Yesterday at some time before noon we decided to hike to Mui Wo - a fishing village that's one bay away and over some hills from Discovery Bay. Reggie told us to take the easy route - she had hiked the hard route two days earlier and that had been a five hour grueling march that involved scrambling up steep hills. I pictured puttering along with old ladies for about an hour or so. We left the main ferry terminal, looking scrubbed and clean, with Caroline and Vivian walking and Evan in the carrier on my back. The day was beautiful - just the right warmth of the sun and the soft gently stir of the breeze. Caroline was super cool in her SCAD tee and blue shades. Vivian looked like a rocker in her Bono shades.
A few minutes out of Discovery Bay we saw shanties and squatter huts. My first indication that things like this existed in Hong Kong. There were tiny banana and mango plantations and even tinier neately terraced vegetable gardens. The paved path took us through someone's front porch and past an impromptu beer stand. It took us past racks of red fire beaters with signs that gently asked that they be used solely to put out fires and then be put back in the rack after using. Soon the path started climbing and we left the pebbley beaches below.
We climbed through jungles filled with the sounds of chirping birds and walked past trees with the stations of the cross leading up to the Trappist Monastery. Another hour of trudging uphill though a beautiful valley finally brought us above the treeline to a scrubby hilltop. By this time Evan was awake and refusing to walk a single step. Vivian was hungry and thirsty. Caroline was unhappy about being put in the carrier and cried softly and mournfully. At the hilltop, which was the highest point in the trail, the view was amazing. My brats rested and ate and drank our remaining food and water. Laurel set Caroline up so she could play a game on Laurel's iPhone while she sat in the carrier. This calmed her down and she eventually fell alseep. Laurel and I were amazed and grateful for Mr. Job's invention and Laurel summed it up perfectly: "We are scattering Steve Job's ashes here". Reggie took the Wash Col photo (to be submitted for publication in the Washington College newsletter) and we started the steep descent down to Silver Mine Bay.
As soon was we reached the beach Evan and Vivian ran to the water. Jo and I followed. And decided that three months was too long since our last beach vacation. We made plans for Goa and walked around the bay to Mui Wo. If you look at the picture of the dragon boat below, look carefully half way up the hillside between the dragon's head and the right edge of the picture and you might discern a trail. That's what we took to come down from the hilltop to the far side of the bay. We walked to the cooked food market and ordered everything on their menu all of which was utterly delicious. Then we rolled ourselves to the ferry terminal and caught the ferry back. Evan fell asleep again and we eventually made it back to Discovery Bay at dusk.
Exhausted and satisfied, we ended the day by setting out for Lan Kwai Fong, HK's 6th street on steroids. Fun. Drinks. More drinks. Missed ferry. Back home on the 330am ferry. What a day.
