8th April, all day.

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Today is beach day so I head back to Shau Kei Wan’s bus station for an onward bus link to Shek O. The bus is hard to find using the local bus signs, but guesswork tells me to follow the throng of loud, brash, irascible Americans and I’m quickly proved right. The interior of the island is steeply mountainous, a little like parts of Wales but with fleeting glimpses of skyscrapers between the hills instead of lakes. The contrast with the concrete cliffs of the city is striking. To make the narrow passes the rock faces have been cut back and rendered with concrete, lending an almost lunar feel to some of the steeper faces on either side. Despite the need to use the opposite side of the road on tight bends, the bus driver feels no need to slow down particularly. Its practically impossible to turn a double decker over but my faith in Newtonian physics is wavering as my top deck front seat is flung above another abyss, seemingly far beyond the confines of the road. The sure-footed vehicle rounds the bend safely despite lurching violently towards the cliff as the driver discovers an oncoming taxi similarly driven. I know from experience that the exact position of the upper deck is somewhat guesswork since there are no mirrors showing that part of the vehicle and the damage that stems from experimenting with clearances is somewhat greater than clipping a kerb with a rear tyre, but bus drivers here have good luck or good judgement. This performance repeats at each turn until we descend towards a crescent of shimmering sand and gentle waves.

The beach is 100% tropical paradise with fine powdery white sand in a gentle curve and a hazy sun pushing through the ever-present cloud cover. The beach has gentle waves swelling children’s surfboards towards the shore and the essential crowd of ex-pats with their parasols, cricket, beer and noise; steep rocks bound the bay at each end and provide walks for courting couples and pools, shrimp and crabs nearer the waterline. The landscape is so alien compared to any in the UK it’s hard to imagine how the place must have appeared to the first Western sailors approaching from the sea, even though the landscape would be little changed with so few buildings visible from here. After an hour on the beach enjoying 27 degrees and 90% humidity, the air-conditioning of the bus is a welcome change - I’m drinking gallons of water each day. Today’s song is anything off ZZ Top’s Eliminator album really, since this could well have been the album on the bus driver’s MP3 player that compelled him to lunatic speeds down a mountainside.

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Photos

Shek O beach
It's a bit nice here, 27 degrees and it's not even sunny!

The ride back to town
(This is the only photo that wasn't blurry...)