Pre 100 km

Powergirls synchronization

SG ready to rumble

The four of us woke up and show up on time at the meeting point and we are all heading towards the starting points!!
Chloe has a very bad neck pain but she is still in and excited. We will make it.
Starting time: 11 am.

Glamour preparation

D-1' glamour preparation at the beautician so that we all have nice and red nails for trailwalker. It was also a great way to party for Joan s birthday. NOW we are ready.

Cloudy Hill and Pat Sin Lei

Saturday, October 31st

Team Members on call: Joan and Chloe
Walk with Ian's crew - Stages 8&9 of the Wilson Trail

elevation: +1,340m, same negative
length: 17K
time: 6h

We decided that the best way to celebrate Halloween was to join Ian's crew for a 'long and tough' hike, as advertised in Ian's invitation email...
We started from Tai Wo station (KCR East Railway) up to Cloudy Hill that we found quite similar than the hike up to Needle Hill. From the top of the mountain, there are beautiful landscapes on the right, and surreal views on Shenzhen skycrapers on the left...
We continued down to Hok Tau Reservoir.
A warning board announces the beginning of Pat Sin Lei, advising unexperienced hikers to find another way... But nobody looked too scared about it (halloween mood?) and the group happily took the path. The way is long and tough before actually reaching the 'Pat Sin Lei' or the 8 Immortals Range, named after the 8 hilltops to climb and rechristened 'the 6 virgins and the 2 bitches' by the group, who suffered the most on the 2 tricky last hilltops....
The hike offers sumptuous views over the Country side and the Chinese bay, and we can even catch sight of Tai Mo Shan (section 8 of Mac Lehose, the highest hill in HK).
We came back to civilization (= beer) down the 8 hilltops, at Luk Keng village, where it's easy to find food, drinks and transportation back to Central.

Conclusion: very good training hike, beautiful landscapes but don't go there if you're not well equiped!

Sections 6, 7 & 8... And the team finishes the trail!

Saturday, October 24th

Team members on call: Lorene, Chloe
Sections 6, 7 & 8: from Tai Po road to Twisk
elevation: 1,100m + , 800m -
length: 20.5KM
time: 5.45h

Beautiful Saturday morning of a 3 days week-end in Hong Kong: that's the perfect timing for the two of the team who has not walked all the 10 sections of the trail to finish it!

Here we go then, start at 6am, more or less awake, with few recommandantions from a colleague of the top of our mind: don't get too close to the monkeys of section 6, pay attention to the cows on section 7 & beginning of Tai Mo Shan, be careful where you put your feet on the way down from Tai Mo Shan...

Nobody fooled us about it: section 6 is most probably the easiest and the shortest section of the whole trail. Monkeys were here as well, but not aggressive at all. The only difficulty of this section is definitely not to get lost! Carried along by our enthusiasm, we did not see the turn to make and continue along Golden Hill road up to the end. Guided by a group of old Chinese people that we made laugh a lot, we found back our way but lost around 15 min.

Section 7 starts with a beautiful point of view which totally rewards the hike up to Needle Hill. Elodie, who did it 3 weeks ago, warned us before: don't watch Needle Hill from the bottom. It really looks insurmountable, but we found the 1,000ish stairs easier to take that the ones of our weekly Twins' hiking.
Grassy Hill's slope is quite smooth and nice environment who remind us the French country side (cows are definitely part of the landscape but we hadn't seen them).

Tai Mo Shan the highest mountain of Hong Kong (957m) was not worse than expected. The way goes up to the top in a not too steepy slope.

The hike in general was quite smooth, but most probably because we did it early morning and avoid the heat of noon time. We did not go too fast, but did not take any break of more than 2minutes, and have plenty of time to chat(usually we stop speaking on the way up, but this time, the slope was not steepy, and except from the way to Needle Hill, we managed to speak the whole hike...)

Conclusion: we feel ready for the rumble!

Morning trail + Hong Kong trail

Saturday 17 October

Team members on call: Chloe, Elodie and Lorene
Special guests: Caroline and Paulita

Weather: Hot and Sunny

Objective: Morning trail + Section 1 to 7 of Hong Kong trail
Length: 44 km
Difficulty: Long

What is the best way to start a week end? Wake up at 5 am on Saturday to go hiking. Yeahhh!!

After the 36 km the past Sunday, we raise the bar and plan to walk 44 km. But at the same time we wish to finish early and knees are a bit exhausted after the numerous hills of the week before. Hong Kong trail it will be + morning trail but minus section 8 and the stairs to Big Wave Bay.

Sections 1 to 4 are new to us and actually really nice, quite easy, with great views of Hong Kong island. With 5 ladies on board this morning, obviously the topic of the day is men, good looking men, but I won t reveal more...

After 27.5 km, it is finally lunch time. It is Noodle shop near the water reservoir, so so nice and relaxing. Then we say bye bye to Paula and Caroline who definitely deserve to rest.

After lunch, the main difficulties of the day (besides the lenghth..) remain: Jardines's Lookout and Mount Butler. Then the Tai Tam reservoir where we almost git lost but hopfully a nice lad and teammates helped us find our way. They are also preparing for Oxfam Trailwalker.

We are not done yet... 44 km, it is quite a way. After the Tai Tam reservoir, section 7 and the catchwater await us. A very long catch water. We even run at one stage in the hope to finish quicklier.

Lorene announce the end of today s hike at post 83, but at post 83, no road, no bus ... Lorene don t know how to count. The end is actually at post 84 but after 500 steps, 500 unexpected steps. Still we are so glad to finish after 10h30 min of walk.

44 km, checked!!!

Last challenge of the day: fight the mosquitoes at the bus stop and find a cab. we did find a cab but Lorene is full of mosquito bites!