Nature Parks Walk - Coney Island

10/10/2015, Saturday

Today, I went for a walking trail from Punggol Waterway to Coney Island (which was previously known as Palau Serangoon Island). I went with a group of volunteers from Punggol North Community Services Centre. It was the opening day for the public to visit Coney Island too and it was opened by the Guest of Honour, Mr Khaw Boon Wan. We walked past the Serangoon dam and saw some wild otters swimming in the waters. Then we continued onto island, there were free fruits given by the national parks staffs too. The road into the island was with stones and muddy.

Wild Otter having breakfast

A little history of the island, the Aw brothers of Haw Par Villa accquired Pulau Serangoon and bulit a holiday villa in the 1930s. But the villa was damaged during the World War II (it was still hidden in the island). Later in 1951, an indian businessman Ghulam Mahmood renamed the island to Coney Island and planned to convert the island into a resort and amusement par. But his plan was not realized after he was fined for corruption. Later in 1972, our Singapore Government reclaimed the island back and developed it into a recreation site under Punggol 21 plan. And in 2011, Sungei Serangoon was converted into the 17th freshwater reservoir and because of this, it was connected to the island, Punggol and Pasir Ris.

Battleship?

After we reached the East Entrance of the island, we walked around the island where the national parks volunteers had setup 5 stations to explain some of the plants, trees, birds, fishes and the history of the island. At one of the stations, the volunteers were explaining on horseshoe crabs and hermit crabs and lightning crabs. Interestingly, lightning crabs are so called due to if you ever got bitten by it, it will never let go of your finger until there is a lightning. As for horseshoe crabs, they are being hunted because of their blue bloods. Their bloods are previous as it is used to help humans in medical purposes. They have been staying around long before the dinosaurs time. Now they are getting extinct due to all the hunting. The volunteer told us it wasn't exactly from the crab family, they are more to spiders because of their legs. There are alot of trees there and there are areas to enjoy the breeze from the sea. Opposite, you can see Pulau Ubin island too. You can also cycle around the island, but there is no electricity and water there. The toilet uses rainwater, meaning if there is rain, there will be water...hohoho...and did i mentioned? There is only one toilet available in the whole island. There may be boars around in the island too, if you are lucky enough to see one there. If more lucky enough, maybe you can see the single Brahman bull roaming around. I found a giant log which looked like a giant turtle from far. I ended my walk when i reached Punggol Settlement, where i took a bus back to Punggol interchange. 

Horseshoe Crab

Does it look like a giant turtle?

Road on the island

Bird Hide

Pulau Ubin

But i find there are more to explore on the island, maybe some hidden spots..heheee...Will go back another time but maybe with a bike...hahahaa....As there is no electricity in the park, there is an opening timing from 7 am to 7 pm daily. So make sure you arrive there early and leave before 7 pm. Hahaha...one thing i didn't expected, was that i found myself in the photograph published in The Sunday Times the next day. Luckily i wasn't doing anything funny there.

Nature Parks Walk - MacRitchie Reservoir

A type of Fungus

Tree Top Walk

11th Jan 2014 - Went hiking @ MacRitchie Reservoir with my friends as part of our morning exercise. It was nice to have a hike in the morning and i didn't know that MacRitchie Reservoir was soooo big. There was a mountain hiking path and it was surrounded with trees and you even can see complete spider webs around the trees. We even saw a bunch of monkeys and there were 2 or 3 baby monkeys playing around. The monkeys were jumping from tree to tree above us too, it was cute. We took around 4 hours or so to reach the tree top walk, it was a suspend bridge. The wind is blowing when we walked the bridge and the bridge was also slightly too..but the bridge wasn't that long (the one at Southern Ridges is longer). And after that, we continued our hike and we reached a tower which one of my friend didn't want to climb up as she was tired. The rest of us walked up and one of my friend got scared of height when climbing down the stairs. Her boyfriend and me had to hoax her walk slowly down the tower...kekee...Then we continued to walk slowly back to the exit and along the way, we saw some monkeys playing too. By the time we finished our hike (which was around 3.30pm), we were quite tired and sweaty...After that, we all went home separately.

It was quite a walk there, we only walked around one side of the reservoir. Hope we will have another round to walk the other side of the reservoir.


Click here to see the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore.

Nature Parks Walk - SengKang Riverside Park

4th Jan 2014 - Went alone @ SengKang Riverside Park to walk the fruits trail. It was windy and so nice to walk and see around the park. There is a reservoir called Punggol Reservoir and a SengKang Floating Wetland. There are some fruit trees in the park too, but i went there too late, so by the time i tried to find the trees, it was getting dark. Saw lightnings too and it looks like going to rain soon. So i had to go home.

Click here for the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore

Nature Parks Walk - Labrador Nature Reserve

Labrador Nature Park

11th Feb 2012 - Went to Labrador Park today with my friend. We met at Labrador MRT station and had BK breakfast. Then we started off our morning walk, we walked from the mrt station but we still need to walk a long distance up to the park entrance. It was super hot too and we were starting to sweat.

After about half an hour or more, we managed to reach the park's entrance. We walked around the park, there are war relics left behind during the WWII and some information on WWII too. I wanted to go to the secret tunnels left behind during WWII times but it was closed for maintenance. Such a pity. We walked through the nature paths to get around the park.

Later we walked along the sea coast, which we can see the dragon's gate stone, Yatch Club and the beautiful condos built there. So we just walked along the path and back to Harbourfront Station. We did saw a big lizard (didn't managed to take a photot of it cos it was hiding inside the bushes) when we were out to the road...lol....

Nevertheless, it was a nice walk although it was hot. But you should try it some day, go around Singapore's Nature Parks and walk around, enjoy the nature, views and you may find surprises too.
:)

Click here for the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore

Nature Parks Walk - HortPark and the Southern Ridges

Went to trekking in one of the nature parks today...I started from  starting point is Marang Trail (Harbourfront Station exit D)...saw squirrels running around on the trees too...i went up to Mount Faber Park and to Mount Faber Walk next. From there, i see the nice view of the cable cars and i walked down the trail, i got to the Faber Point, where there is a Merlion statue there. Next, i walked down the trail and got down to the Henderson Waves trail. Henderson Waves is the highest pedestrian bridge in Singapore (The bridge is lighted up every night from 7pm to 2am, too bad i was too tired by the time i reached Alexandra Arch. Didn't managed to walk back.)

I crossed over Henderson Waves bridge and i walked to Terrance Gardens to get view of Singapore. There was a black cat too.. :)  There are a lot of birds flying around too. Next, i went over to Forest Walk where i walked on the long long long long metal bridge which brought me to the Alexandra Arch @ Hort Park.....Managed to see the Alexandra Arch with changing LED lights. By the time i reached there, it was already 7.30 pm and it was already getting more dark. Lighting was also coming....tired after walking for 3 hours....(To be continued next time.....)

Click here to see the complete walking trail from National Parks, Singapore.