When you conjure up an image of Hong Kong, chances are your first thoughts will turn to that of skyscrapers, street vendors and busy markets, bright lights and the general hustle and bustle that comes with city living. You would be forgiven then for not realising that just a hiking boots throw away from the skyscrapers lie mountainous forests, picturesque landscapes shrouded in thick jungle, remote golden beaches, secret waterfalls and azure lakes. There is quite simply a bounty of nature’s wonders waiting to be explored.
Should you fancy leaving city life behind and exporing what is arguably the most beautiful, and less discovered side of Hong Kong, then a tour with Wild Hong Kong is the perfect place to start. Their tours focus on exploring Hong Kong’s wild areas, in the sense that the tours are, for the most part, going to places as far removed from human development as possible.
Hikes to be explored are those such as the Dragon’s Back trail which will reward you with stunning views over the southern Hong Kong island. It combines many of the areas finest attributes from mountain ridges and sheltered forest trails to the white sands of Tai Long Wan (Big Wave Bay).
Or there is the Tai Mo Shan (Ng Tung Chai) waterfalls, found nestled within dense jungle on the breathtaking slopes of Tai Mo Shan mountain. The tour takes you on climbs past rural villages and temples from other worlds to find a series of cascades spreading over several kilometres, each waterfall being more dramatic than the last. Then there’s the Sai Kung beaches. Described as the ‘crown jewel’ of rural Hong Kong, the Sai Kung peninsula is idillic and remote with no roads within the region’s outer reaches. In fact the only way there is to either hike or travel by boat.
Founder Rory Mackay says the aim of Wild Hong Kong is to share Hong Kong’s beautiful backyard which is full of hidden gems. Growing up between Hong Kong and Scotland, Rory has never been a stranger to adventure. Whether it was scaling Munros in the Scottish Highlands or finding new waterfalls in the New Territories of Hong Kong, he has always been keen to utilise any opportunity to explore. Rory got his first taste of a big adventure sailing an 80ft yacht from Scotland to the Svalbard archipelago near the North Pole. Since then he has spent time working and skiing in New Zealand and has travelled around Southeast Asia. He cycled solo across Vietnam and China, from Saigon to Hong Kong, before proceeding to tackle the bigger challenge of cycling across Africa on a solo ride from Cape Town to Cairo which he completed within 5 months.
It makes perfect sense then that adventures aside Rory is now in the enviable position of having turned his passion into a business. We asked him if he felt his job satisfaction was higher than most peoples. His response? ‘Yes! There’s a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes but it’s always worth it.’
Take a look for yourself at www.wildhongkong.com and I’m sure you’ll agree.
