Ricochete!

January 12, 2010

What a beautiful morning!! And Peter is in great spirits, too. He said that he's mourned his loss of love for two days too long now, it would be very un-yogi-like to continue and allow it to linger. The gray period has passed, and the sun is smiling. :D
We had a couple pieces of stale rye toast and a fresh Pomello off of the tree, had a funny conversation about American politics and headlines, and how crazy us Americans truly are, especially from the outside looking in.

After breakfast, I showered and geared up. I couldn't wait to get out on a hike all the way up the peaks of South Lantau and down to the fishing village of Tai Po. I planned the hike to take me anywhere from 3.5 to 5 hours resulting in a 7-9.5 km walk.

THE CLIMB
I hopped on the bike and rode it down the hill and around the mountain on the other side of the Ferry pier, stopped at the Mui Wo market and bought a batch of cherries, bottle of water, and an Asian pear. My adventure started at around 11am at the Nam Sham campground. The sun peaked high in the sky and by noontime I was ontop of my first summit.


A little gay video I made before my camera died and I got lost on the top.

I followed an extremely narrow and steep path lined with rocks and boulders, and had to stop and wait every so often to let the wind gusts pass and not blow me off the course. The first leg of the trip challenged my stamina in ways I hadn't experienced before. I didn't realize that I was potentially going to walk the entire east coast of Lantau island on a summit, despite any feelings of vertigo or loneliness. I also didn't know that the trail would take me at least five hours, perpetuous climbing with jagged rocks and slippery moss. I was in for it, unknowingly. The bottle of water ran out halfway through the trip and all of the trailheads were written in Chinese, certainly not blatant enough for me to decipher. Not to mention, all the way up to this point in my life I've been working with a fantastic sense of direction, always forgetting the map or what it said, as well going around in circles and showing up late to things due to always getting lost. I suppose this will be one last time I was going to give my survival skills a chance to rise above patterns of habit.
A mixture of questions clouded my mind. Should I be out here alone? Can I physically make it over this bluff? And, more importantly, am I even going the right way? The peak at Sunset Point was a bit further than my video footage and equally as breathtaking, but also tremendously treacherous, or so it felt so, being that I was alone.


Then, I saw Tai Po through the thicket, and at this point calculated about an hour and half of walking back to civilization. 4:04 pm.
Liberation. Once I knew I was headed home, I seemed to take more frequent breaks, and sit at every available rock to soak in the scenery. I started inviting the violent wind gusts, instead of running from them. I enjoyed the breeze running through my hair. I liked the loose gravel and slippery rocks, weaving in and out of the thick bush and open plateaus. Screw being scared of being out there. I was in for the tackle. This was my time. I was seeing Hong Kong from a different view, a very high one at that.

The bus ride back was long, but I felt so wonderfully accomplished and way more confident in my navigation skills. Success!