Feat made for walking

If my fellow Norwegians Amundsen and Nansen hadn't beaten me to the "get to, then ski [or walk] across the North and South poles" thing all those years ago, I would have definitely conquered them myself. With baying Huskies and dressed in fur I had personally ripped off passing reindeer, I would have sashayed across those poles, casually strangling polar bears with my, well, bare hands.

Except … I really hate the cold. And I can't stand sleeping in a tent.

Nonetheless, I have always admired explorers. Who doesn't? Armed only with non-reliable maps, going into wildernesses where no man has gone before - I simply had to find somewhere to explore. It was just … everything had been explored already. All the deserts, all the mountains, the entire length of the Yangtze; all have been done and reported on in tedious detail.

Then it struck me; one journey of exploration remained untaken: a walk around Hong Kong Island in its entirety.

Unlike the brave explorers of former, more idealistic, times, I would have no sponsors and no adoring public to cheer me on. I would also have to go to work every afternoon. I therefore would have to do the walk in instalments, starting each new section from the spot in which I had left off, or rather caved in, previously. I would follow the coastline of the Island the whole way and I would record this hitherto unrecorded wilderness on video. I also thought that, unlike said explorers, I would not have to stare death in the face. How wrong I was.

in March from the tram stop in Sheung Wan with my Danish friend, Jon. I have decided to walk the long way around to Shau Kei Wan and then get the tram back to Sheung Wan; the northern shore is hardly an unknown world. I thought of bringing my Siberian Huskies - Donner, Blitzen, Drizzle, Fog and Moderate Wind - but decided against it, as Hong Kong Island probably hates dogs as much as the other islands of the SAR do.

The northwestern part of the Island is one I've only seen from a ferry. The high-rises peter out just west of Kennedy Town and it looks green and enticing; a lovely coastal track crying out to be strolled. The map shows a road going along the water's edge, but reality will turn out to be a bit different, as reality inevitably does.