Beware of Tall Grass

There was a hike proposed of @Hai_Ren on twitter to check out The Green Corridor which is pretty much a railroad track of sorts for the weekend and I signed up along with 2 of the crew. The cast of this episode includes @Hai_Ren as the group organizer, @deafknee, @wilfredphua, @irukafishy, Raven Silvers and Avariel. The weather was sunny as we went off in the morning!

Apparently the Nature Society of Singapore was going on a hike too but they would be from another side of the tracks, heh.

And so this was the start of the trail. We had to go through bushes and shrubbery but there IS somewhat of a foot trail there but it’s not that obvious.

On we went. A good preparation of proper shoes, long pants, a large waterbottle including sunblock and other stuff are needed to get on this hike. We had to climb over fallen trees, duck under branches and other crevices till we found the old track! Bird calls are loud and you can hear them whooping away. Not chirping but you know, the kind where the birds go “WoooOOOo, woooOOooh!”.

Since I have bad macro on my camera, make sure you check out @Hai_Ren’s and @deafknee’s blogs when they post up! They took more pictures of the insects/creatures/plants than me since I took more on landscape.

Halfway through the route, we paused at a point where there was a shallow pond of sorts. It had running water on one end but it was somewhat still except for the pondskaters and other plants. Avariel walked on the railtrack so it looked like she walked on water to get to the tunnel.

Yesss, a tunnel! The train used to go through here but obviously not anymore. At this point, you can hear traffic going past but it is too high up above the tunnel should you try to get attention from anyone.

Ok, to get to the OTHER side of the tunnel was difficult. Make sure you really have good secure shoes on your feet and to KEEP MOVING. You can try walking on the railtrack but still, you’d sink in the mud. This was the point that if you didn’t do it right, you might lose a shoe or get stuck in the mud cause it was past ankle deep.

Of course we managed to get past that. Oddly though, we stumbled upon a group of thirty or so people along the way and ooh-er… It was some sort of group retreat kind of trip but some of them were clearly not looking as if they prepared for a good hike, wearing slippers and such. Nonetheless, they’re all adults there so they should be ok… We warned them of the mud in the tunnels and the trees and stuff to get through along the way.

We passed a river and in this field of grass, dragonflies zipped around everywhere.

Finally we reached the tracks! Yay!

Hurray, hurrah! We all took pictures. Also, you can see Avariel’s Android figurine on the tracks here. It was still a long walk till we reached the station though!

Yaaaay! The Bukit Timah station of Woodlands, Singapore.

I don’t know what this is. What is this? I mean the proper name for it, I have seen it on TV and photos where the station master hands something to one of the train conductors as the train goes by? What is it exactly since it’s not the mailbag. What IS IT?

The sign says it’s from 1967. The switches are still working, I’d think since the lights are still on. Besides, this station will only close in July. The next train would have arrived in an hour or so if we had stuck around.

Under the government of Malaysia. Alas, it will close in July and we won’t really know what will happen to the tracks and everything.

Ah, this is a good look at how my shoes were after all that walking and trudging through mud. The sun dried it since it was much muddier than that! That was the end of the adventure, hurraaah.

As we walked out of the station and towards the main road, we could see the overhead railway track. Currently it is still in use so it would be dangerous to get on it. For those wanting to get to this place before it closes in July, check out The Green Corridor facebook. They’re going to have more walks but their route is definitely much easier to go on.

Like Avariel said as we clambered over obstacles during the hike for our route, “I have never gone through such conditions except in video games”.