Southern Ridges Night Trail

National Parks Southern Ridges Trails Map

Part two of the HortPark Picnic was the Southern Ridges Night Trail. The trek was delayed due to a passing rain cloud. We had to amuse ourselves while we waited... so we tried in vein to do a community group jump... or sort of...



Fortunately, it cleared up enough for us to make our way about 9-kilometres from HortPark all the way to Marang Trail, mostly connected by nature pathways and bridges.

The 1st highlight on the trail is Alexandra Arch. 80m in length with a unique architecture which resemble an opened leaf, with its curved deck intersecting an arch that is tilted at a 70-degree angle. Like Henderson Waves, Alexandra Arch is lit up by LED lights at night, displaying varying shades from the colour spectrum of dusk to complement the nature settings of the forested hill parks nearby.


Walking through the Elevated Walkway in Forest Walk

We proceeded into Forest Walk on an elevated metal bridge which provides a good experience of walking through the secondary forest of Telok Blangah Hill at eye-level with the forest canopy. The Elevated Walkway is an excellent platform for spotting birds, dragonflies and butterflies. I'll bring my Bushnell Binos the next time round. Unlike the HSBC Tree Top bridge which is a free-standing suspension bridge, this bridge is like a smaller version of the Tree Top Walk in Valley of the Giants; Pemberton, Western Australia. It is also possible to take the multiple stairways down to the grounds of the forest. The dense secondary forest found here, the adinandra belukar, is home to Singapore’s rich biodiversity. The Dillenia, also referred to as the “rojak” tree, is one of several native trees that are prominent here.

We trekked up toward Terrace Garden at Telok Blangah Hill Park. This is a familiar childhood place where the Fairways kids used to trespass Alkaff Mansion before it was renovated and transformed into a posh restaurant. The place remained largely unchanged to how I knew it since I was young.


Architecture and mood lighting of Henderson Wave Bridge

Another beautiful pedestrian bridge 36m above Henderson Road is the Henderson Waves. Also the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore, the 274 metre-long bridge spans Henderson Road to connect Mount Faber Park to Telok Blangah Hill Park. Unique to this bridge is its artistic, distinctive wave-like structure consisting of a series of undulating curved “ribs”. These “ribs” also double up as alcoves providing shelter to the public. Slats of yellow bakau wood, an all-weather timber found in South-East Asia are used in the decking.


We held on as if we were in a storm on the Noah's Ark!



And then it was the clear after the storm


Night view from Henderson Wave

We took the trail on a loop around the peak of Mount Faber Hill for a bird's eye view of the city scape. At the top of the mount is also Jewel Box.


Night View from Mount Faber

The last bit of the trail was both adventurous and traumatic. We were "guided" by Andrew to trek down Marang Trail in complete darkness! The dirt trails and steps were uneven with occasional pot holes we had to be very careful of. As stated in the NParks website:

"The Marang Trail is deliberately unlit Mount Faber Park after dark to minimize disturbance to nocturnal life in the forest. Do bring along a torch and take extra precautions if you wish to walk on this trail after dark."

Andrew... what were you thinking! We resorted to using our handphones as torch light! We were thankful no one twisted their ankles or fell into the dense forest!

Ending off the night was an ice Teh-O and Ayam Penyet at Seah Imm as we continued to comment on how Andrew could have killed us in the forest!

Read:
TOB Picnic @ HortPark
Marina Bay Helix Bridge Launch
HSBC TreeTop Walk
Pulau Ubin "Amazing Race" Reccee
Reflections @ Bukit Chandu & Kent Ridge Park
Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve

More Southern Ridges Night Trail Pictures