Tai Long Wan - The Final Big Hong Kong Adventure!!

Tai Long Wan is considered the jewel in Hong Kong's crown. It is a stretch of coastline on the coast of the Sai Kung East Country Park and is notoriously difficult to get to. It either involves shelling out for a boat to approach by sea, or a walk over the mountains from the west by foot. This is the place I probably most wanted to see while in Hong Kong. Partly because I love beaches and partly because it was going to be the hardest place for me to get to. Now strap yourselves in cos this is going to be a long one!!!!.
I must stress at this point that I am fine so don't let what you're about to read concern you too much!!.
I set off on Wednesday morning as the forecast said there were storms coming on Thursday so I knew I would not get another opportunity. Firstly 2 hours to Wong Shek , the starting point by MTR, and buses.
Just around the bay from Wong Shek there is a place called Chek Keng where there is a pier. I had to get here to be able to pick up a path that would lead me to the "Maclehose Trail". This trail runs around the entire area and on first hand experience I can now confirm that it is a monster!!!. People usually camp here and do this trail sections at a time as it's so tough. I saw numerous runners here that obviously use this trail to "batter" their body's into competition shape. And I am not a particularly fit man!!. There are kilometre markers on the trail and although I had a rough idea as to the distance it ended up being 7 kilometre's each way from Chek Keng to Tai Long Wan, up and over 2 mountains. The most important thing here was to be able to get out and back to Chek Keng for the ferry out at 16.50, or I would be spending the night here. And trust me on reflection I wouldn't want to do that without good camping gear and I had none. And even then after dark you would have no chance of even finding the campsites.
Immediately after leaving the ferry I was completely on my own. Apart from 1" ants and what looked like 2 inch parasites scurrying away with every step I took. Really spooky. There had been a bit of rainfall when I first arrived and there was thunder rolling around but the sun was out now. I set off on what was to turn out to be the biggest adventure of the trip, in both good and bad. The walk was arduous!!...serious incline after incline round every corner.
I saw butterflies with 6" wingspans, the biggest I've seen, groups of wild dogs, Insects of both the scuttling and flying variety that were nightmarishly big!!!. The downhill sections were as punishing as the up as they were so steep. But I made good time and got to Tai Long Wan and rested before taking some pics. Knowing I had it all to do again to get back!!. I saw a sign at a cafe with prices for boats directly back to Sai Kung for 800HKD and if I had it, it would have been a no brainer...I had 150. I spent about an hour and a half at Tai Long Wan after spending around 5 hours to get there, and set off back toward Chek Keng. Although now I had an idea how long it took for the walk I could afford to go a bit easier and rest more. I just wanted to make sure I was back at the pier for the one and only boat out and not stuck here should anything untoward pop up on the way back. I made Chek Keng with plenty of time to spare and waited on the pier. After my (for me) Epic 14k round trip walk I was truly shredded. But only had the wait for the boat and make the 2 hour trip on buses and MTR back to Hong Kong Island.....or so I thought........
At just before 4pm it began to rain, and the thunder I'd heard earlier was back so I headed for the nearby shelter happy that I had taken the decision to err on the side of caution and was back at the pier and had cover.
Then at about 4.15 I was happily listening to my ipod when a massive fork of lightning hit an electrical sub station on the bank across the water right in front of me. After this all hell broke loose.....the storm was right over me, lightning was going off everywhere and it was EXTREMELY scary.
Within minutes a group of 5 Chinese men came running around the corner toward the pier. They ran right past me shouting and gesturing for me to go with them, it was at this point I noticed the speedboat hammering it's way into the bay to get them. They had obviously phoned for someone to come and get them out. I quickly figured that this was NOT the place to be and followed them onto the boat. We only had a short distance to travel round the point and into the adjoining bay to Wong Shek Pier. We pulled off of the pier but although the speedboat had twin engines we were going nowhere against the now howling winds that were driving into the bay. The driver quickly manouvered us into a position behind the pier wall to shelter from what was now pretty obviously a typhoon.
We spent the next few minutes furiously bailing the boat out with 5 litre plastic containers with the tops chopped off as it was quickly filling up with the lashing rain. Even despite this it was a couple of minutes before we got the better of the flow. Soon after this the storm abated a bit, the wind dropped and the driver slammed the boat into reverse and then made the sprint out of the bay and round the point for Wong Shek. 3 or 4 minutes later we were at the pier safely. One of the men laughed and said for me to give the driver his 20 HKD fare. I gave him 50 and to my suprise he went to give me change!!!......I just laughed and left the boat, absolutely soaking!!!...He said "thanks".
All of my camera's were ok, and i made a point of wrapping them before heading off anywhere as it was still raining substantially. I rode the bus's, and MTR all the way home soaked, but was not the only one so I don't think it mattered. After getting back to central I met Em at the IFC with a coffee and we went home together at which point I had a HOT bath followed by copious amounts of deep heat!!.
Today I'm chilling and sorting out all my stuff, the storm was still rumbling through the night. I'm a bit achy but i'm all to aware that it all could have been so much worse.
But i got my pics!!!...looking at them now it's almost impossible to believe what actually happened later in the day.
Em is off from tomorrow so we'll have a chance to chill together before heading back.

Pics Here