This weekend's hiking (and) weather

Blue skies over Chek Keng Hau yesterday

Blue skies over Ngong Ping (and some mist
over Lantau Peak) this afternoon

Just before I set out to Tung Chung to meet my regular hiking companion earlier today, I decided to check the Hong Kong Observatory's website one more time -- and was somewhat horrified to see a thunderstorm warning in effect. For those who are wondering: the two reasons why I was only "somewhat" rather than "very" horrified was that I also saw that the weather forecast still included some sun in the afternoon and it just happening to be the case that I had also gone out hiking yesterday with a friend visiting from the US (so could be deemed to have already filled my hiking ration for the week!).

Yesterday's hike out on the Sai Kung Peninsula had taken place under beautiful bright blue skies for the most part. And although the temperature and humidity was on the high side, I enjoyed the trek from Wong Shek to Chek Keng -- which yielded sights that included tiny crabs, whole cow families, an abandoned village and a still inhabited one -- along with scenic vistas -- and the bonus kaito ride that took us from Chek Keng back to Wong Shek (and trust that Alejna did too!).

Despite the portends not looking good initially today (including my train to Tung Chung getting showered on when passing through Nam Cheong and encountering a substantial downpour in Tsing Yi), my regular hiking companion and I decided to go ahead and take the bus up to the Ngong Ping -- from where we planned to start our hike. The Hong Kong weather being what it is (i.e., often quickly changeable), we banked on the sky clearing by the end of our bus ride -- and imagine our glee upon finding blue skies when we got up to the highland that is Ngong Ping plateau!

More than incidentally, this was the second time in a month that we decided to press ahead with a hiking excursion despite it having been raining early on in the journey to it -- and it turning out to be the case that not one drop of rain fell on us during our hike that day. That first time around, the bus we were taking to our planned hike's starting point literally had a rain cloud pass over it so as the bus continued north, we suddenly found ourselves on dry rather than wet land as the rain cloud continued moving eastwards! So, if anything, our weather fortunes appeared to change even more dramatically than it did today!!

And although the weather forecast also warned of 70 kilometer gusts of wind being likely today, we definitely did not encounter any gusts close to that speed. Actually, our hike definitely would have been made quite a bit more enjoyable if there had been more and faster breezes to be experienced. Still, I'm not complaining about today's weather. After all, it proved to be good enough for a good hike filled with some really excellent views -- thanks in no small part to the rain that fell earlier in the day helping to clear the air and the sky turning out to pretty blue for the most part this afternoon! :)