balestier group at forest walk (southern ridges)

this is the first time that i missed the walk with the balestier group since we started our monthly walk in 2007. i injured my back while carrying a full pail of water to wash my car on friday evening. i had dismissed it as a slight inconvenience and i was still looking forward to joining the group for the saturday morning walk.

on saturday morning i felt excruciating pain when i attempted to get up from the bed. i quickly messaged seck yeong to tell her to go ahead with the walk without me. anyway, i 'deputise' kwan to lead the group for the walk from telok blangah hill to the hort park. i had emailed directions to the group to park at car-park 3.

this was also the first time albert poh finally managed to join the group for the walk. most of the time he was either overseas or tied up with work. the one time he was around and could have make it, he got the time wrong: he had thought that the walk was in the evening.

i think there was another first. for the first time, seck yeong and teck seng were joined by their son for the walk.

i heard puay heian could not make it because she was down with flu.

geometry lesson at forest walk

the forest walk is mainly a 1.3km interlinking grated metal walkway. i especially like this stretch of the southern ridges because you can still enjoy your walk in a cool and shaded environment even after 8.00 a.m. another attraction here is the usually large number of birds like the mynahs, drongos and the orioles on the saga seed (adenanthera pavonina) and albizia trees.

it is interesting to note that the majority of the steel gratings are in the shape of an equilateral triangle. they must have a mould to make most of the triangular gratings. however, if you take time to examine them, you will find that some are specially cut and welded to fit into the odd corners or spaces.

so if you take young children along the walkway, you can get them to look for triangles, equilateral ones and right-angled ones, quadrilaterals and pentagons.

are the triangles of the same size?

are there other shapes?

how many triangles make a pentagon?

there are so many things to look out for to make the walk more interesting rather than just walk to cover the distance.

longest walkway in s'pore

today, i covered part of the third section of the southern ridges - the section that joins telok blangah hill to the hort park. the maze of metal walkways and stairs is truly amazing. at 1.3km long, it can lay claim to the longest walkway in singapore.

i parked at car-park 3, next to the mt faber service reservoir. not many people know of this small car park, that is why car-parks 1 and 2 are usually full whereas you can still find a space at this car park. not for long though.

the walkways, besides having stairs leading to the earth trail, also have openings at two places along preston road. many people would not have known of the colonial houses at preston road if not for the opening up of this area. preston is a road that ends at an international school.

i got acquainted with three plants/trees along the walk. they are the benjamin fig, the nyatoh tree and the climbing noni. the fruit of the climbing noni is about the size of a cherry.

as you approach the arch, on your left you can see an old durian tree, laden with at least 80 durians. however, the real treat during the walk was the sight of at least six orioles flitting from tree to tree. most of them were on initially on the saga seed (adenanthera pavonina) tree near the arch.

surprisingly and thankfully, the metal walkway does not get slippery when it is wet unlike the grill covers on some drains.