Wednesday, September 30, 2009

From Boa Vista Hill to Wong Nai Chung Gap (photo-essay)


A Hong Konger friend whose main reason for checking out my blog is to see where else she might like to go and hike -- and knew that my Ho Pui Reservoir hike took place back in March recently was shocked to discover that I am so behind in my hiking photo-essays. I think I shocked her further when I told her that I'm spacing out my hiking photo-essays because some other people I know don't care much for them.

In any case, for people like her (who have yet to post a comment on this blog, mind! ;b ), here's yet another hiking photo-essay -- this time, a continuation of the last of three hikes I went on in March of this year; and, for the record (and yes, I'm counting and recording in a hiking diary!), hike #34 since I moved to Hong Kong in May 2007:-

Starting again where I left off: with some more
interesting flowers that I can't identify! ;(


Yep, you guessed it --
I have no clue what this plant's s name is

(and, before this hike, I had no idea that it existed
anywhere in this world, never mind Hong Kong!)

At least I know what's in this picture:
i.e.,
Tai Tam Tuk Reservoir, Red Hill and Kwai Shan
on a misty afternoon


Creeper plants adorning a slope

The mist covers the tops of some of the hills
around
Tai Tam Upper Reservoir

No, I don't know either what that boat
was doing on Tai Tam Upper Reservoir!


Yes, landslides can happen and their after-effects
can make for quite the dramatic sight


Pretty much at hike's end: the half-obscured sight
of the luxury Parkview residential complex shows
that we never were able to completely outrun
the mist that descended midway through
this nonetheless enjoyable hike!


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those creeper plants really do look like they're creeping. I can imagine them moving when no one is looking!

sarah bailey knight said...

Agreed with duriandave that those creeper plants do look like they might move.

Did you walk along the landslide trail or detour to where you took the photo? Those fallen rocks look intense.

How many pictures on average do you take per hike?

YTSL said...

Hi duriandave --

Teeheehee -- reckon you have quite the active and creative imagination there! ;b

Hi sbk --

Ditto for you what I wrote about duriandave! And no, I most certainly didn't walk along the landslide trail -- but also didn't need to detour to avoid it either. Rather, our trail fortuitously took us on the other side of the reservoir.

As for how many pictures on average I take per hike: It depends on the hike but I'm thinking at least 30 per hike and maybe as many as twice that amount for the longer (i.e., 10 kilometer and above) ones. :)

ewaffle said...

I am catching up with blog reading which sometimes takes a while--not that I read that many but because they have content worth thinking about. For example the pictures you post and particularly the one with the dam. I had mentioned in a comment on a prior post that I like dams--they are huge structures, complex machines and often the result of extremely difficult and complicated construction projects. I realize they sometimes cause significant environmental damage but I still think they look amazing.

A few thoughts triggered by the picture on this post of the dam:

1) I hope it is upstream from the dam--if not the reservoir seems very low unless that is typical for this time of year.

2) While you mentioned that the boat is not the subject of this image it is still strangely interesting. For one thing it clearly isn't going anywhere given the number of lines that moor it to the shore. And it doesn't look like it is meant to go anywhere, being squared off an all sides. A very odd vessel.

3) That image itself is very striking--the depth of field (if that is still the correct term) is amazing, with the foliage in the extreme foreground in very sharp focus and the dam, much farther from the camera, also sharp enough to see the mortar in the gaps between the blocks that make up the top of the dam.

That aspect of the image crept up on me since there is so much "content" to the shot it took a while for the technique to register. Whatever the case it is another lovely image.

YTSL said...

Hi ewaffle --

Thanks for your extended comments and hope that you won't feel slighted if my response is short (due to my standing in front of a comfortable in Seoul rather than sitting comfortably in my Hong Kong apartment as would be more usual):-

Yes, it is upstream from the dam. Of all the Tai Tam reservoirs, that one is the most upstream in fact.

And thanks for spending so much thought on my blog's contents. :)