i wonder if the original objective of opening the dairy farm nature park has been met. the dairy farm nature park was developed with the idea of relieving the congestion at bukit timah nature reserve. over the years the popularity of the oldest reserve in singapore had meant that if you went after 6 a.m., especially on a weekend, you would not be able to find a parking space in the car-park. it appears to me that the situation has not changed much even with the addition of the wallace trail and a well-marked link to bukit timah nature reserve from the dairy farm nature park.
even before dairy farm nature park was opened, there was already connectivity between the two areas. i used to meet a few seasoned walkers moving from dairy farm to the summit of bukit timah and vice versa. today, in spite of the signboard indicating the path to the summit, the number of people taking to this trail has not increased very much.
most people who visit the dairy farm nature reserve tend to explore or use the easy trail - the wallace trail. the trek to the summit of bukit timah is definitely more challenging. it involves climbing steps carved out by constant trampling, steps provided by the roots of trees and some giant steps constructed from concrete slabs. a reasonably fit person should be able to reach the summit of bukit timah from the dairy farm nature park within 20 minutes.
to get to the summit of bukit timah, you have to first follow the trail to the dairy farm loop. here, you have the option of going either left or right. both directions will eventually lead you to the 'main road' on bukit timah. if you make a right, you will come to the north view path and if you turn left, you will reach the rengas path. the north view path merges with the rengas path at some point.
most visitors to the two nature areas still treat them as separate entities. they generally do not move from one to the other. if they go to the bukit timah nature reserve, they seldom end up at the dairy farm nature park and vice versa.
