jailhouse rock

When what we call the frontier road, which runs from northwest of Sheung Shui to Lok Ma Chau, was opened to the public in 2013—it had previously been part of a zone that had been designated ‘the frontier closed area’ by the British administration—it didn’t take long to check out the various options. There are only two road junctions: leading to the village of Liu Pok, and thence via Liu Pok Hill to Ma Tso Lung Road; and via Ma Tso Lung Road, through the village of Ma Tso Lung to the same point. If I didn’t want to go back all the way following the same road as on the outward journey, these were the only options.

Ma Tso Lung Road is reasonably rural for the first few kilometres, but as one proceeds southwards, the incidence of quasi-industrial premises, and the frequency with which one encounters industrial traffic, steadily increases. To the point where no sane cyclist would continue. On my first foray here, I did cycle as far as the junction with Ho Sheung Heung Road, but it was immediately obvious that I needed a better way to return to my starting point.

And I found it! A quiet road, unmetalled in part, allowed me to avoid all the industrial premises on both roads on the way back to the start. So the routine became outwards on the frontier road, back via Liu Pok Hill and Ma Tso Lung Road, then Ho Sheung Heung Road, which, after a short but steep ascent, includes a long downhill section where I can reach a speed of 45km/hr.

Mentioning the speed here is relevant to the continuing story. The start of the frontier road coincides with the end of Ho Sheung Heung Road, and the plan was always from this point to follow the Drainage Services (DSD) access road that runs alongside the Sheung Yue River as far as the expressway, which we could then cross via a footbridge before continuing out west. However, when travelling at the aforementioned speed, you cannot allow yourself to be distracted—your focus must be straight ahead—but on one occasion, as I passed the Lo Wu Correctional Institution, I couldn’t help but notice a car waiting to pull out of a side road on the right:

Where does that lead to? Naturally, I had to come back later to find out. It leads to the village of Ho Sheung Heung San Tsuen. Ho Sheung Heung (‘village above the river’) is the name of an important nearby village, and san tsuen simply means ‘new village’, so it’s clearly a kind of overspill, albeit with some obviously important buildings. However, was there anything else? I found a typical country path, which led—surprise! surprise!—to Ho Sheung Heung.

Here are some video stills of Paula on that path:

It will probably not be a surprise to learn that we no longer follow the DSD access road on our way out west. After exiting this segment, we follow ‘the heart of darkness’ and the serendipity alleyways to reach ‘long tall sally’. Even though a dedicated cycle track is currently being constructed in parallel with the DSD access road. Our new way is a lot more fun!

If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you will probably have already deduced why I’ve named this segment ‘jailhouse rock’. Yes, it starts at the prison, but you will have noticed that I named a segment that I discovered two years ago ‘long tall sally’. I grew up with fifties music, and one of these days I’ll post an assessment of what I consider the top ten records of the decade. However, I can’t foresee any circumstance where I would name a newly discovered cycling segment ‘summertime blues’—the record of the 1950s, in my opinion—or ‘great balls of fire’. ‘Yakety yak’? Possibly.