Big Wave Bay

Big Wave Bay
Not just another beach!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Jungle Ride

Hello Great People,
I always thought Hong Kong was a concrete jungle.  In reality that is true, although I find the buildings amazing here, but 70% of the Hong Kong territory is covered by a real sub tropical jungle.  On Saturday I went with my friend and fellow PE teacher guy, Ryan and his wife Jill on a monster six hour bike/hike through a jungle.  Ryan and Jill were varsity athletes at the U of Saskatchewan, Ryan football, Jill basketball and since they are only @ 30 and keep fit it was a massive challenge for my 50 year old bones to keep up.  Most of the time I managed to keep up with Ryan, but Jill was another story.  A lot of times we boys were trying to keep up to her.  Wow.
The first part of our trek was relatively easy.  A raised cement trail through a marsh, along the sea coast , and into the jungle was no problem, but man if you weren't paying attention flying off that trail would not have been good.  The middle part was up and up, over rocks, up steps, down little patches, then more rocks, shale, and steps.  It was only about 2 kilometers but I would say we had to carry the bikes for all but 200 meters of it.  So why did we go on this trail?  It is one of the few trails that mountain bikes are allowed because the powers to be give the bikers the worst ones, while the hikers get all the sweet ones.  Not good!  Nevertheless we survived what Ryan called the Ho rri ble   trail, lame joke trying to make it sound Chinese.  The last third of this trek was on a paved trail again and we ended up at a quaint village, near a campground.  We biked the campground then had a replenishing meal before having to go back on the Ho rri ble trail to get back to where we started.
I have biked some mean trails before with Rochelle back in Canada, Kelowna, Kimberly, Crowsnest Pass, Canmore, but this baby was by far the most challenging.
Still summer is pretty well here, it is hot @26, and the sounds, sights, and smells of the jungle were amazing.  It was like being in the jungle greenhouse at the Calgary zoo yet the sounds of monkeys, birds and loud cricket like bugs made the experience unique and wonderful.
Next week I am going camping with a group from the school on Monday and Tuesday, then I am taking them windsurfing on Wednesday, and body boarding on Thursday.  Then it is Easter holidays and my Elsie will be with me on May 2nd.  So there are a lot of great things going on in my life.  Thanks for your concern and prayers.  God is good.  All the time!

Love Adios and Peng on!

Dirk

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