Gilwell Campsite (Buffalo Hill)

Mar 13th 2022

GILWELL CAMPSITE (BUFFALO HILL)

Our first visit to this location which starts with a brilliant ride up into the Kowloon hillside and direct access to one of the most interesting and runnable sections Of the Maclehose Trail, stage 4. Plenty more route variations to explore here in future.

THE RIDE 🔥🔥

Direct route through Kowloon and up to join Clearwater Bay Road, always a fun stretch for a morning ride. We turn left onto Fei Ngo Shan Road and start our climb up the hillside. The heavily wooded, single lane road weaves upwards, at intervals revealing glimpses of steep valley sides and mountain, giving way to views of the city beyond. The temperature drops a degree or two, the air still crisp enough to be wearing layers on the bike. With summer around the corner, it will soon be just shorts and T-shirts! We take a right turn towards Gilwell campsite and pull up at a lay-by and park the bikes.

START/FINISH POINT

Unofficial parking aplenty in this relatively remote location. Just park the bike up on the kerb. Services are sparse with just the one public toilet set within the campsite area.

THE RUN 🍺🍺

We join stage 4 of the Maclehose in reverse, a nice gentle downhill stretch to warm up the legs. We take a left off the Mac trail and up a slope which quickly evens out into a gentle downhill section through deep woods.

At the trail fork we take a sharp right up the hill which marks the start of our ascent of Wong Ngau Shan and then onto Buffalo Hill.  It’s a pretty steep climb but views distract from the hard slog, sweeping across the mountain range in either direction, Lion Rock to the West and Ma On Shan, its peak hidden in the clouds, to the East.

Reaching the summit we run along the mountain ridge with valley views opening up down towards Hebe Haven and Sai Kung. The hills are flush with lush vegetation here. We hit our 600m peak in the clouds before descending a fairly steep incline to re-join the Maclehose trail, taking its more conventional direction back towards home.