Amah Rock Walk – Easy Hike: Wilson Trail Stage 5

Distance: 7.4 kilometres
Duration: 2.5 hours
Difficulty: Easy Walk

Last Saturday, I wanted to try something new, but I was hurting too much from Hot Vinyasa to be able to kill myself on one of the more difficult trails I haven’t done yet (I’ll leave Ma On Shan Massif to another day…).

I was also too lazy to go for those faraway trails that begin and and in the middle of nowhere, making your entry and exit stretch for hours on end (cough cough, Lantau Stage 7).

So I decided to go for the apparently “easy walk” through Lion Rock Country Park passing through Amah Rock. It seemed like a win-win situation: 1) It’s easy, 2) I get to see Amah Rock. I was rewarded for my laziness later on – something that doesn’t happen often – because Amah Rock was pretty amazing.

Don’t start your walk without finding this marker

I was supposed to go with three friends, but two flaked out last minute, so I ended up doing the trek with geologist/engineer Mr Collins, who was interested in some very boring rocks and site investigations and odd metal structures built along the catchwater, etc. Whenever I hike with him, I learn about things like netting and seed sprays where they cut up the hills to make roads and paths…

Two lazy people: Myself and Mr Collins, who was happy to do an easy walk because his legs were dying from training for a full marathon

Starting Point: Sha Tin Pass

Don’t make the same mistake I did last time. Stage 5 of BOTH Maclehose AND Wilson Trails start around the same area. Don’t enter when you see the “Lion Rock Country Park” entrance. Go further uphill to the eateries / restrooms, and take the path in between them.

Views of Sha Tin

Update: MTR Diamond Hill Station is a good/close place to grab a taxi

Another tip: If you don’t want to do a pre-hike uphill climb (read: if you were as lazy as we were), force your taxi driver to take you all the way uphill to the EXACT start of the hike. Google Maps will help a lot. Taxi drivers will not want to take you to this point because they don’t think they’ll find passengers on the way back. Ours wanted to just drop us at the foot of the mountain, which meant probably 1-2 km of extra uphill walking. He pretended not to understand us when we told him where we wanted to go.

Short detour for the view

You’ll bump into several monkeys towards the Kowloon Reservoir / Kam Shan end of the trail

These monkeys were friendly but some can be ferocious. Try to keep your phone, wallet, and food close to your person.

The beginning of the hike was mostly soil / path, but the latter was catchwater / cement

Fan Ling / New Territories in the distance, towards Shenzhen

Thank you The North Face PH for sponsoring my heavy duty hiking boots! I didn’t exactly need them for this easy walk, but they’re amazing to have anyway 😉 (Gravel kept getting into my shoes actually, not the best conditions to wear them haha)

Amah Rock: “The stone gazing out for her husband”

The rock is approximately 15 meters in height, and its shape looks like a woman carrying a baby on her back. It stands above the entrance to the Lion Rock Tunnel, within Lion Rock Country Park. (Wiki)