Start (and intended finish) Tung Chung MTR exit D

Actual finish Pak Kung Au bus stop on Tung Chung Road (for regular #11 and 3M buses to Tung Chung MTR or Mui Wo Ferry) http://www.i-busnet.com/english/info/lantau/list.htm

Enticed (duped!) by a dry bright weather forecast I’d planned a hefty clockwise horseshoe circuit of Sunset Peak including sidetracks to all the subsidiary peaks. Woke up in the morning to extensive cloud and drizzle, but not to worry, the revised forecast* was for a little rain clearing through by midday replaced by fine weather, so off I went up HKs 3rd highest peak. Initially all went to plan up Por Kai Shan and Pok To Yan in warm dry conditions. The HK haze was burning off and a cap of benign cloud on Lantau’s highest peaks seemed to be breaking up:) In the event however the expected afternoon improvement didn’t materialise, rather everything deteriorated steadily so that thickening clag, driving rain and a strong gusty wind became the order of the day. The trails became slippy and photography difficult so I have few pictures from later. When my GPS device battery ran out on Sunset Peak I’d had enough; I binned my planned descent route over minor peaks Shek Sze Shan & Wo Liu Tun, instead baling out down the Lantau Trail to get quickly off the hill, chilled and soaked to the bone.


http://www.hko.gov.hk/en/index.html *This official HK government weather site is normally very useful and pretty reliable with helpful extras such as webcams and real time precipitation radar maps. Today wasn’t the forecasters finest output however - HK weather can be unpredictable! On the plus side at least there was no risk of overheating or running out of drinking water on a day with >1000m ascent. A surprising number of other hikers (some badly equipped in only jeans and trainers) were out up on the Lantau trail today despite the unpleasant conditions.