On this day, from 9AM to 5PM, I was trekking in the Central Catchment Area of Singapore. First, I started off by introducing 2 members of the public to my favourite Woodcutter’s Trail. The last time I visited the trail was on October 16th, 2005. A lot has changed since then. For one, the recent heavy downpour caused plenty of soil erosion which was evident near Chestnut Avenue just before we hit the mountain biking trail.

The weather in the morning was splendid and we managed to take in a lot of the sights and sounds. I encouraged Eric and Helen try the edible flower of the Simpoh Tree which is rather bland but crunchy. Towards the end of the trek, I found them some edible blue berries of the Clidemia Hirta shrub, much to my participants’ delight!

We parted ways around 12:30PM for I had to rush to meet up with my Gunung Ledang participants for training at Bukit Timah Hill. At Beauty World Centre, I was chanced upon by 2 of my participants, namely Pek Yong and Uncle Jeffrey. As we walked towards our meeting point at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitor Centre, we saw a White-Breasted Kingfisher!

Although meeting up with my participants was strictly for training, I kept a lookout for interesting flora and fauna. On the Dairy Farm Loop after nearly an hour of training, I managed to spot a Bat Lily in full bloom. It was beautiful!

A lot of people use the undulating terrain in the nature reserve for physical conditioning. The great thing that you will notice is that the folks are really quiet most of the time and they do observe the need to respect nature and keep the peace. After all, too much noise will disturb the animals within. Nevertheless, it is not easy to spot animals given the amount of human activity. So the chance encounter with them can be rather exciting, even if it is just a squirrel or two. Visit this little pocket of nature to find out for yourself!

Allen Tan
Team Spreo