Batgung

I went up Sharp Peak for the first time yesterday. If you've ever been to the beach at Ham Tin / Tai Long Wan, you'll have seen this pointy hill in the background.

We took the 0830 ferry from Ma Liu Shui, which got to Chek Keng around 10:20. Then it was up the Maclehose to the top of the ridge, then along the ridge and up to the top of Sharp Peak. From there we followed the other ridge East then South down to Tung Wan, and from there over to Ham Tin for lunch. Coming down the ridge we had to stop to let a snake get off the path. I think it was a black cobra, around 3-4 feet long. Thankfully it slithered away from the path and we could carry on.

The climb up to the top of the peak was hard work. I haven't done any hiking recently, and my legs feel tired today. It was slippery coming down too, with both of us falling a couple of times. So, choose your hiking companions carefully for this walk!

It was a cloudy day, with a few showers and sunny spells. That made the climb up the hill a bit cooler, as the top section was hidden in the clouds. Still it was sweaty work. Several times the clouds would part for a few seconds, giving us a great view and a chance to get our bearings before carrying on with the walk.

The cafes at Ham Tin were open for drinks and lunch - I haven't been there on a weekday before, so that was a good surprise. We had a couple of options to get home again. There was a small boat anchored near the shore that was going back to Wong Shek pier. We could have paid for a ride on that. I guess that was a one-off though, I wouldn't rely on it being there in future. The cafe staff suggested catching the 16:30 minibus from Sai Wan Ting. By the time we'd had a swim we were too late for that, so we walked the Maclehose trail back out to Pak Tam Au. There are regular buses and minibuses passing there, so we didn't have to wait long before we could get back to Sai Kung.

MrB

PS The bottom of this page has photos of the same route we took.