from harbourfront to canopy walk

today, at our balestier group monthly walk, we missed the company of our regular walkers teck seng, seck yeong and puay heian. albert poh wanted to but could not make it also. albert koh and his wife are still in melbourne. puay heian was down with flu while teck seng had to go for a check-up because of fever, low blood pressure and multiple joint aches.

eight of us gathered at the meeting point at car-park b, kent ridge park. lay bee and i went in nah's car to seah imm car-park near harbourfront while william's wife drove william, pastor phua and his wife to the same car-park.

when we reached the end of the marang trail, it started to drizzle. at the place where we sought shelter, see thiam met some of his relatives, including his sister. all the way to the hort park we met quite a number of groups on an organised outing.

our walk ended at kent ridge park. according to nah, we covered a distance of nearly 7km. this time, he and betty got into our car for the ride to seah imm car-park. see thiam dropped william off at his pasir panjang's place before proceeding to met us at harbourfront for lunch.

this was our group's third time at the southern ridges. the first two walks were done in parts and today's walk was a combination of the two. there is actually another section leading to the west coast park which we chose to skip.

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.

from canopy walk to alexandra arch

it is going to take us three visits to complete the entire stretch of the southern ridges. the group's first visit was on wednesday when we covered the stretch from henderson waves to the harbourfront. after a one day break, on friday, we started at kent ridge park and made it to the alexandra arch. getting off the arch, we walked to alexandra village for our sustenance.





















at kent ridge park, we chose to walk along the canopy walk. at the end of the canopy walk, we made a short right to walk down some steps which led us to the crookedest path in singapore. the start of the path is about 500m from the hort park.

there were a lot of wonderful distractions at the hort park that, for some moments, i thought we would be spending the entire morning discovering new plants and getting acquainted with all the themes of the garden hub. but without tall trees to provide cover from the sun, my friend could be forgiven for thinking that its name was 'hot' park.

















we are now left with the hilltop walk and forest walk to cover before we can claim to have walked the whole length of the southern ridges. the hilltop walk is at telok blangah hill and the forest walk is actually the stepless elevated walkway that joins up with the alexandra arch.