Hong Kong: Today’s main activity is a hike up from the apartment to the top of Victoria Peak. Victoria Peak is the tallest hill on the island of Hong Kong and a popular tourist location.
Throwing caution to the wind, Rob and I decided to risk life and limb and use the escalators at the beginning of the walk.
All kidding aside, the escalators are incredibly nice and come very much in handy when needing to head up the hill for a market or store. Unfortunately, after the first set of escalators, we were back to just walking. Along the way up hill, while still in residential areas, we passed through a number of parks. One of the interesting things along many of the rock walls are the trees that take advantage of the walls for their root systems.
Before long we had made it to the main path up to the peak, the morning trail.
Although it may not look it, the path is incredibly steep the entire way up. Every now and then we would get a peek through the forest either up towards the peak or down towards the harbor below.
Of course, there were also a lot of interesting plants and flowers to see along the way as well.
After about two hours of steady climbing we go to the top. From here we could see the other side of the island and a lower peak off in the distance.
There are a number of gardens and trails that weave across the top of the peak. Many of these locations provide good views of the harbor below.
There were some interesting types of trees I have never seen before up there.
And, also, a seemingly intense need to catalog all of the trees in the forest. If you look carefully, you can make out the tags on nearly every substantial tree. I have no idea what the numbers are for.
At the very top is the fresh water reservoir for the island. It’s underground, but standing up there you can hear the water being pumped into the tanks below.
Heading down from the peak, we walked to a tram station that is near the top. The tram station is a five story tower crammed with restaurants and tourist trap stores. At the very top of this building is an observation deck.
After getting some ice cream, we decided it was time to head back down. Since the line for the tram seemed a bit long, we decided to take a path that kept a pretty constant elevation and circled the peak back to the opposite side where we had come up earlier. Along this path was a lookout point with really good views of the harbor below.
While looking down there, I also to try the tilt-shift / toy-effect on my camera. I think it worked pretty well on some of them, especially the last one.
The path continued on through the forest before meeting back up with the trail down to the city. We saw an interesting skink on the path and some other unusual trees.
Our path back down took us through the University of Hong Kong. After making our way through the university, we eventually got back to the road for our apartment. After this hike we decided to call it a day. We did go out for dinner later, but did not do anymore walking that required going up a hill. Quite enough of that for one day.