lantau peak - the ascend

i almost died climbing the lantau peak. and it was so unglam to have to crawl on all fours but that was what i did momentarily on the way up. i was just that shag! lol! i was in hong kong since thursday  and had decided to do my lantau trail walk on saturday as the weather was forecasted to be sunny and fine. it was unusual for me not to have any details before such trips but this time round, the only info i had was (1) the start point and (2) the end point (ngong ping), and that (3) the trail will lead me to the peak. section 3 ends at ngong ping and i could take a bus back to tung chung. from the limited reading i did, i decided to take section 3 of the lantau trail (that comprised a total of 12 sections). i had seen people walking up the hilly terrains when i took the lantau cable car previously and wanted to experience it. i had also assumed that what i saw was parts of section 3.

the weather was sunny when i arrived at the start of the trail. there was a lady singing karaoke (she had a portable karaoke set) at one of the pavilion at the side of the road. i thought was weird, considering this was in the middle of no where. but i simply ignored her. and after orientating myself to the directions, i started my walk. it seemed ok for a start but after about 5 minutes and when i realised the steps were not gonna to end anytime soon, i decided i should take things slow. my thighs had started aching and my previous mountain climbing experience told me that this ache will disappear after about half hour once my thighs warmed up. i couldn't be more wrong... the steps gave way to a nice gentle trail after about 10 minutes. it was a relieved to me as my thighs are started to burn.  

a short while later, it started drizzling. i was glad it did cos i was panting badly and my singlet was wet from my perspiration. i was conscious of the fact that i had not water-proofed my back pack but decided to just walk along. after all, the weather forecast mentioned it would be sunny and this could just be a passing showers. as i walked i came faced with more steep steps, and looking ahead, these steps seemed to lead upwards forever. omg, i thought, i didn't ask for this! i had merely wanted to come to hong kong to walk. but after having walked and climbed for the last half hour or so, i persevered. to manage my burning thigh muscles, i took more frequent rest stops. i was so totally shagged out it came to a point where i had to rest after just climbing a few steps. and at one stage, i was literally crawling on all fours! so totally unglam but thankfully, there were no one around. as i climbed, i chanced upon a couple of groups of climbers who were making their descend. one was a group of school children. they were  talking and laughing as they made their descend and quite a few wore ponchos. two of them were even holding umbrellas! looking at how gingerly they descended and how fresh they look, i concluded that the route from ngong ping was relatively easy and that i would not suffer so much when i descend later on. heh heh... there were also a couple of caucasians (americans i thought, judging from their accent) and they said something like they should learn the art of descending - and that was - to run down as fast as they could. when i heard that, my mind went - oh no, you don't want to do that... miss a step and the drop would be hundreds of meters downwards... 

the light drizzle worsened into heavy showers as i climbed. i knew my stuff in my backpack would be wet but i prayed hard the several layers would help prevent total drenching of the content. i was too tired and it was too wet for me to take out my passport, my wallet, etc. i simply pushed on. thankfully, the rain lightened and stopped just about 2/3 way up and that was when i decided to take a long rest and snapped some pictures. the scenery that presented to me once the clouds lifted was really beautiful. i could see a large part of lantau island. what was also interesting was that i was seated on a ridge-line and on the left, the view was clear. but on the right, things were getting rather cloudy and it looked like a huge white cloud was blowing upwards. soon enough, my whole view was obscured and i found myself totally immersed in fog.

i continued my climb up and the peak seemed so bloody elusive. my spirit lifted somewhat when two climbers coming down told me the peak was just a few steps ahead. i reached the peak half dead! i was totally exhausted. the peak was rather uninteresting and was no more than the size of a small bedroom. there was a signage that indicated the height of the peak. 934m above sea level. and other than that, there was a small shelter for climbers to take refuge in the event of thunderstorm or strong winds. other than that,  there was no scenery to appreciate as the whole mountain top was shrouded in fog and visibility was no more than 10-15m. when i arrived, there were a couple of americans. they had just arrived from ngong ping and were talking about all sorts of stuff, ranging from where they worked when they were in america, how they accepted the job in asia, yadda yadda, yadda. and at one point, they were commenting how boring singapore was, considering how flat the island was and that there was no mountains to climb, etc... i just sat there and listened quietly. they didn't know they had a singaporean there amongst them.

after resting for some 15min, it started raining and they decided to take refuge in the shelter. for me, i decided to make my descent towards ngong ping.