Yuen Long Marathon Runner

David, I think you could well be right.  The shape of the hills is very similar and my photograph might have been taken further along the road making the hills appear taller. Andrew

I have been having another close look at several photographs that I took while on a car trip clockwise round the New Territories on 23 June 1958, and seeing whether a letter written to my parents the nerxt day sheds any further light on where they were taken.  The letter states that we followed the Castle Peak Road to Yuen Long and then passed through Kam Tin on our way towards Sheung Shui where we were not allowed into the closed area.  From there we drove to Taipo and back to Kowloon via the road running along the West side of Tolo Harbour.

Using the 1952 map, one or two locations have already been reasonably identified as being near Yuen Long, Kam Tin and to the North East of the Sek Kong camp.  I have also made use of my 1981 photographs and  holiday diary to check things out on a very similar journey that my wife and I made by public bus - but only walking perhaps a mile to the East of the Sek Kong camp main gate, when the heat caused us to catch a bus that I am fairly certain returned to Kowloon over the Twisk route.

There is no sign of the Kam Sheung Road on the 1952 map and, while I accept that it could have been made between 1952 and 1958, when we made that car trip, I am more inclined to think that we travelled along the road that ran along the Northern side of the Sek Kong camp.

This concentrated my search on the 1952 map, especially the old main road running from Yuen Long, through Kam Tin and on beyond the main gate of the Sek Kong camp.  There is one spot about a mile to the East of Yuen Long and just to the West of the Au Tau Police Station (pinned on the 1952 map) that fits the photograph (looking to the East) and the Google Earth Street View - a hill of about the right height (148m) on the right with five or six wireless masts below it (the police station?), a gentle bend in the road and a track running off to the right (South) that fits with the one on the map leading to the School  and /or the Electricity Sub Station.  That track has a red metal gate at its end which suggests, to me, a school gate. On the North side of the road on my photograph there are several buildings on a wooded hill (41m) and there is a similar hill on the 1952 map.

So, while not conclusive evidence I think that this is a much more likely location for my photograph - I cannot speak for Fred Evans' photograph but I think that he is more likely to have left the camp via its main gate (still there) on the North side and walked towards Kam Tin - always a popular village/small town for anyone based at Sek Kong.  My memory (hopefully not a false one over the past 60 years) has always tended to recall that stretch of the road rather than the Kam Sheung Road, which was probably yet to be built in 1958.  Certainly, in 1981, I was still able to recognize quite a lot of the scenery from 1958.

I'll add a pin to the map where I believe that I stood taking the photograph of Roy and the little runner. If the pin proves to be completely wrong it can be (re)moved - but where to?  Incidentally, I deliberately waited until the little girl was level with Roy before I took the photograph.  She was a quick runner - and barefoot too!  If you zoom in on the photograph you will see that, of more concern but not noticed by me unitl now, her left arm has a large bandage on it.  Was she runnng home after an accident?  We'll never know. (Andrew)

Thank you everyone for responding so quickly.  I am fairly cerrtain that we would have stuck to the main roads - not having a map to guide us.  I have also always believed that the road was the one that eventually ran along to the North of the Sek Kong camp, where my Buffalo Hide photograph was fairly certainly taken at a significant bend in the river - there being no river bend like that on the South side of the camp.  So, on balance, if Fred is certain that he was on a road to the South of trhe camp, I think that our photographs were not taken on the same stretch of road. The great similarity between the nearby features on my photograph and those on the 1952 map are, I believe, quite compelling evidence for where I have added the pin onto the 1952 map.  Andrew