For our Southern Ridges walk, we planned to walk from Kent Ridge Park to Vivo City and back, so parked at car park 'C' in Kent Ridge Park.
The only way to this car park is via Pepys Road off Pasir Panjang Road (click on map to enlarge to see location of car park 'C').
Walked a bit upwards to the start of the Canopy Walk (the pink coloured zigzag snakey portion in map). "Upwards" is tough for oldies like us, but not too bad here, just a slight incline.
Saw the toilets sign pointing towards Reflections at Bukit Chandu so detoured into the grounds.
Nice clean place. Very good folk-artsy paintings on all the doors. There's a coin operated drink dispenser too.
Learn more about Bukit Chandu here.
And here.
Here's the Ladies' rest room with its door painted all flowery and pretty.
And the Gents' rest room is the one with the picture of the cockerel.
They've got folk art painting on doors with inset panels too.
Interesting.
And in the photo below (the layout goes weird if you view this blog on a monitor size other than 4:3. Sorry!) is the start of the Canopy Walk.
Looks welcoming enough.
There's even a nice bench for a rest at the end of the return trip.
A few steps along the treetop boardwalk and we were bounded on all sides by creeper laden tall trees.
Cool! But humid.
That's (photo on right) the steep slopes where the path zigzags with switchbacks as it ends at the HortPark.
Photo below shows the treetop boardwalk going down into HortPark.
Here's the Alexandra Arch overhead pedestrian bridge across the Alexandra Road. It's at the end of the Floral Walk through the HortPark. Be wary of being mis-directed by the poor signages in HortPark. If you walk on the service road, be prepared to be left dangling once you reach the commercial nursery.
Penny's looking up the upramp to the Arch.
Sign on the upramp shows that we've still got quite a way to go to Vivo City which is on the other side of Mt Faber.
Hokay! here we are on the Alexandra Arch over Alexandra Road.
That's wife Penny, happy to have covered this much of the walk.
Once over the AA, we are on another treetop walk, the Forest Walk. [Here's another treetop walk in Singapore].
Beautiful views of the Forest Walk among the tree tops.
Far from road traffic and buildings, the Forest Walk is one of the nicest stretches of the Southern Ridges Walk, and is the crooked dark green line in the map (Click map to enlarge it to see details).
If you look down towards your feet, you can see through the metal mesh of the "boardwalk" the forest floor about 6 storeys below. It can be scarey for a moment.
Photo below shows the forest walk towards apartments nearby. Anyone know the location of these apartments?
One of the many staircases that you can get off the tree top Forest Walk to be on terra firma below which would be another headache as you'd then be lost on a path in the forest.
Here you can see the rising switchbacks of the Forest Walk as it winds up the slope of Telok Blangah Hill.
Instead of walking the longths of the zigzags, you could take the staircases off the walkway and go straight up.
Be warned though that that's tougher on the legs! The longer way is more pleasant.
Ho-say! We made it to the park on Telok Blangah Hill.
If you try hard enough, you can see the sea just beyond the heads of those two people on the walkway.
Click on the fuzzy photo below to see a very clear large wide panoramic shot.
Here we are heading in the opposite direction, going through HortPark towards Kent Ridge Park.
KEEP CLEAR of these turf patches! You may sprain your ankle very badly! Unless of course you want to sue NParks and retire.
Whooops!
Do I see flowers of Lady of the Night (Cestrum nocturnum) in photo above?
This is one shrub/small bushy tree with blooms that give the headiest fragrant perfume. More of this plant should be planted in all our public parks.
And, we were surprised to see that many pieces of board had been replaced since we passed by earlier. They missed one, ha!
Still, it's good to know that some people in NParks are doing a good job.
Here's a nice shot to end part one of our Southern Ridges Walk.
Supposed to walk to Vivo City and back, but only did half the trip. Will do the other half another day.
The coin operated drink dispenser in HortPark's seminar shed is best, as a can of Coca Cola costs only $1.
The best thing for me about this route is that there are no ants along the way !!
