Coastal village path + HK trail section 8 (Dragon’s Back)

Start; Lin Hok Sin Koon bus stop - take #9 bus from Shau Kei Wan MTR
Finish; Big Wave Bay - take red minibus to Shau Kei Wan MTR http://www.16seats.net/eng/rmb/r_h09.html Fare 10 HK$ * Cash only *

From the bus stop walk back up the road a bit towards the opposite direction bus stop to find a proper stepped zig-zag path down *ignore the steep straight concrete steps alongside a drainage channel*

At the bottom an interesting coastal village path** wends it’s way south via five tiny sleepy old villages facing across Tai Tam Harbour to Stanley. The first, Lan Nai Wan, has a small temple (Lin Hok Sin Koon). The fourth village, Ngan Hang, has a small beach with WWII concrete machine gun positions. To Tei Wan has a nice beach and is busier owing to its location on the Hong Kong trail. All the villages bar To Tei Wan contained unleashed barky Chinese village dogs in the habit of loping over to within a few feet to check you out. In Ngan Hang a gaggle of 7 came over to ‘say hello’; I wanted to get a picture of them but didn’t have my camera to hand. **Don’t venture on the coastal village path if dogs alarm you

Much is written elsewhere about the popular Dragons Back. In places white knobbles of bedrock are exposed on a path with bright green spiny spiky scrub on either side; like walking along the exposed spine of a gigantic dragon. There’s a trig pillar on an unnamed sub peak at the southern tip of the ridge with views over the pass to D’Aguilar Peak, which few seem to visit. And if you want to bag Wan Cham Shan remember to dive off the HK trail at marker H089 (I forgot!)

Finished at Big Wave Bay. Viewed the ancient rock carving then lazed on the nice beach with an ice cream to celebrate completing the HK trail.