Our first (and last) walk of 2013 was Section 6 of the MacLehose Trail. This starts at the top of the Tai Po Road on the pass between West Kowloon and the Shatin valley, and goes north for 4.6km through Kam Shan Country park, past the Kowloon Reservoir, up over Smugglers Hill and down to the Shing Mun Reservoir.
Kam Shan Country Park is famous for its colonies of monkeys and sure enough there were many of them waiting for tourists at the start of the trail, right next to the signs saying 'do not feed the monkeys'.
Monkeys in the forest
Looking south to Lion Rock (pouncing on the left horizon).
In order to sell the trip to Hannah we'd agreed that I'd carry her uphill and she would only need to walk downhill. It was quite tough carrying Hannah on my shoulders up the road in the sun.
Video: Monkeys near the summit of Smuggler's Ridge.
Near the top of the ridge was a lovely lookout spot with a picnic pavilion, although it reeked of monkey poo. We were able to watch the cute little things systematically emptying the litter bins, checking each piece of trash for edible traces before dumping them on the ground.
Video: monkey picnic
From there the trail wound around the west side of the ridge with good views to the west across Tsuen Wan town and north to the mountain of Tai Mo Shan (957m)
Looking west over to Tsuen Wan.
Near the end of the trail we looked at the remains of the bunkers and tunnels of the Shing Mun redoubt, which defiantly held-up the Japanese advance into Hong Kong for about 15 minutes during WW2.
Video panorama: view from Shing Mun Redoubt panning west-north-east
Journey's end at Shing Mun reservoir.
Looking north over the Shing Mun reservoir to Lead Mine Pass and Grassy Hill.
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