7th Trailwalker Training on Sept 23

We had our 1st evening training. We did section 4, 5 & 6 this time. Participants are Adrian, Ben, Yvonne, Francois and I. We started at 8:55pm and finished at 5:22am next morning. The weather was okay. But Typhoon Signal no. 1 was hoisted and it was a bit windy. In the daytime, I was a bit of worried about the weather. As it was said that Typhoon signal no. 3 will be hoisted at night and it would be very windy. Also, it might rain. Anyway, we decided to go ahead our training.

I started to fill in water into the water bag around 6pm in the office. :) Michelle started to practice being a supporter. She helped me to fill in water. I got a pretty strange feeling. On the one hand, I was worried about it as I didn't know how it could be hiking at night. On the other hand, I was looking forward to have our evening training.

We took MTR to Hang Hau and then had a dinner there first. Then, we took a cab to our starting point. Once we started, we found that the trail was very slippery. Luckily, I got my hiking stick with me.

Walking at night was really challenging. Section 4 was not easy even we walked in daytime. Even though we had torch or headlight, it was still dark to walk at night. The half moon bright our route a bit. still.....I didn't know what I had stepped. Aiya.. suddenly, I "heard" that I stepped on a pool of water.. ok.. Yvonne and Adrian walked behind me. They knew that they should not walk towards there! Oh... we saw many frogs along the trails. We took about 4 hours to finish section 4.

It was very windy when we walked on Fei Ngo Shan Road from Gilwell Campsite. Ben suddenly asked us if we saw a "person" lying aside the road. ah... I didn't see anything. Yvonne and Adrian also said that they didn't see him/her. aiya.. Ben, don't scare us please! Did he see "GHOST"!? Well.. no one would go into this road unless they are hiker... and the road was blocked. No one can drive in. aiya.. what is "that"?

Francois walked really fast. He waited us at the intersection of Fei Ngo Shan Road for an hour!!! I felt pain on my left knee... not a good sign... I asked Francois to start first and didn't need to wait for us. But he said that he saw snake in section 5 last time so it was better to walk together.... he still walked much faster than us. I walked slowly especially when I walked downhills. I didn't want to hurt my knee further. We finished section 5 for 2 hours and 20 mins.

Okay, we started section 6. Well.. Francois really walked with us this time. As he knew that there were many monkeys and dogs in this section. Yeah.. there were many. A group of dogs stared at us..... Monkeys were waking up.. can hear that they were jumping among trees to do morning exercise. We were starting to see people coming out to have morning exercises. They really woke up early. I can't imagine that there were so many people at 4am + there.

We were quite lucky that it didn't rain until almost the end of our journey. Typhoon Signal no. 3 wasn't hoisted until we went home. Actually, many of us were not in a good condition in this evening. Francois and Adrian both drank a lot in the Office Award dinner a day before. Yvonne didn't sleep enough. and I got bad knee pain. But we still can finish it within 9 hours. It was quite okay.

We took cab and went back home right away. Yes, we were hungry.. but we also need to go to bed. I almost fell asleep on cab. It was a good experience. We will do our 2nd evening training in the mid of Oct. I am still worried about my knees. um.. what can I do? I am going to see a physiotherapist on Tuesday for a sports performance test. I will see what kind of advice he/she can give me. Also, Adrian suggested me to take Glucosamine and Chondroitin pills from now. Even though I bought them, I always forgot to take. Yeah.... I really should take them.

6th Trailwalker Training on Sept 18

Nam She Sharp

Beautiful View from Nam She Sharp











Adrian, Ben, Yvonne and I didn't go to MacLehose Trail today. We went to the sharpest hill in Sai Kung, Nam She Sharp (Nam Shea Jim). It is really difficult route. Section 3 & 4 have only 3-star difficulty but this has 4-star. We basically need to climb up and down the hill. We started at Pak Tam Au at 9:22am. We finished at Sai Wan "Ting" at 4:08pm.

It was so windy today. We couldn't even stand properly. To be honest, it is quite dangerous as the hill is really steep. But the view is BEAUTIFUL! We have stopped few times to look at the view. The hill was really steep. We actually need to slide down to the the hill in some part. Along the trail, we saw a lot of police plastic tape 'cos a police was missing there a week ago. Those should be some marks for other police to look for him. In fact, 2 guys passed by us and said that they were volunteers to look for the police.

