Date: Feb 27th 2022

SHA LO TUNG (CLOUDY HILL)

This location is prime R+R territory. The ride leads us up an unmarked road that winds its way up the hillside to the foot of Cloudy Hill. Our base is nestled in a secluded valley, on the south eastern fringes of Pat Sin Leng country park. This was our first visit to this location so our chosen route has much room for refinement. There are no fewer than five trails leading to the top of Cloudy Hill, four of which comprise concrete steps or road and are well frequented by HK’s hiking community. In selecting the less-travelled, fifth route, we put ourselves firmly in bush whacking territory. We found ourselves wading into tall grass over our heads, following an elusive trail up a steep, slippery gradient. Honey badgers in their element 🍯🦡

THE RIDE 🔥🔥

Looks a fair distance on the map but like many trips to the New Territories, comprises mostly direct highway resulting in travel time of no more than 30 mins. Perhaps not the most interesting part of the ride but incredibly efficient. The fun starts when we get off the highway and join Ting Kok Road towards Tai Po. Taking an unmarked road on the left, we begin our ascent of the hillside, passing abandoned cars and winding our way up through the morning haze. Arriving at our destination, Cloudy Hill looms to the side as we pull up at a small car park, just ourselves and a handful of villagers, enjoying the serene location. The ride not only munches up 200m of the 434m elevation required to summit Cloudy Hill but also saves us taking the conventional Wilson Trail route to the peak which comprises 3,500 concrete steps. Hmmmm tempting 😜

THE LOCATION 🅿🚻️

A tiny car park awaits but room aplenty for the scooters. We even have the luxury of a (modest) toilet at this remote, elevated location.

THE RUN 🍺🍺

After some debate we decided to front load today’s hill climb. There are no fewer than five different routes heading up Cloudy Hill and we were tackling the steepest, most challenging ascent. Leaving the road we head straight into thick undergrowth. The combination of a damp, misty morning, tall wispy grass and ferns for a moment made it feel more UK, than HK. At times this was proper bush whacking country, a couple of machetes would not have gone amiss. Still, the accompanying intermittent ribbons left on branches, left over from previous trail running events, were a reassuring sign we weren't going too 'rogue'. Covid has put an end to many organised events and it shows on trails such as this where a lack of traffic has left the path to grow over. All the more fun for us as we negotiate each wrong turn, cursing GPS (its never our fault), as a we go. By the time we hit the summit we’re soaked through with scratched shins. If that sounds like fun take this route. If not, maybe take the steps 😃

Dropping down the other side of Cloudy Hill we join the tarmac road of the Wilson Trail. The Lau Shui Heung Trail then guides us back into lush forest and down towards our first reservoir. Looking left across the water we see some young red trees planted 10 years ago and still hanging on to some it’s Autumn oranges and reds. Leaving the reservoir we take a sharp right  and take a steady ascent of our second hill of the day before dropping down into picturesque Hok Tau Reservoir. Skirting the reservoir we’re treated to views down and across the steep valley sides, the sounds of rushing water from the stream below; a million miles from HK's high rise.

We take a direct route back to our start point, bringing it home via the storied Sha Lo Tung. Back in the 90’s there was talk of developers moving in to build a golf course here. Thankfully we’re left instead with a lush valley way up in the clouds; a unique oasis of nature in the hilltops of HK.

This was our first tour of the area but we’ll be back for more. So much stunning trail to explore around these parts. The combination of steep hills, reservoirs, ancient rice fields and lush valley make for some top trail running country.