A leisurely walk along Shing Mun Reservoir 城門水塘

With COVID-19 still very much part of our lives these days, traveling has been virtually impossible. But that has opened doors for other activities such as hiking in the rural part of Hong Kong.

Honestly, I have never been to Shing Mun Reservoir and its Pineapple Dam Nature Trail before. My parents were never fans of hiking or outdoor activities so not surprisingly, they never thought about bringing us here at all. But I imagine that I would love coming here when I was a kid, especially to see the monkeys running around and trust me, there are quite a number of them in the forest.

Monkeys are not the only animal in the hiking trail. We also ran into a couple of cows and the kids absolutely love them~

While the kids stopped for a few photos with their favorite animal, I took off to get a few shots at the scenery and was left wondering why in the world we didn't discover this place a little earlier.

What the kids love most about this trail apart from the wildlife was how easy the hike really was. Except for a small part of the trail which only has cobblestone pathway, most of the time there are concrete pavement like this. 

We took a break at the rest area while little nugget tried to enjoy a small sandwich but it didn't take long for the monkeys to spot their potential lunch!

So, we decided to carry on with our hike and that's when we found this small lake.

This looks absolutely stunning. I told Jelloman that it's almost as good as scenic Lake Plitvice in Croatia. 

Little one and his friends decided that they wanted to spend more time by the lake. 

I never thought we'd be here at the top of the hill this afternoon, not with our kids joining the hike but they did us proud. In fact, we were able to finish the whole trip in less than 4 hours. That's already a huge accomplishment any way you look at it.

I never imagine how Shing Mun Reservoir, a discreetly tucked away corner of rural Hong Kong would have so much to offer. Everybody is already talking about a return trip, possibly when the weather gets a little cooler.