Given that most of my plans go haywire at last moment, it was a momentous achievement for me when I finally set out for Bukit Timah today as per my plan for the weekend. However, after reaching the nature reserve, I realised that my understanding about things was slightly misplaced: I had assumed that Mac Ritchie reservoir was within Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, and while there was a trek route from the nature reserve to the reservoir, it was going to be a real long walk, almost 5 hours. I decided against going a trek that long all alone just in case something went wrong along the way. (maybe some other day). But I did spend a few minutes at the Bukit Timah Nature reserve. Its a huge natural rain forest area in the central part of Singapore. and figured out that there are a few short treks (about 30 mins to 90 mins duration) that can be undertaken within the Nature Reserve. There's one long trek that connects you to the MacRitchie Trek routes. Being a nature trek, these are going to be through the trees and so heat shouldn't really be a cause of concern (but rain can be). Its best to pack extra water and food (as needed) because there aren't any restaurants or 7/11s(chain of 24 hour convenience stores across Singapore) along the treks :) The restrooms are also at the Visitor Center itself. Maybe one of the coming days, I will go back to trek along a couple of those short treks. 
Next, I took a bus to the MacRitchie Reservoir. MacRitchie Reservoir is a water reservoir built in late 1800s to cater to the fresh water need of Singapore. The
forest around the reservoir was marked as reserve thereafter to serve as water catchment area. Today, the Reservoir serves as a picnic spot for families to getaway from the ho-hullah of the city. It also provides quite a few adventure opportunities for the daring ones in the form of treks and to some extent, kayaking.
Kayaking : well that brings us to themost interesting part of the day today :) So finally I got to do a bit of kayaking after having been planning for it for a long time.
The boat cost me $15 for an hour (+$2 for the locker) which I felt was reasonable. There were boundaries defined for kayaking within the reservoir. There weren't may other ppl kayaking at the time when I rented the kayak. apart from me, there was a group of 8 high school kids, and a solo kayaker(who appeared to be an experienced kayaker). Being my first experience at Kayaking, I was skeptical if I will be able to kayak properly. But it turns out
either I am a natural, or maybe kayaking is too too easy :) I tried to use the time to learn a few tricks of balancing and controlling the kayak and at the end of it, felt that it was quite a constructive effort. I kayaked around for a while but then the hot afternoon started taking its toll on me. I got out from the water and decided to call it a day.
All in all, it was another constructive day for me, atleast by my "lazy" standards :) Some more pics are here below from the short trek and the park.
No comments:
Post a Comment