Hiking to Ap Lei Pai

On Monday the second of Jan, my dad and I hiked to Ap Lei Pai. Ap Lei Pai is a tiny island just to the south of Ap Lei Chau. Chau means island in Cantonese, there are many Chau’s is Hong Kong e.g. Peng Chau and Cheung Chau. Nobody lives on Ap Lei Pai, but there are some graves there. It looks like they have been there for quite some time but people still take care of them. We often see these types of tomb when we hike in different parts of Hong Kong. The hike going up to the top of the hill called Yuk Kwai Shan on Ap Lei Chau is only 196 metres high but is a little hard, because it is steep and the track is mainly a dry stream bed so we sometimes used ropes that are fixed there to help people go up and down. When we got to the top, we had a little rest on some rocks near the trig station where we could see CDNIS across Aberdeen Harbour, and then walked down to Ap Lei Pai. When we got down, we had to cross over a sand spit connecting Ap Lei Chau to Ap Lei Pai. This is a type of “dumbbell” island.  A dumbbell island was once 2 islands close together where the sand has built up between them causing them to be connected.http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Ap_Lei_Pai_-_2011.jpg

Chung Chau is also a dumbbell island. The sand spit between Ap Lei Chau and Ap Lei Pai had lots of rubbish, even though no one lives there. So we thought, how did it get there? We thought for bit, and found a possible explanation: people threw the trash into the water nearby and it got washed up here. It’s sad that even in a place where no people live there is still pollution. We walked to the top of Ap Lei Pai which is only 68 metres high. There is a navigation beacon on the south point of Ap Lei Pai to warn ships that there are rocks nearby. When we were on the island, the sight was magnificent – the sea with the sun in the reflection of the water and lots of large falcons or hawks circling above looking for prey. It was perfect. I wished we could stay but it was getting late. So we started back up. It was much harder then coming down. We had several rests on the way back up to the trig station. When we got there, we sat down at a few rocks and drank some hot chocolate and had a snack. Then we headed back home. On the way, we heard a man playing the flute. We thought it was a very nice sound. Although we were tired when we got home we had a rewarding day that was much better than staying at home playing the computer or watching tv.

Tagged as: What I've Done