the southern ridges - it's finally open









































i was surprised to hear on the radio that the southern ridges were officially opened by the prime minister today. all along, i thought it was only the hort park's official opening. as i was in the vicinity of the henderson waves, i decided that i had to experience walking across the highest pedestrian bridge in singapore in spite of my fear of height.

i had imagined hordes of people walking on the bridge almost shoulder to shoulder in both directions. it turned out that there were only a handful of people strolling along the balau wooden floor of the bridge. the undulating curves of the steel bridge makes it look like a huge serpent stretched between telok blangah hill and mt faber.

although it boasts of a panoramic view of the city, the harbour and the southern islands, the trees obscure part of this view. the preferred view will be towards the sea where you can see some of the ships in the harbour.

unlike the suspension bridge at the treetop walk, the henderson bridge is so wide and long that there is no need to restrict the number of people on the bridge at any one time.

cannot wait to cover the entire stretch of the southern ridges. will do it next week.

floral walk and hort park

today i happened to wander into a place where a lot of people were busy making preparations for the official opening of the place. a rehearsal was going on and contractors were all over the park putting up tentage, doing landscaping and generally, putting a lot of things into place.

the floral walk and hort park forms one section of the southern ridges, which was my main reason for being there. i have been looking forward to the opening of all sections of the southern ridges to the public.

the southern ridges comprises the canopy walk (at kent ridge), the flora walk and hort park, the alexandria arch, the forest walk, the hilltop walk (at telok blangah hill), the henderson waves, the faber walk (at mt faber) and the marang trail.

i decided to cover at least two sections of the southern ridges - floral walk and hort park and the canopy walk. so as not to be a nuisance to the people busy with their finishing touches in the park, i walked along hyderabad road towards canterbury road, from where i followed the 700m track that led to the canopy walk.

along canterbury road, came across this swing suspended from the tall, sturdy branch of a tree. whoever strung the ropes around the branch must be a very good tree climber. incidentally, there is a tree climbing demonstration at hort park this saturday, its official opening date.

since i cannot wait till the end of this month to cover all the sections, covering two sections of it for the moment will suffice - so, no fish, prawns also can, lah.