Besides heading to the beach and shopping the Island, my favorite thing to do, especially these days, is go for a hike. It's blistering hot, so short hikes are the most ideal!
My final blog post this week is on the hike that we took up to the Lamma Winds power station. This is basically the huge windmill that sits atop one of the hills of Lamma Island. This hike is:
1. Uphill
2. Less than an hour one way
3. Leads to a pretty breezy windmill
4. Is family/kid friendly
5. Is paved all the way
6. Harbors trees on both sides of the path for those who are looking for shade
7. AND has a nice little tofu fa shop to visit along the way
It's pretty easy to find the trail, just follow the signs all the way up to the windmill.
The route travels through a bit of the villages and has a bunch of shops to refill on water as you meander along.
Getting away from the villages and more towards the incline, more picturesque scenes of nature are surrounding the path to Lamma Winds.
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| There are crazy huge spiderwebs all over the island, especially up on the hill going towards the windmill. |
SUGGESTION: During the hot Hong Kong summers, bring a hat, sunglasses, loads of water, and a towel to sop up all the sweat that will be dripping from your brow!
For a longer hike and additional exploration, there are forks in the road that lead to villages around the area. Those might be nice to check out the next time I'm on Lamma.
The main trek up to the windmill has a pretty good incline. It gets steeper the higher up you go.
You'll be able to spot the windmill on the last leg of the uphill hike.
It's definitely a great sight to see! It isn't as breezy as you would think it would be up here, but there was a slight breeze when we got to the top, where we were able to cool off for about half an hour.
Lamma Winds, according to Wikipedia, is a wind farm of just one windmill! It provides some 100 kW of power to Lamma and Hong Kong Island.
The meter on the windmill recorded ABSOLUTELY no wind as we sat there, but it did output 18 kW of power to the Island.
It's quite a nice little area to rest and maybe picnic on a cooler day.
There are also a lot of facts around the entire area about the technical particulars of the wind turbine (generator, wind vane, gear box, etc), the history of this wind turbine, and also some environmental projects that the locals had participated in.
On the way back, we stopped at the local tofu fa place. I swear, every hiking trail that I've been on has one of these…
Tofu fa is a sweet tofu dish that is like a refreshingly cool dessert. It was about $12 HKD and you get a dollop of syrup to make it sweeter.
It's a nice way to reward yourself after an arduous hike uphill in the blistering sun!!!
Our landmark for finding this particular tofu fa place is the painted mural opposite the outdoor shop.
The entrance is here, which may be difficult to find, but it is along the path that leads straight from the main shopping area to Hung Shing Yeh Beach. I feel like it's a popular rest stop for a lot of people.
If you are looking for a little getaway, venturing over to Lamma for a little hike, a little exploration, and a little bit of Island cuisine is the peeeerfect way to reenergize! It's also a great way to see a different part and view of Hong Kong!
