Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Date of visit: 16.08.2014

Hubby works a normal office routine on weekdays, while I work on Fridays to Sundays.

It's difficult to compromise but we finally make it to Bukit Timah Natural Reserve before it closes on September 2014 to March 2015.

Although we couldn't cover the entire place due to time constrain, that little area was quite a tedious hike for our old bones. 

We parked at Dairy Farm Nature Park Carpark B (as seen on the top middle in red square).
We explored Wallace Trail (small loop in purple) and
Route 4 (in yellow, which was the most difficult trail)

We reached  Dairy Farm Nature Park at around 8.15am.

Carpark B is not exactly big, luckily found a slot.

Favourable weather without strong sun, the sky was specially blue.

Most of the time, our sky has a hue of grey, seldom this nice blue.

A notice board at the entrance.

Next, it looked more "interesting" at the right, so we went for that direction.

Hubby looked like school boy from the back.

We saw the one of the entrance of Wallace Trail, but we did not walk in as we know from the map that the distant is very short.

The greens are always soothing to my eyes, twigs are natural artwork to me.

A tree of pink blooms.  And yes, natural reserves is a heaven for photography lovers.


The flowers have wispy petals.....

...and they look like my nail brush, heehee....

Tiger Orchid spotted outside Wallace Education Centre.

Obviously, it gotten it's name cos' the brown prints on the orchids resembles tiger spots.

Tiger Orchid

Big and beautiful!

Tiger Orchid

Wallace Education Centre.

Wallace Education Centre

A big moo moo outside is a prominent landmark.

Not too big a place with exhibits of Bukit Timah Natural Reserve's history.

Calf is cute, almost everybody who walked in will take a photo with it lolxx...

Wallace Education Centre

Eco-Link @BKE is literally an overhead bridge for the animals!

Amazing!  I wonder animals really cross the bridge..

I wasn't allowed to go near, they were taking photos and measuring the size of a bird.

Just a few more step farther down is an abandon hut.

Spooky looking lolxx..

Unknown plant, but I will find it's name one day...

It's muddy due to the down pour a day before.

Walked further up, there was this small mud path which I thought we could spot some wild life, my instinct was accurate.

Saw a pair of big snails, about 2" in length.

I thought they could be making out but got disturbed by us >.<

Lovey dovey to me anyway.

Couldn't help feeling a little upset, my sneakers were going for a mud make-over :(

Nearly stepped on it  -__-|||

So, partial work has begin before Sep.

A huge fallen tree.

Could see that the branches had been saw off else will obstruct the pathway.

Slight up slope..

He's always in front of me, cos I was lag behind taking photos.

He finally "remembered" I was behind, turned his head back and took a snap of me, heehee...

Looks like a Tapeinochilos (wax ginger plant), but I am not too sure, cos normally it's red and this is green.

I am always amazed by Strangler Figs.  They are veins that finds a tree "strangle" and  live on it.

Strangler Figs eventually covers the entire tree, kill it and live with the support of the dead tree.

Saw a very thin mesh net spread across.

 It caught a few hornet bees which I am really scared of, and 2 birds.

Scared that the bees might struggled free and sting us, asked hubby to quickly take a few pics.  Quick enough, but blur enough too.  All pics were blurred except this-

Small black bird.

Beyond the mesh net, the pathway was being blocked, meaning we had to turn back to get out -____-

On our way back, spotted ginger plant with a bloom, but not able to identify the species.

But I am getting a hang of the names of tropical plants now, heeheehee....

Wild bamboos..


Finally out, and we realised we had just covered half of the Wallace Trail unknowingly.  It's about 500m, relatively easy, suitable for children as well.

Zen style looking public wash room.

 Outside the washroom were 2 water taps and a few brushes ^.^

Wash shoes!  But then hor, after washing, we went for another trail and the shoes were back to before again
--_______--   stupid.

We looked at the other people walking up the trail ignoring this board.....

We decided to ignore it as well, waaahaahaaa......

I don't understand, how can this be a bicycle trail??

How to cycle on paths full of protruding roots and stones??

Bracket fungus and mushrooms on a log.

My 1st encounter with giant forest ants (Camponotus gigas).  They are about 2 to 3cm.

Did a bit of read up, they are only found in South East Asia and are one of the largest in species.  Photo blur cos I wanted to get as close as possible, but scared it might crawl up onto me >.<

It was only when we were half way through, we realised from maps in resting huts that we were on the Yellow Route, which is the most challenging route at this reserve.   It was too late to turn back, we moved on...

Some paths needed climbing, like this, but the worst was ahead...

We saw a bit of Hindhede Quarry obstructed by bushes.  There was a danger sign there so we couldn't walk closer for a good pic.

This was one of the flight of stairs, there were many many, god damn many flights of such.

Climbing on the mud slopes at the 2 sides of the stairs was less strenuous, but some were too narrow obstructed by plants.  The climbing reminded me of The Great Wall of China -__-

Maybe some one had counted the number of stairs, not sure.

--_______--|||

Yeah, massive fat burning workout indeed.

Down stream from no where.

We climbed and walked forever till we saw this-

Cement pavement  =  End of Yellow Route 4 of approx. 1.8km (with numerous stairs)

This leads to Bukit Timah Natural Reserve's Visitor Centre.  The path got steeper as we moved on.  Along with gravity, we were half rolling running down.  Good luck to those who were walking up lolxx..

At last!

Exhibition Hall at the second level.

Some students having exhibits.

We were dead beat and no disputes, flagged a cab to drive us back to Dairy Farm to get back our vehicle.

There are many more areas of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve which we did not cover, but we will have to wait till March 2015.   I hoped by then, the sign and direction boards can be made clearer.