as usual, we had our dry duck noodles at the bangkit coffee-shop before the three of us set off for the trail that would take us from bukit panjang to mandai, to the road leading to the singapore zoological gardens. jason ong had his latest toy with him, the garmin global positioning system (gps), so we were quite confident of reaching our destination even though it was the first time we would be tackling this route.
first, we walked under a flyover and came to a vegetable plot, which is a part of the bukit panjang community garden. there are at least three community gardens in bukit panjang. it was one which i had not seen before even though i have been to the area around here many times.
we asked some people at the farm for directions to mandai and was directed to the track on the left. according to the lady - who declared that she had not walked the route, it would take at least two hours to reach mandai from there. we were soon onto the gangsa track. the presence of a paved track seems to suggest that there were settlements (farms) here in the past.
following this track we came to the gali batu flyover, where the bukit timah expressway (bke) joins the kranj expressway (kje). further ahead we came to the gangsa loop. we met three or four moutain bikers along the way. we used the gadget a few times to check our position and to take our bearing.
we came to a fork in the track. i think the track on the right would take us back to bukit panjang. since we were headed for mandai, we went straight on. soon we were on track 15, the track which would lead us to two gates, each with a sign stating that it had to be kept closed at all times. we walked past the firing range and field training briefing area (for security reasons, no photos).
in both instances, we got over to the other side of the gate by squeezing ourselves through some gap at the side. from mandai road, we boarded bus service 927 which took us to choa chu kang bus interchange.
my estimate is that we covered a walking distance of a liitle over 4km.
our next walking adventure: using the walking trails to reach the central catchment area from bukit panjang.
4 comments:
I did a similar trek in January with some old ACS school mates. We started from Chestnut Ave but we did not follow the jogging track but the mud track near the water treatment plant and we ended at car park near the zoo.
I think they called it the Gangsu Trail.
we did consider taking the route that you all took but decided against it because we were not sure if there was any opening in the fence.
the trail is called the gangsa trail.
so, you all did not pass the 100m & 300m live firing range at mandai?
Oh yes we did. Suppose to be restricted area.
which meant we followed a similar route most of the way but towards the end, you all followed a track on the right; that's how you all ended up at the car-park.
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