We used to plan our trips especially nature walks because of the kids. Just the usual weather check and at least knowing where we are going beforehand and if the kids would be able to finish the trail is a must. If the gets too much for them and we’re in the middle of ‘who knows where’, oh gosh!

We arrived at the main entrance of MacRitchie Reservoir Park (that one in the bottom right of the map). This isn’t our first time going on nature walks, we just usually would just follow where our feet would bring us and when the kids start to make complains then that’s the only time we’ll find the quickest way going home which is usually just a few minutes walk to the nearest bus stop that could easily bring us to a mall or somewhere more comfortable—aka mall with aircon.haha

So when we arrived and we’re welcomed by monkeys, the kids were both entertained and just curious about what more could they see as we walk along.

And then after a few minutes walk, this view of the reservoir. It was so peaceful and amazing to look at. I felt like in an island vacation.

Of course, complimentary souvenir photo of the fam is a must! Luckily there’s this kind couple who helped us take this photo. Always grateful for those who offer help to take our photos.🥰

There may be a lot of people on this area but as you walk further, you’ll notice that only a few would continue the walking trail How could not you not love walking around these lovely trees. I bet the last photo of a tree is older than me.

We started with the Lornie Trail. Deep inside, I was feeling skeptical already when I saw the start of the trail (see their background). Though it looked safe, seeing that the trail isn’t the usual fully developed trail still makes this momma’s heart skip a bit or two every once in a while.

See more photos below and you’ll understand what I mean.

Moving on, these calm waters along the board walk made me have a change of heart and just chill. I don’t want to chicken out when everyone is so game on this nature walk! haha

How could you not feel relaxed by this view!

We just followed the path of the board walk (cause there’s also no other way to go!) to see where it would lead us. If you’ve been reading my other blogs you’ll know that I’m the mom who always brings snacks to bribe my kids especially on nature walks like this. So here we are, about 10 mins from walking and they asked if they could have some of the chocolates that I brought. I knew that having monkeys in the entrance is already a red-flag that eating is not advised while on trail but then……

as you can see on this photo, Audrey is already seeing something on top of the trees with a worried face. A few seconds after this photo came a monkey beside her. They might have heard the wrapper of the chocolates I gave the kids. Aaaahhhh! She got so scared and screamed! My hubby who’s with her was shocked as well. Luckily, shocked but still calm, he just shooed away the monkey and it climbed up the tree. We’re blessed it wasn’t those kind of monkeys who would hurt people.

We carried on with our walk as if nothing happened. There are other group we came across every now and then so we didn’t worry much where this trail would lead us.

One of the reason why we went here was for the TreeTop but we’re already on the bus when we knew that it was closed for renovation. So one place we can go to to make our trip interesting for the kids is to go up the Jelutong Tower. It is 7-storey observation deck with a 360-view of the forest of MacRitchie.

Going up was no biggie, we just noticed that its quite high—-like no ending stairs. As expected, the bravest among us riding roller coasters was the one who got scared of how high we were. You can clearly see on the photo below who that person is! haha.. It wasn’t hard to urge them to go down after a while thanks to a group who came. We knew it would be too crowded when they arrive so we hurriedly went down.

Oh that trip down that stairs is one for the books! With the group who came climbing the stairs and us going down, it felt like the whole tower was swaying! We needed to stop a few levels before the bottom as people are passing by the stairs. It’s impossible for two way traffic.

It was a wrong move though. That few minutes of sitting down gave us cramps when going down the stairs. Both me and my hubby needed to walk down facing backwards for us to reach the bottom. hahaha. Luckily it was just with stairs and when we arrived at the bottom, everything is back to normal. It needed to be as our daughters can’t carry us home!🤪

Our journey continued and the kids were starting to become a bit weary. I can’t bribe them anymore because monkeys can be somewhere around. They don’t dare ask for their chocolates either so we settled by cheering them up by showing them the map and how far we walked already. It kinda lightened them up. It was also in this map that we realised that we’re following the the yellow trail….the holy guacamole 11km trail!!! Our intention was just to do some leisure nature walk. But as you can see we’ve already walked half of it so we decided the other half shouldn’t be much of a deal.

Then it rained. I’m not sure if I’ll be thankful that it rained when we are on the part of the trail were it was this open and no trees to somehow give us shelter. OR it was better as it would be more spooky and perhaps dangerous for us to walk on muddy trail. Anyways, we still continued with great spirits! Our little one got lucky with a few minutes of a lift from daddy when she complained that her feet is tired already.

We tried our best to keep things entertaining with the kids to divert their tiredness. I even am feeling exhausted already, what more these two troopers with us. What better way to make drinking water entertaining? By squirting water to their mouth! Sure this made them energetic again afterwards.

Here we are slowly reaching our first 11km!!!woohooo!

It was almost 7pm when we reached the end of our trail. One of our worries and what kept us pushing to walk faster was getting stuck inside the woods when it gets dark. We noticed that there isn’t any lamps anywhere so it would be pitch black in there after the sun sets. Here we are smiling from ear to ear feeling accomplished and blessed for finishing that trail and most of all proud of our girls for making it!

Of course we headed to the nearest bus stop that brought us to the nearest mall on the way home. It was past dinner time so McDonald’s at Northpoint Mall isn’t that crowded anymore.

Our shoes got really dirty with the mud when it rained. Our kids turned to Peppa Pig’s jumping on muddy puddles whenever we came across one. So here they are the next day learning their lesson not to do that again.haha…

Excuse that hole in our little one’s leggings. That’s her favourite and we’re still in the process on letting go of it. haha

That’s the end of this blog. I hope you enjoyed this post as much as did sharing to your our adventures. If you know any interesting place we can go next make sure to leave on the comments below. 

If you’re looking for some inspiration for future adventures within Singapore, check out our previous trip to the Rail Corridor! This amazing how much greenery this “Little Red Dot” can have. Truly there’s much more to explore than just stroll in the malls every weekend.

Read more: Weekend Family Trip Tips

Till our next adventure,

The Javier’s c/o TheMommyWithAGoal