Went up Bridge Hill again as a means of approaching Stone Hill. Stone Hill’s one of the harder ‘ticks’ on HK island with it’s narrow, jungly trails and outlier situation. As an alternative to my route ‘roughage’ could be minimised by approaching over The Twins, albeit at the cost of extra toil on the Wilson Trail steps.

Start: Tai Tam Country Park bus stop (got a number 14 bus from Sai Wan Ho MTR)
Finish: Stanley Market (for bus numbers 14, 6 etc)

Went up the slope access steps directly behind the big brown sign saying ‘Tai Tam Country Park’. Then the ribboned trail up Bridge Hill to where the path forked at a point festooned with loads of ribbons. Fewer ribbons from there on, not too many people come this way. Dropped some height off then the climb began again at a small dam on the Tiger Stream, where I noted access is possible onto a catchwater traverse path. After summitting I descended to the saddle separating Stone Hill from the Twins. Here a ribboned ‘crossroads’ indicated faint routes north (to Lo Fu Shan via the Tiger Stream headwaters ) and south to the Ma Hang Stream, bone dry after all the recent warm dry weather. 2019 was the hottest year in HK since records began in 1884 plus December rainfall was only half of normal.. https://www.hko.gov.hk/en/wxinfo/pastwx/mws2019/mws201912.htm

I took advantage of the dried up rocky stream bed to get quickly down with some simple scrambling in a little gorge near the bottom where some pools and cascades might normally be a fun stream hike(?) Went left on a concrete catchwater for a bit before emerging on the main road by Stanley Mound Pumping Station.

With legs to spare thanks to my descent route saving me the haul up then down on the South Twin, I was then able to visit immaculately kept Stanley military cemetery, and tag on little Che Pau Teng (no views today due mizzle). Finally walked back for a leisurely mooch round Stanley Market. The terminus of the number 14 bus route is by the gates of Stanley Fort PRC army barracks if you want to shorten, or do Che Pau Teng & Rhino Rock as a quick standalone.

Little in the way of views today due mist, cloud and vegetation.

Bridge Hill saw fighting with the Japanese in December 1941. Interesting story here..(scroll down the page to a picture of Bridge Hill)
http://battleforhongkong.blogspot.com/2015/03/erinville-and-cashs-bungalow-at-redhill.html
The driveway to Cash’s bungalow began at the bus stop where my walk starts. The Japanese had a machine gun position at Cash’s bungalow which was used to fire on British troops on Bridge Hill