“Gunpowder Plod” plods on: Pandemic running around Sai Kung

^{Plod’s route takes him past Sunny Day Organic Farm and back through Sha Kok Mei to Sha Ha Photo: Google Street View}

Forty years ago I used to run 6 km to work and sometimes back home again. Now, after 60 total years of running, I am happy with 6 km on the flat, feeling good – until I see myself reflected in a window or catch my shadow shuffling in the sunlight.

Although more suited to sprinting on the hockey field, I enjoyed the solitude and effort of long-distance running and progressed to marathons and ultra marathons. I ran the first Hong Kong, Macau and Coast of China marathons and the London Marathon and believe I still hold the record for running the full 100 km Maclehose Trail the wrong way – as nobody else has been silly enough to do it since; 15½ hours from Tuen Mun to Pak Tam Chung in 1982. Then there was the 24 hour charity race around the old HK Stadium in 1985; 125 km and Offa’s Dyke Path for Sport Aid; 300 km in 7 days.

In the new millennium in Hong Kong I took up x-country/hill running with various hash house harrier clubs, having first hashed in Sarawak back in 1965. All the hashes now being suspended by the ongoing pandemic social distancing restrictions, I have now resumed solo running but on the flat rather than in the hills, avoiding further injury. And marvellous it was to get out every 2^nd or 3^rd day around Sai Kung’s promenade and waterfront and around the hinterland of the Sha Kok Mei valley, a refreshing 6 km run with a target time of 1 hour (half the pace I used to manage. But now, with the idiotic new restriction, wearing a mask!

^{Plod’s route around Sai Kung}

However, it’s an enjoyable and varied route, one I take at dawn before it warms up and gets too busy, and one others might like to try out. Starting and finishing in the lane between the swimming pool and the swingers’ car park where a group of ladies dance about, thankfully to soft Mandarin songs, down the promenade with its joggers and dog walkers beside the pool (closed) and then around the bus terminus, past the Tang Shui Kin Stadium (closed) and the now CCTV and razor wire-protected cop shop, and across the Tai Mong Tsai Road and then left down the Sha Kok Mei Road to the car park.

My route then leads up a pleasant path beside the old village and a bubbling mountain stream replete with fish and egrets, through a village graveyard and woodland replete with wild boar and singing birds and up to the lower levels of Nam Shan village.

Then right through a lovely village house garden and fung shui trees and then past some modern houses, then turning right again before reaching Long Mei village and down a winding path back towards Sha Kok Mei. The path goes down past the village basketball and football pitches (closed), the old but renovated village school (now a community centre) and past a children’s playground (closed).

Then left along the top of the old village and across a new footbridge (the original washed away during Super Typhoon Manghut) across the upper Hang Cho Shui river, past a friend’s idyllic isolated village house with its relaxing garden and reed pond and past the Sunny Day Organic Farm.

Here I reverse course (as the route over the hill to Lung Mei is too steep and overgrown for me now) and then run down a road through Sha Kok Mei New Village to Tai Mong Tsai Road. Here a hairpin left up the path to Wang Tau Village and a detour up and down the lower Hang Cho Shui disturbing a heron on the way. Next down the track covering the culvert where several cattle graze and left across Tai Mong Tsai Road again. By now I am over half way at 3.5 km.

From here I take the footpath around the roundabout and through the subway and left past Sha Ha Village, through the car park and out onto the walkway above the beach (open as it’s not gazetted) with its happy gambolling dogs and panting owners, past the Beach Bar and the Thai Restaurant with its shrine and the Beach BBQ. Then it’s past the new WM Hotel (thankfully restricted to three stories courtesy of the Friends of Sai Kung’s representations to the Town Planning Board) and saying cho san to several elderly walkers with their helpers and the occasional runner.

Finally its along the promenade with its grass areas and the elderly swimmers plunging daily at dawn into the sea, past the primary school (closed) and swingers’ car park and then right past another children’s playground (closed) and a group of socially distanced tai chi exponents waving their swords energetically beside the tennis and squash courts (closed).

Then across the road and down between the stadium and the roller-skating/skate board park (closed), past where the outdoor weight lifters later grunt and strain (too early for them) and then right past the Mediterranean car park and the Academy (closed) back across the road, right past the WM Hotel again and around the school to finish in the lane where the dancing ladies with their dulcet Mandarin folk music have already gone for yam cha. Then for me, after checking my Pacer to see where I have been and how well I have performed, some serious stretching using one of the heavy steel carts containing swinger’s paraphernalia for support. Then it’s home to walk the dogs, shower and more coffee…OnOn