Finally we hiked Hong Kong Trail Section 4, it’s been, as it has been for basically the last 6 months, shit weather in Hong Kong so this has taken us a bit longer after saying we’d do it a few days after our Hong Kong Trail Section 3 hike. Actually, today we started our from Cyberport as usual, did Hong Kong Trail section 3, then continued on to Hong Kong Trail section 4. We’d read that Section 4 was mainly concrete so weren’t looking forward to it and really only did it for the sake of this blog. Anyway, Hong Kong Trail section 4 starts where Section 3 ends, at Aberdeen Reservoir Road. We were quite surprised to find the first bit of it was still proper trail, no concrete, just rocks, hardened mud. This goes on for maybe a 1/3 of Hong Kong Trail Section 4. Again it’s pretty flat, a few ups and downs, there are a few other paths you need to get your Google maps out to avoid going on and make sure you’re on the right path, basically just follow the signs that say “Blacks Link”.
Once you get to to the Middle Gap Road bit, which you can see on Google Maps, or by looking at our Garmin or MapMyHike route (available by emailing Hiking In Hong Kong), you get back into Concrete, and there’s an uphill climb, first up some steps and then up a deserted road which is Middle Gap Road (turns back into Hong Kong Trail section 4). It’s not tough, but it’ll get the heart rate up and definitely not easy. As with Hong Kong Trail Section 3, there’s very little to see on Hong Kong Trail Section 4, that’s okay with us because there’s bugger all people along it, today, we saw less than 10 people along the whole trail. Granted, it was a weekday morning, but we’d take that over a good view and hundreds of people (e.g The Peak). Coming down, we took a short cut down to Nam Fung Road instead of meeting up with Black’s Link as we had enough of the concrete. There’s a couple of buses going to Aberdeen direction but it’s a 20 minute leeway or whatever they call it, so we just taxi’d it back home. Hong Kong Trail Section 4 is only about 7.5 km, but we combined with most of Hong Kong Trail Section 3, total distance about 12.5 km. We took our time today as we’ve been traveling and eating way too much Japanese BBQ so aren’t in the best of shape. Total time was about 2 and half hours, but this can be done in 2 hrs easily as we stopped a lot along the way to make sure we were going the right way.
The only view you get is over Ocean Park and Southside, you end up over the Aberdeen Tunnel so if that’s something you’ve wanted to say you’ve done, give it a go. We won’t be doing this anytime soon because of the concrete on the later 2/3 of the trail, but it’s a nice walk through some quiet tracks if you’re into that kind of thing. Overall Hong Kong Trail Section 4 isn’t much to write home about, although you’re above the City, and the track should be quiet, you can often hear the construction of what we think is the Ocean Park MTR, there was also some blasting going on. If you like your views, this is not for you, if you’re after a nice walk, this might be the ticket. It’s runnable but because Hong Kong Trail Section 4 turns into concrete road near the later stage, it’s not high on our list of Hong Kong Hikes.
Check out our Blog post on Hong Kong Trail Section 3.
Send us any questions or comments you have about Hong Kong Trail section 4 via email or ask us on twitter.
