When you run at Macritchie

January 22, 2017
| 5 Comments
| Interesting places to run, Running and life, Running Routes

Running trail is a wonderful pursuit. Like life running trail is unpredictable. Most of the time it’s an enjoyable unpredictable.

A picture essay of what you might see and experienc. We should love Macritchie.. Photos were all taken with iPhones, from the early iPhone 3GS to iPhone 6s. Why? To capture a photo, all you need is an iPhone camera, to run all you need is a pair of shoes.

I usually begin from Lower Pierce Reservoir, entering Macritchie Nature Reserve via the Venus Drive access to the Tree Top Walk.

Start point, Lower Pierce Reservoir. Where I lace up to go

while I lace up, perform my dynamic warm up, that’s my view

Nothing to see but urban traffic from Lower Pierce to Venus Drive. Entrance to trail heaven. This was in 2010.

Same location, taken from almost the same spot in 2017. Visitor centre to the right is being completed.

Bored walk from Venus Drive up to Tree Top Walk. Too clean, not the real thing.

On the Tree Top Walk. The reservoir you see here is Upper Pierce Reservoir

Fast flowing channel between Upper Pierce and Macritchie Reservoirs. This was once called New Zealand River by anglers during my teen years.

Follow the channel upstream and we find the shore of Upper Pierce Reservoir. Tranquil

At the beginning of the what I call ‘the pipeline’. On Rifle Range Road. The pipeline will take you to Chestnut Drive, Bukit Timah Hill and Mandai. To me this is the border between Macritchie Reservoir and the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. Approximately north west of here or on the left hand side of the pipeline is Bukit Timah.

The reason why I call this stretch the pipeline. The pipeline will take you to Chestnut Drive, Bukit Timah Hill and Mandai. To the left is Bukit Timah. Straight ahead is Chestnut Drive, Woodlands and Mandai.

Backtracking on the Rifle Range Link, hanging a left at New Zealand River brings us to a pristine stream.

Pristine stream. Play stepping stones cross or get your feet wet. You choose. Careful if you play, cools and refreshes your feet if you splash through. Hope the CRL will not come through here or else we might lose this.

A storage hut in the middle of the forest. Tried peeking into it. Empty it was. The hut was at most times in submerged up to halfway. But in recent times, this pond bed has been almost dry.

Then onto Sime trail. Hang a left, you head back to the Ranger Station and the tree TOP walk. Hang a right and you go on the Golf link. It’s closed now, from October 2016 and is expected to reopen in May 2017.

On the Golf link you catch the Golf links, fairways and bunkers of the SICC, Bukit course.

Following the Golf Link will take you onto Lornie Trail. Before that though here is something that perplexed me.

Is there a reason this is designed this way? It breaks the running rhythm and can be quite dangerous. I much prefer the natural loose gravel and earth that was before.

Sometimes you go running in running water. On Lornie Trail

Lornie Trail will end at MacRitchie Reservoir Park, where all the touristy, and social things happen like concerts in the park.

Exiting the Lornie trail, a view from Vava bistro

Then on to the Macritchie trail.

Entering the Macritchie trail

The Macritchie trail, narrow and the most arduous climbs in the trail. They come at you quickly. Doesn’t matter from which direction you take it, it’s tough climbing. Fun.

Then back down to Venus drive and on to Lower Pierce Reservoir.

There are pitfalls.

Result of a tumble. Caught my foot on an above ground root at the TOP of hill on Macritchie trail. Tumbled all the way to the bottom. The fastest I got to the bottom of the hill ever. Picture was taken at the MacRitchie Reservoir park rest room area. Limped there laughing.

Then there was the time this happened, which I noted on my runkeeper note. I didn’t think taking a picture then was appropriate. Helped the kid out. Brave boy he was.

Pitfalls. Got to be careful. Together with 2 other runners we gave first aid to as best we can. Waited for his friends to come along to take him home.

And there will be obstacles

Low hanging deadfall. Beware your head clearance. Smacked my head into a much lower hanging one than this.

A series. Went over the first, under the next 2 and over the last

Plenty of these but the efficient people of NParks will have these cleared within a month 

Running in water. And fhen, there was the fallen trees and water obstacle

Do monitor lizards eat monkeys? Monkeys swarmed fallen trees, blocking runners from passing with their shrieking. Monitor lizards seen in the vicinity. Runner 10 minutes behind me reported that monkeys were gone. Could they have been the monitor lizards’ lunch. It was lunch time at the time.

Water points and toilet breaks

Get hydrated from this tap at the gate of a military installation where the Rifle Range link meets Rifle Range Road.

There are 2 toilets in all of the Macritchie nature reserve. One at the Park entrance at Lornie Road, the other at the Ranger Station at the Tree Top Walk. Both are clean and pretty civilised. But we’re out in the wilds, we can actually simply get off the track, make sure we are not seen and relieve. The World Toilet Organization reckons that around one billion people in our world today face the indignity of defecating in the open. A lack of clean and safe toilets at schools leads to higher dropout among girls once they reach puberty. Diarrhoeal diseases – a direct consequence of poor sanitation – kill more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined.

Lets not forget the flora and fauna of the reserve.

In all my runs here. I’ve come across albino pythons, twice, both on the Lornie trail perhaps it’s the same guy, I am not sure, though. Of course I’ve seen the monkeys, monitor lizards, the flying squirrel but not the leopard cat. When I come across these residents of the reserve, there was not enough time for me to whip out my iPhone to snap a picture except for this one, yesterday. Appropriate as we look forward to welcome his year soon.

Welcoming his year soon

My friend Ben Naden, an avid birder and nature photographer would do more justice to the flora and fauna in the reserve. You can view his work with the residents of the reserve here.

Where?

That’s where all of this is happening

Run Macritchie with me.