It has been hot, hot enough for the HK Observatory to put out a Hot Weather Warning, which means stay at home, be fanned continuously while sucking on ice cubes. But after a stormy and thundery night things cooled slightly and the clouds made us believe that it would be alright to go for a hike...
Cooled slightly actually meant it was still bloody hot, mid 30Cs, but overcast so we set off from our front door in Ho Chung and headed up hill through the allotments to get onto the Wilson Trail Section 4. It is very well sign posted and had recently been cleared of over grown bush so we were on our way up up up.
I can't pretend it was easy. It was an arduous trek and relentlessly steep. The heat addled my brain so the idea I had, when feeling exhausted in a tempetuous childish way, about just sitting down and waiting for someone to carry me home seemed so sensible at the time. I set myself up for disappointment as that was never going to happen. The only way was up, I just had to keep going.
After about an hour of steps and more steps and after lots of rests for water and to get my puff back, oh and of course to appreciate the view of Sai Kung and the South China Sea, it was decided we were about... half way there. Only half way? My heart sank and my legs wobbled.
It started to get darker although it was the middle of the afternoon. An ominous rain cloud positioned itself directly overhead and then dumped its stair rods of cold water. I've never appreciated rain so much. I was soaked through to the skin, but it cooled me down and revived me enough to continue up the steep steep slope. (I only cried a bit)
This was just part of section 4 of the Wilson Trail, we stopped when we got to the viewing point at Fei Ngo Shan where we could see Kowloon and over to the Island. Even in our wet t-shirt competition state a taxi driver agreed to let us in his cab, I almost tipped him!
The fancy app on the iphone told us that we had walked for a paultry 1 hour 40 minutes and a distance of 4K.
Quite honestly I could have stamped on the iphone for telling me this because it sounds like chicken feed, 4K is not very far, 1 hour 40 minutes is hardly a challenging hike in the scope of hikes I have completed, but it was up hill the whole way. Have I stressed just how steep it was? Do you appreciate that it was up hill ALL the way? Do you understanding that I hated every step?
I did it, I achieved it but I am filled with negativity about the experience and doubt I will repeat it. Just for the record my achilles are still throbbing two days later.
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