The marker is approximate - if you're walking along the Wilson trail from Kornhill you soon come to a T-junction, andthere's a public toilet there too. The Wilson trail continues right, the Hong Pak Country Trail starts off to the left. Follow the Hong Pak Trail, and a little way along, on the bank up to your right you can see the sharply cut sides of a tunnel entrance.
It's a bit of a scramble up, and the whole entrance is filled with earth.
If you go right up to the top you can see a tiny gap that is all that's left of the entrance.
I didn't feel any breeze, so I don't know if there are any other entrances.
On the Facebook group for people who grew up around here, several mentioned playing in the 'caves' in the hills and finding porcupine quills. I wonder if this was one of those caves?
It's the first time I've walked the Hong Pak trail - usually I just follow the road up from Taikoo to Quarry Gap. But this is a really pretty trail, well worth a visit.
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Hong Pak Trail Tunnel
Looks like an interesting one, and sizable .
The only other tunnel that I have come across which doesn’t have a second entrance is also along the Hong Pak trail…..(the one Hillwalker helped liberate). Even then the tunnel looks like it has collapsed, so there could well be others connecting to it further up the hill through the dense bush. I can’t imagine the Japanese constructing a single opening, except possibly for the sole purpose of storage?
I’ve been preparing to hit the hills again with the old metal detector. I’ve got myself a great little shovel, which I might take along to the blocked tunnel behind Braemar Hill to see if I can get into. Do you think I will be able to get into this one or is it really filled up?
It’s a small world- A couple of weeks ago I was having a swim with a visiting friend. His uncle was out from the UK but lived here all his childhood. We got talking and before long I found out he is a fellow “Batgunger” too.
He gave me a lead to where to have a look for a tunnel. At the top of Borrett Rd near Island School apparently there is one up in the hills close by…..that’s all I have to go on.
Out of curiosity, what is the Batgung/Gwulo member population?
re: Hong Pak Trail Tunnel
I've seen some other tunnels that are single-entrance, but they don't have a large entrance like this. There's a lot of fill here, so it would take a significant amount of digging I think. Might be worth holding a couple of lit joss-sticks at the entrance to see if there's any sign of air movement suggesting other entrances.
Glad to hear there are some readers from the UK. We'll have to work on the secret handshake next!!
David
PS Thanks for fixing the location of PB29.
How many people read Gwulo.com?
What's the 'member population'? Good question - I'm not sure!
The figures I can see are:
Or the other way around, during the last month:
But only a handful of those wrote something.
If you've written something up on the site, thank you very much - you can see you are part of a small, but valuable group. If you're currently a regular reader, I hope you'll take the plunge and write something too.
Regards, David
visited this tunnel and
visited this tunnel and possible found some iron ore sample as it is attached to the magnetic part of my headlamp. so not sure whether it is adit or japanese tunnel
Visit on 23/09/2023
I decided to visit this tunnel while on a hike.
Looks like the tunnel is still mostly filled in as noted on the post. However, I ventured slightly further up the hill and found another vertical tunnel which I suspect leads down into the same network. Didn't have a torch, so couldn't see the bottom, but it could be a collapse of the ceiling.
Looks like someone has tried to dig around the original tunnel entrance also, but could have been animals.
EDIT: I'd be careful walking around this area! There could be other less visible shafts as the bush is dense.