Trip to Singapore - 3 : MacRitchie Reservoir Trail

11 September 2015

Mac Ritchie Reservoir is nature’s park for those who love the open areas and fresh air and want to appreciate the nature in all its Glory.

Macritchie is not very famous among tourists. It is a place which is generally visited more by regular Singapore citizens or expats working here for several weeks. But, it you are nature enthusiast and wild life lover or practicing for marathon or runner, then you cannot afford to miss this place.

There are numerous beautiful reservoirs that bound Singapore’s nature reserves namely Bedok reservoir, Jurong lake, Pandan reservoir, Serangoon reservoir, Fort canning reservoir but the more famous and bigger are  MacRitchie Reservoir, Lower Peirce Reservoir, Upper Peirce Reservoir and Upper Seletar Reservoir out of which MacRitchie is the oldest and most beautiful one. Macritchie is supplying water to the island even long before British settlement. As a gateway to unspoiled forest and waters, the park is a popular venue for schools and organizations to conduct cross-country events, allowing participants to run through various trails while embracing the wonders of our native biodiversity. The iconic MacRitchie bandstand continues to hold a special place in the hearts of many Singaporeans, and is often used to host performing arts presentations.

For the more information refer the below site literally having all the details one wants to refer before beginning his trail:

https://www.nparks.gov.sg/

I started from Reservoir Park at 11 am and completed 11 km trail at around 3pm. Though I was quite tired but the beautiful sceneries and landscapes and professional runners kept me motivated to complete the trail. And once finished I was rejuvenated like never before. Below are the views as soon as I started my trail. I was mesmerized. This beauty amidst corporate jungle of Singapore is unimaginable.

Either one can start his trail from the main gate from the reservoir park which is having designated parking area, changing clothes area, bath section, restaurants or from the car park at Venus drive. Those interested to see Tree top without much walk can opt for Venus park entrance. Entrance is free.

Reservoir main entrance à Tree Top walk is around 5 km

Venus main entranceà Tree top walk is 3 Km

Tree Top Walk is a  free-standing suspension bridge spanning
Bukit Peirce and Bukit Kalang, the two highest points in MacRitchie 

Total length of the walkway is about
250m and its height from the forest is 25m

Since walkway allows only 1 way traffic, the total trail would be 7-11 Kms depending on your entrance. You can also take exit from the middle but those are not having enough signboards and can confuse you and lead you to join main area only after some excursion. Prefer to take any exit in middle only if you are local or well equipped with routes. I was feeling quite tired after 6 Km and then ask one of the guy how to exit in between. He told me 1 way but that was so confusing that I preferred to complete the 11 Km trail.

Once you cross this bridge, then starts the endless series of stairs. I was wondering why they are not ending. 

But once they completed then started the most beautiful part of the Reservoir, walk by the river, nearly around 5 km. Its a paradise for photographers. 

And then finally the last picture the glimpse of which told me that I was near to the point from where I have started. Yes, The feeling of completing it cant be defined in words. Its an experience that Will always stays with me. Also, Forgot to mention that I covered this track alone and even without listening to music but listening to sounds of nature. That was bliss. 

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If you like to read about Southern ridges trail in Singapore, refer here.

A walk to remember - Post 2 :Auroville Visitors Centre(VC) to MatriMandir

1km Nature' walk from VC to MatriMandir

Auroville, pronounced as Aurovi, is an experimental township founded by Mirra Alfassa commonly known as Mother. This is not a tourist place actually; however, this place attracts a lot of tourists. I will cover what it is all about in another post. This post is about the advice for the common visitors. 

If you happen to visit this place, First of all you have to report to Auroville Visitors centre to collect your free pass to visit MatriMandir. Here you will be shown 1 short video of 10 minutes to educate you about the Auroville, its aims, objectives and instructions and directions to be followed in Auroville.

After collecting your passes, you have to walk to MatriMandir viewing point which is about 1 km long Nature's walk, from the visitor centre. There are shuttle buses also available free of cost but I would recommend you to walk down the path to reach Auroville. 

Not because it is simply a nature walk full of greenery but because you will encounter lot of wisdom in form of boards on your path to inculcate in your daily life. 

Nature's walk

This is not 100 year Banyan tree that is referred commonly in Auroville but another Tree with its peculiar feature of aerial roots which means their roots are above the ground and grow from branches towards the ground and become new trunks. This Romantic gesture caught my eyes immediately.

A walk to remember - Post 1 in Munnar Tea Gardens, Kerala

11^th April 2013

I have promised my wife last night that I will wake up before her unlike every day because I love long morning walks in the scenic places. And in spite of managing to sleep at 1, I woke up at 5 am. The weather was very cool. I went to wash room and begun reading one of the novels by Ruskin bond. Ruskin writes quite well about nature and that is why I love to read him at such places. I was reading 1 story about ghosts and also getting scared as the silence in such places are deafening. 

At 5:45 am, my wife also woke up. It was very dark outside. Finally, at 6 we went for a walk amidst the amazingly beautiful Tree plantation in Munnar. We breathed deeply to gift our lungs lot of fresh unpolluted air absent in cities. 

There were not many people and vehicles on the road and that provide us the opportunity to walk hand in hand without worrying about anything in life. Such simple pleasures of life amidst nature are actually the true gifts of life and should be appreciated and relished to the maximum. The beautiful nature trails surrounded with Tea Gardens on both the sides makes you realized that this place is tremendously gifted and bestowed with beauty and enormous number of panoramic views. It seemed as if God had created the beautiful green carpets and rolled them over the Munnar valley. 

"An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day." - -- Henry David Thoreau

After Sunrise

Believe me, this was the most beautiful part of our complete trip. Peaceful walk was the biggest advantage of booking our Hotel 10 km. before the Munnar. If we have booked the Hotel in Munnar, I am sure we would be devoid of this lifetime walk amidst the tree plantation. We did a lot of photography, laid down on highway and also saw the sun rising. 

At around 7 am, we saw lot of children going to school and asking for lifts from the tourists. Life at hill stations is no way easy. We came to know that children need to walk some 4,5 kms each way every day to go to school and perhaps that is the reason that people are healthier in hilly areas. 

Road is wet due to the heavy fog in the early morning

At around 7.30, we came back to our Hotel and got ready by 8 for the sight-seeing. I also told my cab driver that I want to come back to hotel 1 hour before it get dark in the evening to enjoy my evening walk and thankfully, we also enjoyed the evening walk but on a different trail. In the evening, we asked him to drop us 3, 4 km before the hotel and can park the car in hotel and if we were tired or anything, we would call him. 

There was 1 church very near to our resort Nest. While coming to hotel, we sat on its terrace for 30 minutes and it was really very pleasant experience and the pure vibrations we felt are perfect setting for introspecting. 

Captured from the terrace of Church

Also, on our way, we heard some voices of people but nothing was visible. There was 1 dense route going downwards from the road, we thought of traversing it. It was getting dark and we also confused whether to go down or not. We decided to go on this route for 5 minutes and then come back if we did not found anything substantial. After 10 minutes of walk, we uncovered 1 big field where local people were playing cricket.

Local People enjoying the Cricket

  It was a very beautiful field blessed with trees on all the sides.

The one thing about such places that always attracts me is that people here have lot of time unlike in cities and life here is not like rat race. Instead people are very friendly here. 

Lastly, I would like to add that Early Morning walks in the Munnar tea gardens is 1 such thing that I strongly recommended for everyone.

Check my another post in this series walk to remember here.

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