22 April 2019
A peak up the morning path
Walking up and over the peak along the morning path in dense fog
Out the back of my hotel are hills. I walked up the steep streets and arrived at some hills. The hills here are full of rich people, some of whom have declared parts of the hills off limits to anyone but them. This resulted in a few backtracks, very annoying.
Eventually I found the 'morning path'. I had no idea where it went. It didnt matter. Hong Kong island is small and has transport everywhere you go, so I followed the morning path. This wound its way up the hill past an abandoned gun battery point thing. It was very hot and humid, I was sweating profusely.
Up on the abandoned gun battery there was a group of people doing Tai Chi, and some public toilets. I had to walk all the way around the circumference of silent people holding a pose to get to the toilets, for whatever reason there was one small metal knee high pole in the path. Of course I hit that pole with full force with my knee, and comedically half fell over, half took a giant correcting step, half walked it off as if nothing had happened. The sum of those 3 halves caused a few Tai Chi'ers to lose their pose.
The morning path lead to the peak, through thick fog as you shall see. Everyone goes to the peak, large parts of it are under redevelopment, I did not stick around for too long to take photos from the 'spot', even though the fog on the view side had lifted. Instead I decided to push on over the hill and down the other side and see where that lead me.
At first it lead me through more compounds of private houses with armed guards! Scary stuff. One of them had a Lexus LFA, the greatest sounding car ever made (fact). Eventually I rejoined a path, the Hong Kong path. I think it goes for a long way in the other direction so I will probably do some more of it another day.
After following this path for a while and marveling at how hot it was and how many huge mosquitoes and warning signs about dengue fever there were, I arrived at a reservoir with a dam. Aberdeen Reservoir.
I immediately demanded to see the Earl, the inferior Earl on account of the fact I felt like a sandwich.
Aberdeen reservoir actually had a series of dams and seemed to be a nice place with various nature paths and jogging tracks, it also lead to Aberdeen, which is now recently connected to the subway, so thats where I went.
Down at Aberdeen is a floating flotilla (is there another kind?) of fishing boats, restaurant boats, rubbish boats and tourist ransom boats. I think there are some unofficial boats that take you out to a pirate island and leave you there, unless you pay a larger fee to return. No really, I read that happens!
So it was an action packed day, no rain, some sunshine, and then some dumplings.
Getting to the base of the hills requires you to walk up a steep hill called the city of Hong Kong. I refuse to use the outdoor escalators which are on the right hand side of this photo. Also when I took out my camera for the first time it was completely fogged up. I had to do a full clean of the front element with my German made $20 cloth that should have only cost 50 cents.
The morning path was actually a nice smooth concrete path. Steep in places but no stairs. I put this photo here to suggest that I hiked up some boulders.
You get a view quite soon after starting along the path. Fog was coming so I thought I better take a photo in case this was the only view I would get all day.
A bit more view, more view to come.
Now no view, fog.
The fog was thick, but since at this point it was a mini road filled with joggers, there was no chance of getting lost, no matter how hard I tried.
A waterfall in the fog. Time to go to f22 and see how slow I can set my shutter speed for some smooth looking water. Not quite slow enough.
It is a very interesting path, lots of nice trees to keep me ducking. I think I may have walked along here previously many years ago.
The morning path lead to the peak. Lots of it is currently shut. The tram is open again, I had read that was shut also. No matter how foggy it is you will know when you get there, because Gordon Ramsay has a restaurant up there, and a giant video screen with his big stupid head yelling at everyone. Obnoxious.
This is the view from the public toilets on the peak. I have taken this photo before, one handed.
Protesters protesting the Falun Gong cult. I happen to agree with them that Falun Gong is a dangerous cult. If you read into it you will find out that their leader is a billionaire, believes he communicates with aliens who control the worlds governments, and among other things was put on earth to eradicate the world of homosexuals. They do not tell you that when they are getting you to sign their petition on every Australian city street corner. I suggest you read 'Me and Li' by Ben Hurley. The protestors have a prominent spot on the peak.
I take photos of taking photos of the view. Lots and lots of Germans around today.
Last one of this side.
It was time to push on to the other side. I had no idea what would be there.
A real path, and some sunshine!
Before too long I arrived at Aberdeen Reservoir. I believe I have added a small amount to its level!
Dam 1 of 2. Nice big buildings on the hills in the fog.
The lower reservoir.
Dam 2 of 2. I am always amazed at how they build those huge buildings on the top of the hills.
The dam is quite high. Here is the drop down the other side. Also, bright sunshine!
I plodded along down the steep hill, aware that if the dam let go I would surely die, until I arrived in Aberdeen.
Now for some photos of Aberdeen port. They call it a typhoon shelter, for boats.
There are many signs warning that the water is highly polluted, do not touch it.
I climbed down to the shoreline after going as far as I could go. This is the very far side of Hong Kong island, but still giant apartments as far as the eye can see.
Time to walk along this big drain to the new subway station on the new subway line that only has 4 stations in total.
After getting back to the main part of the city, I remembered to look up. In Hong Kong, always look up. It is often interesting. But be aware of dripping air conditioners. The water is poisonous. They have signs everywhere advising that letting your air conditioner drip is an offence, and yet sometimes it feels like its raining.
To finish the day, a most basic of lunches. Celery dumplings. I assume they also had pork as they were delicious. It came with an ice milk tea for under $5.