Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Aberdeen Country Park hike (Photo-essay)


Looking at the main page of the blog today, I find that my recent HKIFF reports have made it way too text filled for my liking. So even though I have seen four more movies at the fest than I have thus far written about, I'm going to temporarily switch gears and return to playing catch up with regards to putting up photo-essays of hikes I've gone on here in Hong Kong.

A little bit more than a month after going on the Tai Lam Country Park hike that gave my hiking companion heat exhaustion, the temperature tended towards the uncomfortably hot. So another hiking friend and I decided to go on a short (i.e., just a couple of hours) hike that would take us from Wan Chai Gap down through Aberdeen Country Park to Aberdeen town via a route that would pass by the two Aberdeen Reservoirs (Upper and Lower) that have turned out to be the last water storage areas built on Hong Kong Island.

If truth be told, we weren't expecting much in terms of sights but, rather, just wanted to be out amidst some greenery and away from the madding crowd. Still, we saw enough to add to our experience to make it worthwhile to not only go out into the countryside that day but also -- as regularly is our wont -- bring our cameras along with us... :)

Just a few minutes after getting off the bus at Wan Chai Gap,
one finds oneself in countryside where one can enjoy some quiet
and the sight of such as these white flowers coming into bloom

On that hot day, we found the hill streams
reduced to not much more than a trickle
but the reservoirs still filled with water

At Aberdeen Upper Reservoir looking
north-eastwards and upwards to Mount Cameron
and the large white mansions on its slopes

Look south-eastwards from around the same spot
and you'll see this run off area that
leads into Aberdeen Lower Reservoir

Butterflies really add nice splashes of color
to a predominantly green landscape

View of Aberdeen town from within the country park

Another view (this from Aberdeen Lower Reservoir)
that shows how nearby is the town

Ending like I began -- with flowers,
albeit yellow ones growing in greater abundance!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Looks like a fun hike!

Oooh... that white flower is breathtaking.

And after watching you hunt butterflies with your camera on the hike you took me on, I can really appreciate the shot in this post. A fabulous photo, especially with the sunspots in the background.

YTSL said...

Hi duriandave --

It wasn't the greatest of hikes -- but it was good for the time of the year (late summer -- yes, I'm that far behind with my hiking photo essays!). And heheh re your new found appreciation of my butterfly photo(s). :)