Trails in Yangmingshan National Park
Located in the picturesque Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), those who venture will be rewarded with sweeping views overlooking Taipei. Continue reading
Lush scenery, a bit of coastal trekking and cave exploring — a visit to Sai Kung’s Mok Min Cave has it all.
Living on Hong Kong island, I often find myself wondering what I’m missing on the “other side,” i.e. Kowloon and New Territories. It’s sometimes a struggle to make myself get out and explore more of the great outdoors, but when you know there’s bound to be fantastic sights and new, fun experiences, it’s all the more motivation to go.
Mok Min Cave is located just off the MacLehose Trail Stage 1, and while you can walk to this junction from the beginning of the trail, you can save your energy and take a taxi, which will drop you off just at the start of the path to Pak Lap Village (depending on your level of fitness, this will be very important for later on.) Continue reading
Hong Kong has been my home for many years, but all the different landscapes that can be found around town still surprises me. Although this isn’t an official trail, I think it’s safe to say that Por Lo Shan’s unique views makes it worthy of a visit. Continue reading
Often referred to as the “South Pole of Hong Kong,” Po Toi Island is, surprise surprise, the southernmost island within Hong Kong boundaries. This is the main island of the Po Toi Islands group, which is made up of ten small islands.
Why should you come here? Its remote location (even though it’s only three kilometres from Hong Kong island) means that there are great unobstructed views. There are also some interesting rock formations and carvings along the way, and the adventurous can go explore on the granite paths. Continue reading
In an effort to explore and see more of Hong Kong’s hiking trails, I agreed to go to the Plover Cove Reservoir Country Trail with a friend. My only mistake was not doing more research into the trail beforehand, because if I had known what I was getting myself into, I probably wouldn’t have gone before doing some more training first. Continue reading
It’s the great outdoors you’ll be wanting to be spending your days in this picturesque archipelago, but be sure to visit during the dry season (which is typically between September and May), otherwise you’ll likely be stuck with thunderstorms. Here are four places to check out: Continue reading
Our last landing in Antarctica. An island covered in penguins – both gentoo and chinstrap. There is quite a bit of wind here, so the smell isn’t too bad. Either that, or I have gotten used to the smell of penguin poop… what a terrifying thought. There aren’t any glaciers around, so at least we can walk around with ease. The penguins are all molting, so there are feathers flying everywhere. Note to self: keep mouth closed so feathers don’t fly in when the next breeze comes along.
Aitcho Islands, aka land of the penguins
Arriving to King George Island
China in Antarctica! Arriving to King George Island was such an odd experience. For days and days, all we’ve seen when we peered out the ship’s deck was glaciers and icebergs. Vast nothingness. But this morning, looking out, there were buildings and cars! Barely a penguin in sight. Quickly boarded the zodiac and got dropped off. Navigated through a bunch of trash at the shoreline, but once Team China has assembled, we were ushered into a truck operated by Chilean company DAP. Extremely odd experience. Riding in a truck in Antarctica, it almost felt unnatural, but now, here we are! As soon as we saw signs in Chinese, we knew we had arrived.
Team China on IAE 2013
Spent two hours traversing an icy field riddled with crevasses. I’m not going to lie – it was terrifying. Starting the walk up from the landing point was the most difficult part of the entire hike – there hadn’t been much snowfall, so we were pretty much trying to climb uphill with ice beneath our feet. As we got higher up, there was a layer of snow, making it easier to gain a foothold. IT was also around this point that we saw a lot of debris integrated into the snow/ice. This region is volcanic. Passed by our first meltwater stream, which, thankfully, was considered to be fairly shallow. Just before reaching the summit (or just the top of our hiking point) we had to walk over a crevasse. I was at the end of the rope, so I was the last to cross over. As I was nearly at the edge, my feet slipped a little bit, causing me to slide too close to the edge for my liking. The surface of the glacier is completely white, but as I got to that crevasse, I looked down and it was a deep blue. I don’t know how deep it was, but for me to see those colors meant that it was deep enough.
A curious gentoo penguin watching humans invade its space
We were out in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, but not before long we could see large icebergs floating in the water. Icebergs that should not have been there. This was the Iceberg Graveyard – bits of ice that had broken off the Larson B Ice Shelf in 2002. Somehow, they floated out all the way here, where they will remain until they finally melt away one day.
Pursuit of Paradise 