Up in the hill, we saw a helicopter. We were wondering if they found him.. um.. We walked and walked and walked. There was a big campsite somewhere in Tai Long East Bay. I am quite surprise that many families actually go there for camping. I never have such experience. I have never gone camping with my family. Actually, I've only done wild camp once when I did Outward Bound many years ago. What a life! This is really a good and healthy activities for family.

We continued to walk and hahhaa.. Adrian holds our (Yvonne and I) hands. As it was really steep, I felt very secured when I hold Adrian's hand. hehhe.. But I still fell down twice.. got a big bruise on my right thigh.


We walked down from this hill











We finally arrived "Ham Tian" Bay and went into the grocery shop for lunch. There were many firemen at the shop. We thought that they came to find the missing police. Then, we found out that a guy was missing when he swan yesterday. Firemen was looking for him. We also found some reporters there, too. No wonder we saw helicopter.....

After lunch, we started our journey to Sai Wan. I walked faster than the rest but I didnt know I walked that fast. I arrived at Sai Wan first. I finally saw them after I crossed the stream through a longer way. Adrian, Ben and Yvonne wanted to catch up and tried to walk a short cut to the beach. I was sitting on the other side of the beach at the stairs and waiting for them. I was looking at them and was wondering why they didn't come towards me. Then, I saw Adrian was looking for rock or something and looked like that they were trying to jump over the stream. I saw Ben was about to walk to the long way that I walked just now to cross the stream. Then, I saw Adrian found something in red or orange and asked Ben ran back. I cant really see what it was. (After that Yvonne told me that it was a little basin). They finally jumped over. :) They actually told me details afterwards and asked me to write it here! AHAAHAAHHA.. here u go....

Firstly, they were thinking whether they should go for a shortcut to catch me up. And then, a family passed by them and told them that I had walked very fast and if they wanted to catch me up, they got to go for the shortcut. See! this is peer pressure. Then, Adrian found a big rock. He tried to throw it in the middle of the stream and was thinking to step it on and cross the stream. But the rock SUNK!. After that, Adrian found a little basin. He tried to throw it to the stream but it was so light. It floated. Yvonne suggested to put some sand inside the basin and throw it. It worked. They finally crossed the stream. YEAH!!! By the way, during this 5 to 10 mins, 3 other guys actually just walked through the stream with their "Pak Fan Yu". But Adrian, Ben and Yvonne spent so much time to figure out how to cross the stream without getting wet. :)

We were quite lucky. After we finished, it rained heavily. It was not a long route but we were quite tired especially ourknee joints. Nam She Sharp is really steep. I am not sure if I would go there again as it is quite dangerous especially in the windy day. However, we really enjoyed this trip.... really nice view.



Fungus on Ox's shit. Fresh!

5th Trailwalker Training on Sept 10

We did section 3 & 4 and part of section 5 til post 101 this time. They are most difficult sections in MacLehose trail. Participants were our whole team members. The temperature was 27C to 31C and the weather was sunny. The weather report said that there was islolated raining in some area. We started at 8:58am and ended at 7:17pm. What can I say in this training? TOUGH!!!!

I went home very early on Friday. No party... as I know I need to go for a difficult training in the next day. In fact, Robert came with us at the beginning but he dropped off in the very early stage at section 3. He was too tired to continue.. of course lah, so many parties during the week. hehehe.. Naughty Robert! Our team continued our journey.

We started quite relaxed at the very beginning. We were still saying that the trail wasn't too difficult, blah blah blah. well... then, we found out that there were 3 up and down hills in the section.. the last uphill in this trail was tough.. looking at the hill.. Man! it really scared us! Now, we all believe that section 3 is the toughest route in this trail. There were few other trailwalkers doing training there, too. One of the team bought their dog with them.... short leg dog. It is so cute. Obviously, it feels very hot. Along the trail, there was a little river. It jumped to the water and took a bath. wah.. so nice! How about us? We can't jump into the water. The dog finished section 3 by itself!! We sweated very badly. I found I was very "salty" as I found many salt on my arms, neck and face. I have never been sweating like that. We finished section 3 at 12:18pm. It took us 3 hours 20 mins to finish it.

