Tuesday, February 4, 2014

From misty plateau to sunny beach! (Photo-essay)

This time of the year, the temperature can be at such a pleasant level that it can be hard to remember how hot Hong Kong can get in the high summer months.  But precisely because of the high temperatures one Sunday afternoon in July, I opted for a hike that began on a high plateau (i.e., Lantau's Ngong Ping) where it was cooler down at sea level and then took a friend and I all the way downhill to the beach at Tong Fuk where one could enjoy the sea breeze before heading off shortly afterwards for a post-hike dinner.

More than incidentally, I felt compelled to blog about this hike before -- after I returned home that very evening, to be precise, because I spotted some truly interesting sights (including cool critters) along the way.  But there remain many other arresting sights to share from this hike besides those, as I'm confident that the following photo-essay will show:-   

No kidding about Lantau Peak being 
on the misty side (at least that afternoon)!

The view looking down was far clearer though
(even though the sky remained full of clouds)

One cool blue damselfly! :)

 Before I began hiking in Hong Kong, I never knew that
grasshoppers could be colored like this one! :b

 Another damselfly that caught my eye on this hike :)

Don't you think that skinks look like they're 
half snake and half lizard?

A clear view of south Lantau, looking all the way over

 A paraglider -- whose trajectory presumably 
would take him from high land into the water! :O

5 comments:

sarah bailey knight said...

HI YTSL

I REALLY LIKE THE 2ND PHOTO. ...THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THE LUSH LOOKING GREEN AND THE BLUE/STEEL GRAY SKY AND CLOUDS IS VERY NICE/

YTSL said...

Hi sarah sbk --

I'm glad you like that 2nd photo. Funnily enough, it was the one that I thought twice most about including when making my selection for this photo-essay!

Bill said...

Hi Yvonne,

Sarah's comment is right about the eye-catching contrast between the green, blue and gray in the second photo...Starting from the slab of rock in the right bottom foreground, to the concrete trail and the rock-wall fringing it, to the trees, harbour, background mountains and sky - the composition of this photo provide quite and eye-journey!

I can't leave out the striking, unusual insects and the snake-like lizard. It's almost hard to believe that such beautiful creatures exist right here on Earth and not on some alien world...This all adds up to a memorable photo-essay on a hike in the Kingdom of Lantau.

Bill

Bill said...

Yvonne,

Correction to the last sentence in my first paragraph: should read "provides quite an eye-journey!"

Bill

YTSL said...

Hi Bill --

Interesting that you like the same photo as Sarah! And yes, indeedy, re many of the creatures I see in the wild in Hong Kong being ones that it's hard to imagine exist on earth.

For me, the one that takes the cake has to be the lantern bug:-
http://webs-of-significance.blogspot.hk/2012/06/three-tung-ping-chau-photos-to-share.html