Date Feb 12th 2022

CLEAR WATER BAY ROAD (HEBE HILL)

New central Kowloon location, accessed via Clear Water Bay Road. The route looks harmless enough on paper but this short track packs a punch with some steep, technical climb and less-travelled trail. We clocked an extra km or two mapping our first outing to this location but the ‘clean’ route is illustrated above.

As an aside, at some point we will introduce a “technical” scale to reflect the degree of difficulty navigating each trail. Whilst a short route on paper, this one would rate highly in that department. Interestingly, googlemaps has limited detail on this area so we turned to Strava to help map our route. All makes for an interesting adventure!

THE RIDE 🔥🔥

No more than 20 mins from the island, sans traffic, cutting straight up Route 1 and past Kowloon Bay. Perfect sunny weather so on this occasion took the scenic route home, riding the full length of Clear Water Bay Road before circling back via the East tunnel and around the West of HK Island, along the south coast road; that detour surely worth an extra🔥

THE LOCATION 🅿️

We arrive in a sprawling village car park that seems to double as car workshop, located at the start of stage 4 of the Wilson Trail. No official bike parking but a small bridge next to a catchwater provides plenty of room to establish a base. No amenities to speak of and not the most secluded of locations but ideal for getting straight into the trails. We watched as bats circled the bridge below us; early mammal ‘catching the worm’, much like us.

THE RUN 🍺🍺

We join the Wilson Trail which cuts straight through the village; housing and vegetable gardens flank our path until we reach the forest. We settle into some lush, sheltered trail, urban village quickly replaced by birdsong and nature. We pass an intriguing deserted colonial house with coloured window panes still intact.

We depart from the Wilson Trail at a small village road, diving into thicker forest opposite and scrambling our way down and across a broad stream. Tracking the opposite bank we head around the hillside, gradually gaining altitude.

The trail can be tricky to follow in places but, tied to branches at intervals, are coloured ribbons (from previous trail running events), which provide an additional guide and reassurance we’re not going ‘too’ rogue with our choice of route. Veering right we begin our ascent of Hebe Hill, resting halfway up to explore some old stone foundations (WWII bunker perhaps?). Continuing upwards we reach Lower Hebe Hill before pressing on to the peak of Hebe Hill, finally emerging from tree shelter to open air and striking views across Hebe Haven and Sai Kung; just reward for a fairly testing climb. Look out for Razor Hill to the south - we’ll look to incorporate that peak with this route for a Full Beans track in future.

Heading off the hill side we hit the most overgrown part of the trail. GPS keeps us on track as we scramble down the trail and re-join the Wilson Trail to retrace our steps back to base.