Hiking along the Pat Sin Leng Nature Trail (Photo-essay)

A former colleague of mine once told me a story of how, shortly arriving in Hong Kong from Britain, she was taken along a hike up Pat Sin Leng without realizing that the word pat in Cantonese means eight and the northernmost mountain range in Hong Kong not only is named after the Eight Immortals of Chinese mythology but, also, because it consists of eight peaks (at the minimum). Another friend told about how as she went on a hike up Pat Sin Leng, her pulse rate dramatically heightened in a way that approximated the sharp ascent up to the first of that mountain range's peak.

So that same friend must undoubtedly have felt relieved to find, when I invited her on a hike one misty, humid and nonetheless non-rainy day along the Pat Sin Leng Nature Trail, that said official trail actually doesn't rank all that high on the difficulty scale -- even while actually yielding quite scenic sights, particularly towards trail's end... ;b

Before getting to the scenic sights,
here's first offering up a sign of spring
in the form of this budding plant

As the skies turned blue and clearer,
the vistas got deeper as we got to see
further and further into the distance

The isolated village cluster of Wu Kau Tang
set amidst much greenery and visible from the trail

A view of the rugged -- but oh so
scenically rewarding -- trail

Looking back as we began our gradual
but sure descent downhill

The view ahead close to the tail end of the hike

Yes, this trail really is situated in Hong Kong --
inside of Pat Sin Leng Country Park, to be precise

The kind of sight I love coming across -- and
taking in -- when out hiking here in the Big Lychee :)