This has been something of a unicorn for me over the last 12 months. It began in the previous summer when @siologen left me to try and finish off the outstanding leads on his Hong Kong drain leads map.
In January I had a quick initial look with a German explorer who was visiting for a few days, but it proved to be a little too committed for him.
We did get far enough to inspire the name though. The whole drain is crawling with catfish.
Tinder it is then.
The infall initially is deep and stagnant, and requires some gymnastics to enter. Looking back we can see the cause.
Shortly after is this junction, right turns into a covered Nullah and left heads down a short staircase to a lower level.
I've still to follow this to see how and where it joins back into the main system, but at this point it's about 4 1/2ft high and my knees weren't interested. Shortly after the weather, a lack of people prepared to try drains and a load of other more pressing missions meant that this became a side project.
Let me introduce you to HVUSSS, this is a fairly substantial storm detention system. It has a capacity of 60,000 cubic metres and is designed to consume a Hong Kong spec 50 year storm.
If you've not seen monsoon season here, let me tell you that's a lot of rain!
https://www.water-technology.net/projects/happy-valley-underground-stormwater-storage-scheme/
Although the plan above doesn't seem show the drain I've shown you so far, I couldn't get away from the idea that it had to feed into the storm tank somehow. Over the next few months I kept trying to make time and find someone willing to come and confirm it one way or another, but nothing came of it.
At least, not until @HughieD paid a visit in August. Despite never having been draining before, and being justly concerned by the fact it was monsoon season, He was game to give it a look.
I'll point out now that we were both wearing trainers and shorts, which has been standard drain attire for me here so far. It's going to be pertinent in a moment.
Now, when I had first gone down with the German, I'd got just as far as the first standing water in the lower level. At that point he had decided that he wasn't up for wet feet. So I honestly (Sorry Hughie!) had no idea what was about to befall us.
Initially things weren't too bad, it's like a shallow culvert. Hong Kong's Drainage Services Department had other ideas however.
Looking back towards the infall, take note of the smaller pipe at the bottom of the rungs. Yep, that's a sewer running completely raw effluent straight into the storm channel.
And it was far from the only one.
In January I had a quick initial look with a German explorer who was visiting for a few days, but it proved to be a little too committed for him.
We did get far enough to inspire the name though. The whole drain is crawling with catfish.
Tinder it is then.
The infall initially is deep and stagnant, and requires some gymnastics to enter. Looking back we can see the cause.
Shortly after is this junction, right turns into a covered Nullah and left heads down a short staircase to a lower level.
I've still to follow this to see how and where it joins back into the main system, but at this point it's about 4 1/2ft high and my knees weren't interested. Shortly after the weather, a lack of people prepared to try drains and a load of other more pressing missions meant that this became a side project.
Let me introduce you to HVUSSS, this is a fairly substantial storm detention system. It has a capacity of 60,000 cubic metres and is designed to consume a Hong Kong spec 50 year storm.
If you've not seen monsoon season here, let me tell you that's a lot of rain!
https://www.water-technology.net/projects/happy-valley-underground-stormwater-storage-scheme/
Although the plan above doesn't seem show the drain I've shown you so far, I couldn't get away from the idea that it had to feed into the storm tank somehow. Over the next few months I kept trying to make time and find someone willing to come and confirm it one way or another, but nothing came of it.
At least, not until @HughieD paid a visit in August. Despite never having been draining before, and being justly concerned by the fact it was monsoon season, He was game to give it a look.
I'll point out now that we were both wearing trainers and shorts, which has been standard drain attire for me here so far. It's going to be pertinent in a moment.
Now, when I had first gone down with the German, I'd got just as far as the first standing water in the lower level. At that point he had decided that he wasn't up for wet feet. So I honestly (Sorry Hughie!) had no idea what was about to befall us.
Initially things weren't too bad, it's like a shallow culvert. Hong Kong's Drainage Services Department had other ideas however.
Looking back towards the infall, take note of the smaller pipe at the bottom of the rungs. Yep, that's a sewer running completely raw effluent straight into the storm channel.
And it was far from the only one.
By now we're a couple of hundred metres into straight-from-pan pure filth. There were literal turds marooned on top of rocks. Every step was churning up the most horrible arse soup maelstrom imaginable.
By now, Hughie decided he'd had enough (remember the trainers) and if I'm honest so had I, but between the combination of six months of wanting to know more and being on the cusp of a T8 (big) typhoon that was going to interdict draining for a while, I decided to push another hundred metres further.
Finally ahead was what looked like the end of the tunnel, along with a significant increase in noise.
You beauty!
This is the stilling basin marked on the HVUSSS plan, which confirmed that this was part of that same system. Euphoric to have finally confirmed that I turned back to Poor Hughie, who was still knee deep in a mixture of catfish and shit waiting for me tom come back.
Move forward to December, and I've managed to use the promise of the storm tank to convince a couple of local guys to join too. Now equipped with waders the first section is much less daunting and it seems that the typhoon has helped clear out the majority of the turd too.
The smaller steps to the right are the section marked as 'existing box culvert to be modified'
We continued along the twin cell section towards the storm tank.
This is the view from the inside of the tank, looking towards the 16 robot penstocks that control the flow in and out of the tank.
Unfortunately for us it wasn't meant to be.. The penstocks were all closed. Saying that, in hindsight, the photo below gives an idea how things would be before they started opening!
Walking further are the two outlets for pumping out any remaining water from the tank after the penstocks have done their thing.
Looking back gives an idea of the size of the system, this is one half of the twin cell tunnel that the tank discharges into.
Still looking back this is the end of the newly constructed section. Just out of shot to the right is where the existing box culvert joins the new tunnel. Behind me here is the part marked as 'to the existing box culvert at canal road'
This section now is the old nullah which ran around the racecourse before finally emptying into Victoria Harbour. This was open at one point before being gradually covered and built over with the Wong Nai Chung Gap Flyover-
More of the same for the for a while until it starts becoming deeper.
By now we seem to have reached the tidal equilibrium with the harbour, the water isn't really flowing and instead of cobbles and gravel, we're walking on increasingly deep and sticky mud. At the other side of the pipes crossing this picture the water is already waist deep.
It's about here that we turn back and head out.
Those who were paying attention may have noticed that there is a second nullah marked as 'to Sing Woo Road' at the stilling basin on the HVUSSS plan. On the way back we decided to have a quick look and see how it looked.
This should be the Wong Nai Chung nullah with an infall roughly a kilometre further. Happily it seems to be turd free as far as we went, but that's one for another day now.
Thanks for looking!
) and lol, while I cut my trip short cos ole' mate Snappel was waiting anxiously upstream, id say 900m of that nullah is nice big chill 10ft tall stone n brick, that is easier n quicker to traverse if you dont mind STEEP. Admittedly, theres a 5ft section connecting Wong Nai Chung to the Happy Valley Fields, but it seems more fun than re-traversing this Fai Fung Nullah Side course.
