An afternoon walk at Southern Ridges

Our Dept has organised a staff bonding during vacation period to Southern Ridges.

I have asked the Dept organiser if I can bring my nephew along and they said it was fine. Therefore Nicholas followed us on this expedition.

The chartered bus brought us to Hortpark first which is at off Alexandra Road. This Hortpark is a must visit for people who loves gardening or has an appreciation for flowers and plants. I will definately asked CK and Mum along the next time. CK has asked me if Hortpark can bring dogs, I'll have to check that out.
Hortpark website --> http://www.gardentech.com.sg/dnn453/default.aspx

After exploring the Hortpark for about half an hour, the group gathered together for a warm up exercise before venturing into the 4 km walk from ridges to ridges. The bridges complete a 9km chain of greenery in the Southern Ridges, which consist primarily of three large hill parks - Mount Faber, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Kent Ridge Park. Our final destination will be at Mount Faber.

This is like a tree-top walk along high steel stilts. Along the way, we spotted a squirrel eating durian fruit from a durian tree. As we advanced, we were able to spot some unique "fruits" which might not be edible. We had a quick resting point near Alkaff mansion and continue to walk to Mount Faber. The journey of 4 km was pretty exhausting to me.

I was very appreciative of Edna and Huey Shan taking care of Nicholas for me during the walk. Energetic Edna was encouraging and spurring Nicholas along which helped a lot in boosting his desire to walk on. Sweety Huey Shan was gentle and patient with Nicholas. Overall the walk was tiring to me but anyhow was glad that Nicholas and myself with the help of friendly colleagues, we finally reached our destination. Before I wrote this blog at about 8:45pm, I called Nicholas and he was already asleep. I believed this day must be quite exhausting for him.

I was also very grateful to some lovable colleagues like Karen, Vim, 2 Erics, Ah "Ma" etc for playing, chatting and taking photographs with Nicholas. It made me feel that he was being welcomed to join the big group of "aunties", "uncles", "Jie Jies" and "Gou Gous"for this walk. Initially I was quite worried if Nicholas would reject walking such a long distance or made a fuss because the weather was really hot. Seems like my worries were unfounded.

Thank you for your help and friendliness :)

* Esther "Ah Ma", you really look too young to be called "Ah Ma" but you have insisted. Think when Nicholas called you "Ah Ma", I thought that it was very heart-warming. Thanks for taking care of Nicholas in Hortpark. Estay, thanks for staying back for the "laggers" like me :)
Website --> http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/index.php?option=com_visitorsguide&task=attractions&id=62&Itemid=73




Thank you video from Nicholas