Buddha's birthday fell on May 24th this year and despite the mercury heading north of 30 degrees celcius, fluffy white clouds and a blue sky meant dry roads and a good time for a bike ride from NT South to NT North and back.
Tom joined me in Fo Tan with his new but second hand Fat Boy. After dropping by Erik's garage to remind him how damned hot it was, we headed straight up the Tolo Highway to Brides Pool Road.
First stop was Plover Cove Reservoir near Bride's Pool. As you can see, the pond is looking a bit thirsty.


We continued heading north and stopped at Starling Inlet. This is a great place because if you can't be bothered going to the Wetland Park, then you can still do a fair bit of bridwatching here while getting a closer look at our cousins across the border.

The Nam Chung River drains into Starling Inlet and due to the high tide and recent rain there was plenty of water in the channel.


Since Tom is a "prospect" for Mad Dog's Motorbike Club, we qualified for life imitating art in Noel Coward's ditty who was out in the midday sun. It kind of made sense as the roads were pretty clear. Despite the heat, the fishing looked interesting in one of the ponds near Starling Inlet.

Our final stop was near Lo Wu where I showed Tom some of the big catfish. It was about two o'clock and with the sun at what seemed like full strength, we gave our "horses" a rest.

After spotting a few big fish flapping on the water's surface, it was time to head south. Taking a slice out of a Hollywood movie, we rode side by side down the pretty empty Fanling Highway. Crusing well below the 100 kmh speed limit, we took turns to slowly apply some throttle with the corresponding Harley rumble and exchanged boyish grins. As Tom was going to Shek O, we took the bridge over the Shing Mun River near Ma Liu Shui on the way back. We gave each other a "thumbs up" as Tom headed back into town and I revved home.

 

Sounds like an awesome ride. Good to just get out and go.