oriental garden

You’ve probably guessed that I like to attach names to individual cycling segments that I ride through regularly. Of course, these names are not arbitrary. Thus, ‘serendipity’ was given its name because I discovered it entirely by accident—a large truck was blocking my usual route between two roads—while ‘swiss roll’ was so named because in order to reach it, it’s necessary to pass, briefly, through an upmarket housing estate in which all the streets are named after cities in Switzerland.

In the case of ‘oriental garden’, an alleyway that connects Kam Hang Road and an unnamed road that runs parallel to the expressway that connects the towns of the New Territories, there is a sign indicating that it leads to Tung Yuen, which is Cantonese for ‘east garden’. The unnamed road is a dead end, which all but guarantees that there will be no traffic, so we’ve cycled through it frequently since I discovered it a few years ago.

Although there are a lot of twists and turns, this convenient connection doesn’t have any difficult corners or steep ramps to negotiate. It’s just a useful ride-through that allows us to avoid the traffic on Kam Hang Road, and of course it’s more fun. I did discover an alternative start with a ramp that Paula found particularly difficult, but that alley, which joined the route we now follow about halfway along, has since been deliberately blocked beyond the ramp and is no longer feasible.

However, ‘oriental garden’ does have one unusual hazard. Cats! Lots of them. The problem is that cats have an over-developed sense of danger, so even when they would be perfectly safe if only they were to stay where they were, they panic. Unlike dogs, which are often so laid back that they can’t be bothered to get up, even if you pass within 40–50cm of where they’re lying, cats are likely to rush off in a totally unpredictable and potentially dangerous direction. I haven’t killed one yet, but that is probably because my bike has disc brakes.

Anyway, there follow a few video stills to provide some idea of what this alleyway is like. This is the start:

These are some shots of the alley itself:

I haven’t included any images of the twists and turns, because Paula isn’t in shot at any point.

And this is the exit:

You will get a better idea of what this alley is like to cycle through if you watch the video, which lasts just 80 seconds: