Southern Ridges Bridges

Brought my family to the new Southern Ridges Bridges this morning. We decided to start at KR Park, thinking that it would be more accessible and less crowded. Apparently, many others had the same idea. So despite reaching the carpark (where the tanker display is) at 730am, it was full and we had to park by the roadside.

I brought them along the wooden Canopy Walk into Hort Park. There were many walkers along the way. Crossing the Alexandra Arch was quite tedious though because of the crowd. It was a metal bridge that zig-zagged over the foilage belo. Most of the sections had only room for 2-3 people abreast, hence causing a slowdown. Looking down, I saw a group of runners along the Earth Trail below. It was Stardust, Ultra, DO, Anthony, Jancy, Vincent etc! I shouted to DO, good thing he looked up and spotted me. Jancy tried snapping a photo of me on the bridge from below - wonder if the distance was too far for the zoom lens. My sister and brother decided to go down and check out the trail. It connected at various points to Alexandra Arch, the last being at Telok Blangah Park. This was the route that we trained our TB loops. Familiar grounds but I was not used to seeing the place in the day, and with so many cars and people. It was as if half the Spore population had descended upon the bridges today! All the car parks and roads around and along the Southern Bridges were totally full and jam-packed with vehicles.

Henderson Waves was my favourite. It was wooden and wide, allowing people to mill around and stroll across. Many families were on the bridge - I hoped the engineers tested its safety load bearing! We ended our trek at the MF loop and turned back to KR Park. It was faster to take the Earth Trail back as there was less people. It was also in the shade and cooler. I met the SGRunners at Alexandra Arch again on the way back.

It was a nice morning walk, but unfortunately marred by the typical ugly Singaporean behaviour. Into the Hort Park, I saw some parents playing with their children on the Lawn Garden. Some strollers cut across the grass to the paths. Many took short-cuts on the grass slopes along the zig-zag loops that joined Hort Park to KR Park. It was a shame, because that left streaks of baldness on the newly planted grass verges, and track marks on the lawn. Adults were to blame, for they led the children up/ down the slopes and let them ran amok on the fields. I was irked. When can we be a civic society that did not require NParks or the government to put up "Do Not..." or "Fined XX for..." signages all around public spaces?