today, i joined jason and his group of adventurers to locate the shinto shrine built by british prisoners and the japanese army during world war ii, deep in the forest of the macritchie reservoir. we were supposed to meet at 9.15 a.m. at the venus drive car-park but when i reached the car-park at 9.10 a.m., they were already there: jason and five ladies. according to jason, these are tough ladies who have climbed mountains and trekked in other countries.
jason's original plan had been to meet at macritchie's new car-park and then trekked to the terentang trail. i suggested to him that it would be nearer if we started at venus drive, one of the more popular meeting places for those going on the treetop walk.
i also told jason that i had a rough idea where the shrine was because in the 70s, together with two other colleagues, we used to take our outdoor activities club (oac) members on hikes around the reservoir, and i remember stopping at some stone steps. we used to cross the water, with the help of ropes, at the broken bridge. the broken bridge has disappeared but i think it was near this part of the golf course.
however, our plan would not involve any water crossing; we would start bashing from the terentang trail. although it is not a clearly marked trail, we had a lot of help, in the form of markers, left behind by groups that had gone before us, particularly one which had used tissue or toilet papers to mark their route.
team leader jason
the problem with following a trail left by earlier 'explorers' is that the earlier group's objective might not be the same as ours. we actually walked past the steps leading to the relics of the shinto shrine but there were still markers, so we followed on. our leader jason said that we had to look for a building which resembled a guard house.
we found the (guard house) building, we were told that the site of the shrine was at the top of a flight of steps. there was no more marked trail and no more markers (tissue papers), so we had to hack our way to higher grounds. after bashing for sometime and making little headway, our leader decided that we could be on the wrong track. i mentioned that we had actually walked past some steps further back. jason then checked the photos of the steps which guat had taken earlier. he confirmed that those were the steps leading to the shrine.
so, we backtracked and came to a place that resembled a platform. moving further in, we found a few more flights of steps leading to some kind of a hill. near the top was a water trough carved out of a solid block of granite. around it were some disc-like granite pieces which could have served as holders for some supports.
there was no shinto shrine to be found. at the top, we found slabs of granite strewn over an area overgrown by plants.
a typical shinto shrine in japan
the jinja shrine site has been designated by the national heritage board as a historic site. you can read about about it here.
if you go in by the terentang trail, you should be able to reach the site in less than an hour, provided you do not lose your way.
