#TaleOfTheTrail Southern Ridges (Singapore)

Southern Ridges is a cluster of parks in a 10 kilometer distance that gives high vantage point of the city and forest view along elevated planks along the course.

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Tale Of The Trail

There’s a lot of places to visit in Singapore but let me take this chance to explore the Southern Ridges.

Southern Ridges is more of a city trail than the usual rough road and muddy forest trails I take. It does make up for it for the different vantage point you get to see in the area and the volume of climbing involved.  There’s the city view at Mount Faber Park then it shifts to forest views entering Henderson Waves, Forest Walk, Hort Park, Canopy Walk and eventually Kent Ridge Park.  This time I had a different tour of Singapore and it had me running from one park to another as I get to appreciate the view of Singapore from it’s Southern Ridges.

The starting point is an easy access as it falls just at Exit D of the Harbourfront MRT Station. The end point leads your to either Kent Ridge Park Station or the Pasir Panjang Station depending on which side of Kent Ridge Park you want to exit.  The reason I chose this route was because of the distance.  I needed to log in some mileage for an upcoming race yet I also need to come back early to catch my hotel check out.

Map and Elevation

Map and Elevation Profile Powered by Suunto Spartan Sports.

The route starts at Harborfront MRT Exit D going to the Marang Trail.  The trail heads to McFaber Park – Telok Blangah Hill Park – Hort Park and Kent Ridge Park.

Trekking The Southern Ridges

Stairs and a lot of them

It was easy finding the starting point of the Southern Ridges since it’s at Exit D of Harbourfront MRT station.  That’s the same station you take for the cable car ride to Sentosa.  You just have to look for Marang Road within the station and you’re all set.  It’s all uphill at this point with the trails shifting from uphill roads to stairs for the next kilometer.  It was a struggle at this point as the legs are still not warmed up.

I always have a hard time with stairs compared to uphill paths since you can take the latter with tinier and less energy consuming steps.  I needed the struggle of the climb anyway so it’s time to hustle and just climb.

Upon reaching the top of the climb at Marang Trail, I got a peek of the city.  There was the  cable cars crossing over to the other side of Sentosa.

Cable Cars

The next area to visit was the Faber Point, which would be the highest peak of the trek.  It was another 500 meters of climbing though it was not as steep as the Marang Trail.  It also helped that the area is frequented by tourists.

Merlion at Faber Point.

There was a Merlion at Faber Point and also a panoramic view of the city.

Appreciating the view.

After Haber Point, I was supposed to go to Henderson Waves.  I took the road to the left since it would be intersecting to the same road that leads to Henderson Waves.  Well, this was the longer part since if I took the road on the other side, it’s just about 300 meters away.  It was a rush running downhill even if it was the longer route.  After reaching the intersection I had to climb up again to Henderson Waves.

Henderson Waves

Henderson Waves were a series of elevated wooden path, with waves on one side and the forest view on the other side.  It was fun running this part especially with the greenery surrounding the area. There were also a lot of students enjoying this part of the trail.

Running at Henderson Waves

After the Henderson Waves, I was already at the Telok Blangah Hill Park.  There were painted signs on the road and I just followed the markings heading to the forest walk. There were side attractions like Sembcorp Forest of Giants  and Alkaff Mansion.

The highlight of this stretch though was the forest walk. That’s about 1.3 kilometers of descending zigzag trails on elevated steel planks.  There were also several runners / trekkers doing this part.  I enjoyed this part because of the green backdrop.  While I was struggling a bit on the metal planks since the lugs of the shoes tend to collide with the gaps on the steel ramp, the view was a lush green forest.

Elevated Zigzag Planks.

Once I got the hang of moving around the steel planks, I started to speed up since I need to finish early to catch my hotel check out time.  By the end of the forest walk, I was already in front of the group.

Forest Walk

There were several exit points at the forest walk but I took the one leading to Hort Park. Hort Park was another beautiful park with themed gardens and wide greenery. I even saw one group having wedding pictorials at the center of the gardens.

Hort Park

If you love nature, Hort Park is a good place to visit.  Before reaching the Canopy Walk, I was able to see several themed gardens one after another as they are in the way of the Canopy Walk.  The Canopy walk starts at the end of the park.

The Canopy is a zigzag uphill path heading to Kent Ridge Park.  It’s quite challenging at this park since it was a climb but since it was on zigzag paths it was not too steep.  It was also good that the area is shaded by trees, which helped reduce the heat on the warm morning.

Canopy Walk

On the higher end of the Canopy Walk, there was a road heading to Peppy’s Road and the other road leading to the Pond.  Peppy’s Road is an exit point and I ended up taking the route to Peppy’s Road.

Kent Ridge park

Since I was just at 7 kilometers in my watch, I figured that I should have taken the road to the pond.  I retraced my steps and headed to the pond. There was an overlooking view on the elevated walkway and there were a lot of refreshing areas in the park to just chill.  Once I discovered the route to the pond, I checked my map and had to options to exit. There’s an MRT at Kent Ridge Park after passing the pond or take the MRT at Pasir Panjang.  I opted for the latter since I’ve already covered my 10K for the day in a little over 2 hours of running, walking and trekking.

Got lost but found my way to the MRT.

I followed Peppy’s Road, which led to Pasir Panjang and just a few hundred meters away from the MRT Station.  I love this lost in the city moments.  It was fun exploring 10K worth of city trails, which was a great workout and a tour as well.