Lizard Hunter - Monday the 31st of January, 2011

As the second stage to make up for my lack of trail time on the weekend, I decided on a long Monday lunchtime run down to the High Junk Peak Trail. This is the same trail that I ran the Sunday before, but as I don't have that long a lunch break, I have to make some adjustments to the route. I only run the "front" half of the trail and take a detour around the eponymous High Junk Peak. In fact this detour is the marked trail with the route over the peak considered too dangerous for general public consumption! The benefit of these adjustments is that the trail section I run is 75% different to the course I ran last Sunday (although my time spent alongside the road is largely the same).

The sun was beating down, and I got quite a sweat up, but the cool wind kept me from overheating. Pretty nice conditions for a run, but nowhere near the beauty of my sunset cruise.


Heading out along the road, I passed a village with many flags out along the road, possibly celebrating Chinese New Year.

Moving on, I spotted something a little odd beside the road...


Spot him in there?


Another scaly friend hiding amidst the overgrowth! I'm becoming quite the lizard spotting expert with the second lizard sighting in as many weeks


Quite dark colours comparatively


But equally happy for me to snap quite a few photos of him

After getting a bucketload of photos, I moved on, fighting my way up the hill and onto the trail section


Ahhh, awesome dirt single-track trails. Hard work at times, but so calming compared to running along the roadsides


Having had a reptilian run-in already, I kept my eyes peeled for something of the more slithery variety


Quite a bit of haze around, but a beautiful place to run nevertheless


Dirt trails in Hong Kong aren't quite as uncommon as I originally thought, but many of the best known hiking trails are heavily paved, making these dirt trails something of a treat

This run is never easy, finishing with a steep hill to get back to HKUST, but I always return mentally relaxed and positive. An awesome route, and as I said about one of my previous trips, the 25mins of trail is well, well worth the 55mins of roadside to get there.

See you out on the trails.
~ Joe