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Published: March 3rd 2012
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MAC RITCHY RESERVOIR, SINGAPORE. Friday 2 March, 2012.
Today we decided to go to the Mac Ritchy Reservoir, which was another recommendation from Dick and Patsy. Despite the rather threatening sky we decided to carry on with our plans for the day and went to see our surly friend at the Customer Information Point in the Metro Station. He checked with his equally surly mate about the best way to get to the reservoir and told us we needed the 166 bus from exit E. We went to the bus stop, and this time D was weighed down with sufficient small change for us to get there and back. We boarded the bus and asked for the Mac Ritchy Reservoir and were greeted with a confused look from the driver. D tried again "Mac Ritchy Reservoir Please", D tried about 3 times before the driver looked enlightened and said "Ah Mah Reeshee Reswah".
We arrived at the reservoir and commenced the 12 km circular walk through secondary rainforest and around the lakeside. We carefully noted the signs that warned us not to feed the monkeys, not to carry plastic bags or food (as they may try to steal them)
and if we were approached by the monkeys not to look them in the eye and if they went for your carrier bag to ditch it and get out quick smart. As we walked through the rainforest we spotted a chipmonk type of critter - it certainly wasn't a squirrel. The paths were marked very clearly and all the way around the trail any interesting flora was marked out with a sign and detailed information. There were also signs asking you to report any snake sightings to the ranger. The snakes that live here are venemous, but not really harmful to humans if bitten, as the venom is only strong enough to stun small animals which make up the snake's diet. Still probably best to avoid any attempt to be snacked on.
We were heading for the Tree Canopy Walk which has been built by the HSBC bank and was some 4.5 kilometers into the walk. We went into the ranger hut at the beginning of the walk, looked at the map, read the spiel and used the facilities before making our way up the steep slope to the start of the walk. The tree top walk was beautifully
Monkey in Rainforest Canopy
There is a monkey in there - honest! done. It was here that we encountered the troops of Monkeys, launching themselves from tree to tree and running along the wires of the suspension bridge which forms the walk across the tree tops. We could see for miles across a number of reservoirs and the forest canopy to the skyscrapers in the distance. At the other end of the suspension bridge were wooden steps all the way down again. We reached the hut at the end of the walk when D realised he had left his prized 'Cuban' hat at the ranger station at the start of the walk. D left M at the hut and followed the one- way system back to the beginning of the walk to try to retrieve his hat. M waited patiently in the hut and it then started to rain. D returned, a little damp, but with the hat! We stayed in the shelter until the rain had stopped and then proceed to the next stop which was Jelutong Tower with views over the rainforest. We climbed to the top and took several more pictures.
We continued on our way and were just passing the posh golf course when the heavens opened
again. Luckily we were near a golfers' refuge hut and the nice groundsman let us take shelter there. We waited in the hut for at least an hour and a half but the rain showed no sighn of subsiding. It got a little lighter so we donned our plastic macs and decided to go for it. We walked the remaining 5 kilometers of the walk in the pouring rain and got very wet. At least it was warm rain - but still just as wet as English rain! Luckily a lot of the walk back was a boardwalk around the reservoir (eat your heart out St Marti! which is our local boardwalk back home in Spain). It went on for kilometers and was much easier underfoot than the wet terrain (with rivers of water running through) that we had been walking on up till then. On this boardwalk we saw lots of bird life. M took a good shot of a heron in flight.
We arrived back to the start of the walk and caught the bus back to Clarke Key where we had a Burger King and posted the blogs from KL. We then colleced our luggage from
the hotel and caught the metro to the harbourside. It was after 8.00 pm and we thought we would just breeze our way onto the ship to have a shower and some dinner (as all the non independent travellers should already be on board). How wrong could we be. There had been a security alert and the whole ship had been evacuated. All the passengers and crew who were already on board had got off and all the new passengers had not even checked in. There were OAP's lying all over the cruise terminal floor. It was like the Blitz. They came round with a bottle of water and a McDonalds hamburger for everyone after we had been waiting about two hours. We waited at the teminal until finally being allowed on at 12.15 am. Dumped our stuff in the cabin and straight to the bar for a bottle of wine!
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Tony
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Tiger Beer
Thinking of buying shares in tiger beer the way you're both sinking them :)