cycling action

Towards the end of our sojourn in Hong Kong last winter, as part of my exploration of the area south of Yuen Long, we discovered an ‘interesting’ path that at the time I didn’t think was a viable cycling option. We’d just finished shooting a video of what I’d named simply ‘Yuen Long (south) path #1’, and when we reached a road where the route I’d already established turned left, I decided, on the spur of the moment, to turn right, merely to see whether the road led anywhere:

And it did! After about 200 metres, the road came to an end, but there was a path that continued in the same direction. Straightforward at first, but then it plunged steeply down towards a cultivated area. And while the initial path had been concrete, we now had to contend with a rough dirt path. That wasn’t a problem at first, but once it started to climb, we had to get off and push.

That might have been it, but during the summer, I figured out that if we tackled the path in the opposite direction, it ought to be possible to ride through. And so it has proved, although I did have some initial problems finding the start of the path in this direction, even though I did remember where, having reached a dirt road, it reconnected with the original route:

The original route turns left here, but the obvious turn to the right is the way to go now.

Having reached the path, after going the wrong way at one point, I have to admit that I did have to put my foot down the first time, because there was a point where a series of oblong blocks had been placed on the path, presumably because the path gets extremely wet during the rainy season, to allow people to keep their feet dry. However, once I knew that this hazard was coming up, I could miss the blocks entirely. And after riding the path three times, I decided that it was time to shoot a video.

Unfortunately, for reasons that I’m unable to explain, instead of a video, we got a series of photos taken at roughly one-second intervals. And because it was a bright, sunny day, the photos of the initial part of the path, which is shaded by many trees, are much too dark to show anything. The main hazard on the first part of the path is the encroaching vegetation on both sides, which makes it difficult to see the edge of the path. And there’s a significant drop on the left, so if you go off the path inadvertently, then you aren’t going to be able to stay on your bike!

Anyway, the following photos, of the second part of the path, provide a good indication of why I consider it a good test of my bike-handling skills:

You can see the exit ramp in the next photo:

Approaching the climax of this extremely tricky path:

And this sequence shows the exit ramp:

It’s as steep as it looks! I don’t think it would even be possible if it continued to be a dirt path instead of concrete. You would get too much wheel spin.

Of course, I still want to shoot a video here. Watch this space.