spirit in the sky

I had another one of those surprise ‘wow! factor’ moments yesterday. I’ve been unable to do any cycling since my crash in November, so I’ve been doing a lot more walking than I would usually do. And Paula wanted to do a longer walk, so I suggested Wu Tip Shan (‘Butterfly Mountain’), one path up which starts close to the west side of Fanling station.

We’d climbed this mountain before, but we wanted to try a different route, although we did start with the path that we’d used to come down on that earlier ascent. This is a well-constructed concrete path, or staircase as it’s probably better described. I didn’t count the steps, but there are probably well over a thousand, and they are much steeper than the steps up to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Monastery, which we visited last month.

I didn’t stop to take any photos on the ascent, mainly because we wanted to do the ascent in one go, without any rest stops (and we succeeded). When we reached the top, we had the option of turning left or right along the ridge, but turning left would have taken us down the path that we’d followed the first time we climbed the mountain, so we turned right. This is the first photo I took after leaving the summit:

There was a much larger boulder behind and to the left of the position from which I took the previous photo, and there was a short descending path leading down to the side you couldn’t see from the path, so I thought it worthwhile to take a look, in case there were some interesting rock formations. I certainly didn’t expect what I saw when I reached the bottom of the path:

This is a front-on view of the boulder:

The large character means ‘road’, although given the context, ‘way’ is probably a better translation. The six-character phrase translates (roughly) as ‘a place where you can acquire virtue’. The graphic below represents an altar.

I took a few photos to show the ceramic figures, which represent various characters from Chinese folklore, although there are several that I didn’t recognize, in more detail:

There was also a small cluster of figures to the right of the access path:

I particularly like the two figures on the right, which appear to represent Shaolin monks striking kung fu poses (I’d never seen anything like them before).

Because I didn’t think I’d captured everything in my photos, I also shot a short video:

You should watch the video with the sound on, because, believe it or not, there is a sound system, located underneath the pedestal with the cluster of goddesses in the centre of the array, that is playing a continuous loop of religious chanting.

Shortly after we left this location, we faced a long descent:

…and this is the view from the bottom of these steps, looking back up:

A short distance further on, the concrete path came to an abrupt end, but the dirt path that replaced it was more than adequate—to start with. However, a short distance further on, the path began to climb alarmingly. Steps had been cut into the dirt, boxed in with short wooden planks, but many individual steps were almost knee-high, so it was hard to keep going, particularly as every time I looked up, there was no sign of it easing. Eventually, however, we reached a point where a path branched off to the left. The main path continued to climb out of sight, so we turned left. Wouldn’t you?

After a short but awkward descent section, the new path levelled out, and it occurred to me that it was rather scenic, so I stopped to take a couple of photos:

Then I spied a road ahead, although we still had a lot of height to lose to reach the valley below. I took the following photo, of the start of the path, partly because of the sign on the right:

I would consider driving up there to be impossible, even with a four-wheel-drive vehicle, and I would be seriously impressed by anyone who could cycle up there, especially as the road they would need to follow to reach this point is a tough assignment (see below). I also learned from the wooden sign on the left that we had been following the Ngau Kwu Leng Hiking Trail, which I’d never heard of previously, in reverse.

The first obstacle we encountered for anyone driving up the road was a dead tree:

There are several hairpin bends on the road, and these are two of the tightest:

I took the final photo because of the creeper looping down:

I’d never seen a creeper that thick.

I’ve no idea who built this road, or for what purpose, but it does make a good start to a hiking trail.

When we finally reached the valley, we’d also reached the northern edge of Taipo, and I was tempted to walk into the town and catch the train back to Fanling. But, sod it, we’ll walk, even though we would still have a long way to go.

“How are your legs?” asked Paula when we finally got home.

“Like jelly!” I replied.

She knew how I would respond, because she felt the same way.