Southern Ridge Trail

I slept at ten and woke at ten, so see how exhausted I has been yesterday?

Yesterday Li Juan, Ming Shu and I finally got to go on the Southern Ridge trail after the previous week's attempt was foiled by a heavy rain that lasted all day (we had fallen back on plan B which was to go K --heex). The climb up the entrance to Kent Ridge park was really daunting. Very steep. And we had to cut across half the park to finally arrive at the Canopy Walk. We had planned to meet at Juring East Interchange at 8.30 so as to avoid the sun, but by the time we finished the Canopy Walk it was almost 10am. The sun was super hot. I didn't care if I would look like an auntie or tourist or whatever, this occasion calls for an umbrella. (sigh despite the umbrella I'd still managed ti get tanned. My arms, and my neck, there's a V-shaped tanline!)

After the walk we had to go a long way down to the Horticulture Park, nothing special there. Just a few glasshouses with flowers inside and other exhibits. It was a pity I was in no mood to examine them closely because of the hot weather; I just wanted to get out of that place ASAP.

Next we made our way to the Alexander Arch. It's a sort of metal bridge with holes in the ground, so when I looked down I saw trees dunno how many metres below me and it's so damn freaking scary.

Then we got to the Henderson waves, after walking quite a stretch of road. Actually it's just a wooden bridge with shelters that are shaped like waves. Quite dumb. That part of the journey was spent in complete sunlight with no shade from trees. Bleh.

I'd thought that Henderson Waves was the last station, but I'd forgotten about the Marang Trail. Sigh. Walk and walk, complain and complain, no toilets, no resting stops, until we arrived at the Jewel Box. We sat down and rested a bit. Ming Shu went off to take pictures of the cable cars, while I was busy sticking plasters on my poor toes which were hurting. Now at this point we were (well I was) tired, I was really sweaty and I had RAN OUT OF WATER!!! Argh! It was really tempting to just board a bus that would take us straight to Harbour Front terminal, but with Li Juan's motivation we once again set off. I kept complaining, kept asking "are we there yet?", and at long long last I heard the familiar sound of MRT train. WHOOPIE!!! WE DID IT! ALL NINE KILOMETRES OF IT, NO SHORTCUTS TAKEN! It was a proud achievement, but also, like I've told Ming Shu, one that needs to be donw only once in a lifetime. Really, once is enough. I can't imagine walking through the entire trail again. Maybe I'll return, but only to visit part of it.

You know what's disgusting? The website estimates 1 hour 30minutes for the entire trail and that's really misleading, in my opinion. We took about 4 hours. And honestly all the trees look pretty similar to me...nothing much to see, except for the sea.

Oh yah I'd bought an oven and baked my first batch of cookies. And those who have tried them said they were nice! =) so happy... Didn't know oats cookies with walnuts can taste so good.

P.S. Ghost Whisperer is returning 27 June!!!