Survival in Hong Kong: how to live rough, make fires and filter water the special forces way

Matthew Smith spent the weekend sleeping in a hammock among the trees on Tap Mun island. It’s an unlikely place to kip on your first trip to Hong Kong, but the thirtysomething Smith and his colleague Paul McCusker weren’t on holiday. The two Scotsmen were in the city to lead a couple of survival skills training days.

The blurb for the one-day course, the first of its kind run by MP Performance and offered to members of the Royal Geographical Society, promised to introduce outdoor survival concepts and techniques used by UK special forces, including the Special Air Service (SAS).

So who puts their hand up for elite military training? It turns out a lot of people do. Initially planned to run just on the Saturday, an additional session was added on the Sunday following an enthusiastic response from the society’s members.

The 20 members gathered at 8am at City Hall are a mixed group – male and female, and varying in age from nine to 50. It’s too early on a Sunday for much chatter on the hour-long bus ride to Wong Shek Pier in Sai Kung, but by the time we board the ferry to Tap Mun, people are speculating about what the training will involve. Just how Survivor is this going to get?

It’s a 20-minute walk across Tap Mun, also known as Grass Island, to the base camp and there’s a toilet stop on the way. It’s a very well used public toilet – enough said – and this turns out to be perhaps the most challenging part of the day, at least for the women in the group, who quickly realise that bushes are a better option.

Somewhere near the top of a hill, tucked away behind some bushes, is base camp. An army green canopy offers plenty of shade and a big kettle is sitting over a log fire. It’s looks more like glamping than a hardcore survival situation.