Hiking to Big Wave Bay (大浪灣) along the Leaping Dragon Walk (龍躍徑)
Last week, I went hiking with my wife and one of my cycling buddies to the Big Wave Bay (大浪灣) along the Leaping Dragon Walk (龍躍徑) located in the eastern corner of the Hong Kong Island.
We started our journey from the Siu Sai Wan Promenade in Chaiwan, which is right next to the entrance of the Leaping Dragon Walk.
The Leaping Dragon Walk is about 1 Kilometer in length and with an average gradient of 10%. It is definitely not an easy walk but somehow quite a lot of the elderly take this as their morning exercise.
Within 15 minutes of walk, we reached the end of the Leaping Dragon Walk and arrived at the Cape Collinson Road.
From the junction, one may turn left along the Cape Collinson Road to the Cape Collinson Battery, a World War II relic that overlooks the Tathong Channel (藍塘海峽). I have never been to battery before and this may serve as one of the point of interests of my next hiking trip.
At the far end of the road is the Cape Collinson Correctional Institution, a minimum security training centre to provide rehabilitation services to young male offenders.
Hikers usually will take a rest here and have a glimpse of the eastern part of the Kowloon Peninsula / New Territories and the Tathong Channel.
There is also a self-serviced rest area next to the entrance of the Pottinger Peak Country Trail. The facility is believed to be built by hikers to provide a temporary shelter where they can have a chat and enjoy some tea.
After a short rest, we continue our journey along the trail, which consists of a paved 500 steps uphill climb to the Pottinger Peak View Compass and followed by another 1000 downhill steps to the Big Wave Bay.
Half way to the 500 steps uphill climb, we met a hiker who was feeling uncomfortable and slightly lost conscious. We immediately called the police and within 15 to 30 minutes, the emergency rescue team arrived and helped to escort the hiker downhill.
Everything settled and we continued with out journey to the Pottinger Peak View Compass which is located in the highest point of today’s hike.
From the View Compass, you can take a look at some of the major point of interests of the Kowloon Peninsula and the eastern part of the New Territories. Remember to check out the reference board for the name of these areas.
Next came the easiest part of the journey, the 1000 downhill steps.
It shouldn’t take much time to arrive at Big Wave Bay. However, given the stunning view of the Tathong Channel along the downhill steps, most of the hikers would spent quite a long time here to take photographs and probably selfies.
The house sitting on the top of the cliff belongs to one wealthy family and celebrities of the town.
One of the point of interests in Big Wave Bay is the “Big Wave Bay Rock Carving” – a declared monument in Hong Kong. No one know when and who made the carving but it is believed to belong to the end of the Neolithic era and the Bronze Age.
To get to the Rock Carving, turns left and walked along another set of paved steps to the cliff where it is located.
To our surprise, the paved steps and the hand rail along the path were completely destroyed.
So are the iron cage protecting the Rock Carving.
This is what the Rock Carving is supposed to look like.
We next came to the barbecue area.
It also appeared abnormal to us. What we saw were just the stone chairs and all the stoves were missing.
A closer look revealed that all the stone stoves were broken and lying on the side of the BBQ area.
Along the beach, we found that lot of debris and broken concrete structures were also piled up near the bush.
Later we learnt from the notice board at the beach that the Big Wave Bay beach was seriously damaged by the mega typhoon Mangkhut in September. The beach was closed down from 1 December 2018 till 28 February 2019 for cleanup and reconstruction works.
Here is a YouTube showing what had happened the day mega typhoon Mangkhut hit Hong Kong in September. (Courtesy of Apple Daily Hong Kong)
Sad to know that one of the most beautiful beaches in Hong Kong was damaged to such a great extend. We all hope that it will be recovered soon.
Anyway, time for lunch.
The cafe served a lot of the local, Thai and western cuisines.
Fresh Coconut drink seems to be the hot item as most of the customers here had ordered it.
My wife said it was so fresh and tasty that she wanted to come back later to enjoy it again.
Oops…
We were so hungry that we forgot to take any photographs for the tasty instant noodles.
As we needed to pick up our boy from school, we had to end our journey by taking public bus back to the city area.
However, as public light bus came much earlier, we got on it instead.
Strava Summary with Map and Elevation Profile
3-D Visualisation of Today’s Journey with Relive
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Wonderful hiking away from hustle-bustle city. Stunning views. And connecting STRAVA with “Relive” is also great to share our ride. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you Yasuyo San.
We used to finish our hikes in UK with beer and chips, but i’d settle for fresh coconut and instant noodles as well ^_^