The way to Waichow

So OFF WE GO early on Christmas morning to Nam O ... and on across what we hope are still mountains to Waichow.

Here, so you can get at least some idea of where we are for the next week or so, is a copy of the 1930s British War Office map the escape party used at the time.

Hong Kong and Kowloon, for those who don't know, are just out of sight, down to the bottom left. Hong Kong's most easterly point, Ping Chau island (where I was last week), can be seen just across the bay from Nam O (or Namou or Nan Ao, depending on your dialect and spelling method).

But you may need to zoom in a bit to see the smaller villages where they tended to hole up by day ... and zoom in even more to see us (or possibly switch to google earth).

Before unwrapping presents and packing backpacks simultaneously, we spent Christmas Eve taking a crazy bus ride out past Telegraph Bay (now Cyber City) to Aberdeen and Apleichau - failing to find Japanese machine gun posts on the Ocean Park hillside or motor torpedo boats lurking among the highrises, but succeeding in getting a full tour of the old Industrial School where they got their supplies from the Naval Stores.


For those unfamiliar with the story of the Christmas Day escape so far ... here (below) is a potted version of events leading up to the landing on the mainland (which is where we start our re-enactment, complete with military berets but not sedan chairs like the admiral's).

Or for the full version with all the trimmings turn to Richard's website - see column on right....