Vignettes of the World
The tour was approaching its end and it was with a bit of unwillingness that I had to say goodbye to West Mac soon. I thought the Ormiston Gorge was one of the most amazing sites that I had visited thus far in the Outback. …
I lined up a trip to East Mac with Kirsty of Red Earth Roaming. She is a fantastic tour guide, who engaged me on so many different disciplines of knowledge. In this 6-hour tour, we went through amazing learning in geology, Aboriginal and Aussie culture, …
“What do you think this is?” Kirsty said to me, her smile shrouded in an expression of knowing mystery. “Uhm, I mean, it has to be sand?” I replied with a question, quite unsure of what this view in front of me could possibly be, …
The hike of the day was the Ho Pui Reservoir in Kam Tin.
At the Ho Pui Village we passed through the store and the village to enter the route up the hill. The hike up the hill was perhaps 10 to 15 minutes of gradual incline. Once at the Ho Pui Campsite, we walked on straight toward Lui Kung Tin for about half an hour. We met with a group of serious photographers there.
“shh, we are watching owl there,” a photographer said.
“An owl? But owls are nocturnal!” I said.
“It’s a baby owl. He is not yet ready to leave the nest yet, that’s why we see him during the day.”
I looked and looked and finally saw the baby owl. It was naturally camouflaged – in the exact same color as the rocks that surround the nest. The photographers said they haven’t released word of the owl on the social media. To keep the watchers down, that is. Just about a week or two ago there was another baby owl but it died, so there was only one left for us to see.
Photo: Can you see the owl?
This was the route to Lui Kung Tin but our intention was to visit the Ho Pui Reservoir. The hikers told us that we were on the wrong way, so we turned back without seeing Lui Kung Tin. These are some of the views on this trail:
I later found out that Lui Kung Tin itself has water views, as in a pond. There is also a dairy there, which is open during public holidays and weekends. I will have to visit those in the future.
The Ho Pui Reservoir is an irrigation reservoir. That is about all that I know. The trail is very gentle. After heading up the hill for a little, as we ascended from the point of the Ho Pui Campsite for about 15 minutes, we arrived at the reservoir. The Ho Pui Reservoir Family Trail is a 2km loop around the Ho Pui Reservoir. We came upon pleasant surprises one after another.
Views of the waters:
And a beautiful bamboo-lined section. My friend said it reminded her of Japan:
Besides the Ho Pui Reservoir Family Trail, this area is also the Ho Pui section of the Mountain Bike Trail. Therefore there are many bikers around this area.
We headed back to our car in the village on the same route. The day was wonderful, but there was an annoyance.
From Yuen Long or the Kam Tin MTR Station, one can take the green top mini bus line 71 to arrive at Ho Pui Village.
But we drove that day. When we arrived, there was a man there that told us we must pay $100 in order to park there without incidents, “$100 is less than if your tires were poked,” my friend heard him saying. My friend was very unhappy about this man, he was the gangster type. I intended to pay him what he asked for, because I was just eager to go on to the journey. I also thought that it was like a “toll fee” – villages in the New Territories could impose any kind of rule the villagers wanted. My friend said he was simply a construction worker there trying to rake money off tourists. She bargained it down to $80.
When we returned later that afternoon, he was no longer there. We knew that if we came at a time when he was not around, the large parking lot right outside the village store would have been free for parking to anyone.
