Singapore & Tokyo | Feb 2025

Last year, I visited the newly opened Rifle Range Nature Park. During my visit, I noted there were directional signs indicating that MacRitchie was 3km away. I took "MacRitchie" to mean MacRitchie Reservoir. I was a little skeptical that it was only 3km away, but I decided to give it a try because I thought NParks may have built some kind of park connector.

Setting off from Bukit Timah Road, the first part of the trail in the park took me just west of the main trail to Coluga Nest for a little over 1km. The trail then exited out onto Rifle Range Road, from which point, directional signage was pretty much non-existent. I trudged up the road hoping I would encounter signage that would make good on the promise of a 3km hike to MacRitchie. Sadly, this was not the case; after a little over 2km, I reached the end of the road, at which point I was at the western EDGE of MacRitchie Central Catchment Nature Reserve. I was a little bit annoyed at having been misled, but it was also my fault for not researching further.

When I was living in Singapore, I used to cycle up the steep Rifle Range Road, lock up my bike, and hike about 30 minutes to what I thought was MacRitchie Reservoir. Today's hike led me to the same trailhead, except this time there was a map of the area. I discovered from the map that the reservoir I used to hike to was actually Lower Pierce Reservoir. I looked at the map and decided to make my way to the Jelutong Tower and MacRitchie Reservoir, and then exit via the Singapore Island Country Club (SICC). I could also have taken a different path to visit Upper Pierce Reservoir's Treetop Walk, but I decided to reserve that for another trip.

The hike to Jelutong Tower was about 2km. When I got there, I climbed up to the top level and enjoyed the views. MacRitchie Reservoir was in the distance. I was a little concerned that the tower swayed a little when other people were climbing it, so I made my way back down.

From the tower, I followed the trail leading to MacRitchie Reservoir and out to Lornie Road. I hit the SICC not long after. The SICC was fenced in to keep out riff raff like me, but it was a very discreet fence with strategically placed vegetation to make it less obvious. The path then led to a bridge over the reservoir - hikers and SICC shared the same bridge; SICC was on the right, and the hiking path was on the left. The two were seperated by potted plants. Only in Singapore would the divide between crazy rich and minions be demarcated so politely - but passive aggressively - by potted plants!

After a while, I reached the MacRitchie Reservoir boardwalk. Upon examining the map, I saw that the boardwalk could take me to MacRitchie Park, but I also had the option of taking a shortcut out to Lornie Road if I wanted to. I decided to walk along the boardwalk. Back in my youth, we had our kayaking training in MacRitchie, and we also did our cross country competitions there, so there was some element of nostalgia driving my decision to walk along the reservoir edge. However, I soon realized I was getting tired as it was hot and what I thought would be a 3km walk had already clocked well over 8km. So, I opted to take the shortcut out to Lornie Road from where I took a bus back to my mother's condo.Read more