From Tai Mei Tuk up into Pat Sin Leng Country Park (photo-essay)

One of the great things about going hiking in Hong Kong, observed a friend some time back, is that it can feel like one has gone out of the territory since hiking allows one to visit areas of Hong Kong whose landscape dramatically differs from the stereotypical concrete jungle that many people tend to associate with Asia's World City. And in the case of a hike I went on along the Pat Sin Leng Nature Trail, the holiday mood came over me pretty much as soon as I got off the mini bus at Tai Mei Tuk, an area bordering Plover Cove, the Plover Cove Reservoir and Pat Sin Leng Country Park which Hong Kongers flock to on weekends to indulge in such as Hong Kong-style barbecue, Thai food, leisure bike riding and water sports.

Because I had agreed to meet up with my that day's hiking buddy in Tai Mei Tuk and I arrived there before her, I had a bit of time to enjoy the sights -- and take some photos -- there before we set out to the trail's official start several minutes walk uphill from the area. So this first photo-essay covering that day's hike begins not at the official hike start point but the idyllic spot whose name translates from Cantonese as "the very end" but actually was the de facto beginning of a good day out for me that Sunday... ;b

Looking out into Plover Cove and beyond
from the shore at Tai Mei Tuk

Scenic (even if densely packed) public barbecue area in
Tai Mei Tuk (with the Pat Sin Leng range in the background)

Near the official trail start is the sobering sight of the
Spring Breeze Pavilion built to commemorate
two teachers who perished after being caught
in a deadly wildfire in the area in 1996

Misty view from uphill of Plover Cove Reservoir
on a very humid -- but, thankfully not rainy -- day

View through a break in the thick foliage of the
northern portion and shores of Plover Cove Reservoir

The kind of exotic flora I see on hikes that prompted
me to buy two Hong Kong wildflowers books
-- yet which I still can't identify! ;(

Beautiful buds waiting to bloom?

I don't know what species of butterfly this is (or even if
it may be a moth) but I sure do love its eyes --
and my being able to get so close to photograph it! :b