We took a cab to Sai Sa for lunch after section 3. Yeah! We had Thai food. Nice!!.. We filled up our water bag and bottles and took a cab bact to section 4. We started the section 4 at 1:52pm. Gosh! it was so hot! We sweated even more badly. We have done section 4 before. It wasn't that bad last time as it was ranining. But it was really killing us this time. The heat was really bad. We kept drinking water with Pocari powder. We walked slower than we did last time. We still found some trailwalkers running in this route. Yvonne was very smart. She brought her UV protection umberella with her. We really preferred to be raining instead of hot and sunshine.

I wore knee braces this time to protect my knees. Well.. My right knee was fine. I always worried about it as I hurt it at the beginning of the year. However, I got pain on my left knee. oh no. It was pain when I walked down hills and stairs. I walked slowly. I cant' hurt my knees otherwise I cannot finish my 100K. But Adrian said I still walked too fast if my knee was painful already. um... but I really wanted to finish it ASAP. very tired...

Even though we filled up water in the restaurant in Sai Sa. Yvonne still got not enough water. Ben gave her some. Well.. Each of us drank almost 4L water in this training!

We finished section 4 at 6:16pm. Because of landslide, part of section 5 was blocked. So we walked via Wilson Trail to post 98 of MacLehose trail. Actually, we tried to call a cab to pick us up in Gilwell campsite but no taxi was willing to drive there. Hence, we continued to walk to post 101. We finailly reached post 101 at 7:17pm.

Gosh! no wonder Adrian said that many people dropped off at secion4 on trailwalker day. It was really tough. We just did section 3 and 4 this time. We could feel it already. My left knee was still a bit pain. Hope that I would be ok in my next training.

oh yes! Rowley(our colleague) told Adrian and Yvonne that a team of people who had average age of 60 finished the 100k within 20 hours. My god!! how could they do it so quick? These senior people didn't take rest and didn't have support team. So where were their food supply? They hided their food along the trail before the big day!! and they digged them out when they needed to eat!! Can you believe it?

4th Trailwalker Training on Sept 4

We did section 6, 7 & 8 today. We started at 8:35am and finished at 2:50pm. We waited at the end of section 6 til it rained not too heavy for 20 mins. We took 20 mins lunch break. It wasn't bad at all. Participatants are our team, Adam, Sam and Robert.

The weather was so bad today. When I woke up this morning, it was raining already. But there was no thunderstorm, we decided to stick to our plan. We took a taxi to Tai Po Road from Sham Shui Po MTR station. When we arrived the starting point, it was raining heavily. I checked from Smartone IN. Thunderstorm warning was just hoisted. We discussed whether we should still start our journey. We thought that the thunderstorm warning would be off within an hour so we still went ahead. And we put our raincoat on.

Amazing! We finished section 6 less than an hour. We took only 55 mins to finish it. But it was raining really heavily. We waited at the end of section 6 and hoped that it would rain less later. There was another large group waiting with us there, too. I am sure some of them were also doing trailwalker training.

It still rained quite heavy and then we discussed again whether we should continue. We voted and most of us thought we should continue. Hence, we continued our journey under heavy raining. In Needle Hill at section 7, we saw an old man. He turned on the radio and took a rest at the top of hill. He was listening some very old songs and the song of Titantic. What a life! He looked so satisfied.

Our shoes were all wet. I felt that we were climbing up to waterfall. When we walked section 8, the weather condition was really bad!!! It kept raining heavily and the trail was muddy, watery and slippy. It was so windy, too. I fell down once there but I stood up very quickly. Even though the weather was so bad, we still walked VERY fast. I wasn't care what I have stepped on. My feet were so wet. I was afraid that I got blisters again. We took a very quick rest at an arbor. Yvonne and I changed our socks. Sam changed to wear her sandal. It was so windy and cold and we saw a teenager who were resting there too with his friends who was so pale. I think he must be very cold. We couldn't stop there too long. We started our journey again.

After our long journey, we went to Tsui Wah for lunch. Yeah! Of course, food was yummy!! All of us are pretty fit now. Our intial target was to finish the 100km within 30 hours. I think we could adjust it to 27 hours. will see how it goes.