post).
With the amount of rain of the day I could see two tributaries separating soon (5). The right tributary that initially looked more clear was the wrong one. Go back to the left tributary within the woods. Almost nothing remarkable here and dense bush (6:06) exit to the clear but small hiking path (6 – 6:27). Up and down to (7 – 6:43) HK Trail Section 4.
I went back to the stream to get to the main fork (8) and go up (7:11) the right tributary that most hikers take. The scrambling up the waterfalls is easier and you have magnificent views of the main waterfall (7:29). Steep continously up to the catchwater again. Clear path with some stairs down to Ocean Park.
A few weeks later I went with a buddy with similar weather forecast, but it did not rain at all. Even the lower section looked way less impressive. Therefore I decided to bring her after this first section to Middle Gap stream instead. To be explained in the next post.
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