A half-day in the forest
by nigel on 20-Feb-2010
In the center of Singapore is a small area of original forest at the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve.
We arrived about 9am to find lots of people already there and noticed that most of them were well equipped with sturdy shoes or full-on walking boots and many had those modern telescopic walking sticks. We stared at each others everyday sandals and started up the concrete track.
Bukit means hill in Malay, Bukit Timah is the highest point on the island and rises fairly sharply which left us perspiring profusely in short order.
Near the top we deviated on to the 'yellow' track which was all soil, stones and tree roots, apart from possibly the biggest steps of any walking track in the world. We wander along listening to the birds and cicadas and reading the information boards. We arrived at the summit, admired the rock and transmitter towers and then started the descent. Once more we left the main route enjoying the forest scenes as we wandered along and then we saw the macaques.
We first noticed a couple on the steps ahead and stopped to look at them. More and more adult and baby macaques came out of the trees on to the steps and then came down them until just three meters from us they individually turned off the path and along one particular nearly horizontal tree branch. From there they split up, the adults quietly climbed trees and ate whilst the young leapt about making more than enough noise. As usual we just stood and watched whilst the troop slowly moved away from us. We commented on the fact that our fellow walkers went by ignoring this sight when one joined us and started taking photographs. It is not that we have not seen this sight before, but every time we are presented with the opportunity to see wild life just getting on with life, we make the most of it. Eventually all the macaques were out of sight, if not out of hearing, and we resumed our walk.
A wonderful morning to share, the photos can be seen here.
We arrived about 9am to find lots of people already there and noticed that most of them were well equipped with sturdy shoes or full-on walking boots and many had those modern telescopic walking sticks. We stared at each others everyday sandals and started up the concrete track.
Bukit means hill in Malay, Bukit Timah is the highest point on the island and rises fairly sharply which left us perspiring profusely in short order.
Near the top we deviated on to the 'yellow' track which was all soil, stones and tree roots, apart from possibly the biggest steps of any walking track in the world. We wander along listening to the birds and cicadas and reading the information boards. We arrived at the summit, admired the rock and transmitter towers and then started the descent. Once more we left the main route enjoying the forest scenes as we wandered along and then we saw the macaques.
We first noticed a couple on the steps ahead and stopped to look at them. More and more adult and baby macaques came out of the trees on to the steps and then came down them until just three meters from us they individually turned off the path and along one particular nearly horizontal tree branch. From there they split up, the adults quietly climbed trees and ate whilst the young leapt about making more than enough noise. As usual we just stood and watched whilst the troop slowly moved away from us. We commented on the fact that our fellow walkers went by ignoring this sight when one joined us and started taking photographs. It is not that we have not seen this sight before, but every time we are presented with the opportunity to see wild life just getting on with life, we make the most of it. Eventually all the macaques were out of sight, if not out of hearing, and we resumed our walk.
A wonderful morning to share, the photos can be seen here.