Hiking after the rain in Tai Lam Country Park

A waterfall that's more spectacular than usual

due to the recent onslaught of rain

Further views possible than usual, thanks also to the recent rains!

And while some sections of the ground were muddier than

usual, the likes of this butterfly didn't seem to mind one bit! ;b

Earlier today, a friend and I went hiking for the first time since the first typhoon of the year visited Hong Kong two Mondays ago.  And while Typhoon Merbok actually didn't cause too much damage, it brought in its wake an unseasonably large amount of rain; making it so that by this past Wednesday, there already had been more rain in Hong Kong this month than the 30 year average for the whole month of June.

Consequently, when deciding on today's hike route, I opted for one that took my friend and I on paved paths for a good part of the way.  At the same time, since the days of wet weather have been succeeded by ones with hot sunshine, I also figured that it'd be good to spend much of today's outing in areas where there were many shady trees -- which is why we ended up hiking in Tai Lam Country Park, home to many kilometers worth of paved paths along with extensive forested sections. 

What with it being such a beautiful day, I expected the bus that took us very close to one of the country park's main entrances from Tsuen Wan to be packed with passengers.  But not only was that far from the case but the country park itself -- or, at least, the trails we followed from Tsuen Kam Au down to Sham Tseng -- also wasn't full of hikers at all this afternoon. 

About the only part of today's hike where we came across anything like a bottleneck came at Tsing Fai Tong, one of a handful of rural enclaves located within Tai Lam Country Park -- and it wasn't caused by humans!  Rather, while venturing along a narrow path which bordered a small stream flowing through the area, we came across a herd of feral cattle meandering about while looking to graze on the grass that grew there.  

Understandably, I think, our first instinct was to stop and wait for the horned creatures to move away from the paved path.  But after it looked like they were in no hurry to do so and also seemed to be pretty even tempered and comfortable in the presence of humans, we opted to thread our way through the crowd of bovine creatures with what turned out to be surprising ease -- and some four hours after we began our trek, had reached hike's end somewhat wet with perspiration but otherwise in good shape and spirit! :)