Pak-Tor-ing @ MacRitchie

Ly, who wisely decided to complete his last 3 months of National Service during this university break before going on to his fourth and final year at NIE, cleared his leave last week and we went for a nature date @ MacRitchie. Our purpose in making the journey there was to see the newly-opened and recently-hyped-about Treetop Walk -- a suspension kind of bridge in the canopy of MacRitchie.

Typical of me, I started our journey by feeding us plums.

(Yes, not the most glamourous shots of the two of us, but I guarantee you we are as sweet as the plums.)

See what I mean?

I have only been to MacRitchie briefly once in my life for a torturous "cross-country" run while in JC that left me barely conscious to take in my surroundings. So here I am, finding everything I see, brand new.

The dam!

A boat in the middle of the reservoir!

Big Terrapin!

We begin on our trail...

So Singaporean -- before you enter the sacred ground, the welcoming signboard warns the obedient people that thou shalt not commit the act of.. blah blah blah (x4)..

Walk, walk, walk.. But here are some of the highlights of the 5km walk there (don't forget that meant +5km walk back too).

Check out this plant's defence system.. I bet this is a female plant..

Fungified leaf

Funky fushroom -- It looks like fungi growing on fungi

Peculiar leaves - like paper cut-outs..

Digitally-enhanced, but this really is the work of nature. (Click for enlargement) The three twines/air roots/branches/whatever actually meet together to form a Mercedes logo!

I would not have dared to get this close to the yellow bug. My Olympus camera's zoom is deceptive.

After about 2 hours of mundane trekking, we finally arrived at what seemed like the entrance of the much-awaited and much-sweated-for Treetop Walk. As you can see, I was rather exhausted by this point. The final stretch had been an unpleasant uphill climb.

The friendly Treetop man.

Tadaa!

I've conquered the bridge! Yey!!!

Can you see the depth? (Actually, it's not that fascinating lah, quite disappointing actually.)

Gotcha! Digitally-enhanced, or rather digitally-transformed photo of an ugly and badly-taken tree:

A PRC helped us take our one and only photo together (without the close-up-ness of self-holding the camera).

All sweaty and really gross-looking, we ended the trip (halfway at least) the same way we started it -- with another bite. Ly had lovingly prepared these egg-tomato sandwiches prior to our venture. The white squares on my face are the censored portions where I had gotten my mayonaise all over. Embarassing. Ly didn't tell me I had those tell-tale spots of my greed -- he must have been too tired to give me another romantic gaze I guess (but frankly, I'm in a mess here).

For the background details, we really were a soft and pathetic pair (or perhaps I had influenced him to pamper me). For starters, Ly had driven us to MacRitchie in cool air-con luxury. We thought we were having a good workout trekking up and panting, but two groups of retirees overtook us with ease while we advanced towards the goal. After we emerged triumphant (and beaten) from the Treetop trail, we took a degrading shortcut. Instead of returning the same way we came, we walked about half a kilometre to Singapore Something Country Club and called for a cab which took us in comfort to where Ly had parked his Mazda.

Nevertheless, this was the first time I had been on a nature trek, just with my Sweetheart. It was really quite romantic actually... I kept ranting about how happy I was through the 3 hours we were there. I had never quite been alone with him and doing something. If it was a movie, shopping, strolling, cycling, badmintoning or eating, there always were people of the public around.

Hence, the conclusion of the matter (of this long blog entry): This double date with Ly and nature was thoroughly fulfilling. :)