Discovery of Southern Ridges

The second day of a Year 2009 first exploration is the Southern Ridges Trail.

After some research on the internet, I discovered there's no one website that can give a very comprehensive guide on the Southern Ridges. So I recommend some of the websites which are really helpful if you are going to southern ridges for a try. There are also maps available on the website for you to download.
- Deadpoet's Cave
- Eudaemon
- National Park

Southern Ridges trail starts from West Coast Park to Harbourfront Mrt. Alternative, u may also start from Harbourfront Mrt and end at West Coast Park. The Npark website states it's a 9km stretch of trail, but we believe is definately more than that. The Southern Ridge will pass through West Coast Park, Clementi Woods, Science Park, Kent Ridge Park, Hort Park, Telok Blangah Hill Park and Mt Faber Park.

So pls wear comfortable clothings and shoes. Caps and umbellra if u need one. Water is important pls bring plenty of it. No worry abt toilets, there will be along the way in the parks. You may bring snacks along but pls dispose it properly.


For our trail, we started from NUS Central Library, hence skipping the West Coast Park and Clementi Woods.

First of all, we had to find the way to Kent Ridge Road. We managed to find the hidden red brick stairs and eventually led us to the Kent Ridge Road. Walking along that road, we didn't manage to sight the British Military Guard Post. The good thing was we spotted the Kent Ridge Commemorative Plaque.

However, its location was NOT at Prince George's Park as stated on the map. It was at the junction of South Buona Vista Road. At this junction, you could choose to go by the Science Park Drive or South Buona Vista Road. We took the route by the South Buona Vista road which aka the "99-turns" due to the nature of the road had many turns like Initial D racing route.

We eventually reached the Kent Ridge Park. However if you wanted to have lunch before continuing, just walked a little more and u could have the famous duck rice.




At Kent Ridge Park, lookout for the tank exhibit and the memorial plaque. The park is quite quiet and have a great scenery view of the southern islands. We followed on the trail and led to the Canopy walk.

At the end of the Canopy walk, we saw this Reflection of Bukit Chandu. It is one of the tourist attraction. The admission fee into the mansion is $2. There's also the Peak Mansion nearby.



From there, proceed to the Hortpark was tricky. We actually went the wrong way, until we decided to walk back to the mansion and luckily we found the way to hortpark. It was actually right next to the canopy walk exit and was well-hidden. There also isn't any signboard to tell u where to continue.



We followed the zig-zag pathway down and reached the HortPark (Horticulture Park) which was actually part of the Floral walk. Take your time to explore this place. It was really a beautiful park which consisted of many different garden themes. Highly recommended..!

Followed the signboard led us to the Alexander Arch. Then we walked on the metal bridges through the Forest walk. If you were lucky, you might spot a durian. Till the end of the Forest walk, was the zig-zag elevated steel walkway which led to the Hilltop walk (Telok Blangah Hill Park).

We walked up to the terrace garden. This is the place where Mediacorp like to film. We also had no chance to check out the Alkaff Mansion as it was still renovating. Finally, the trail led us to one of the highlight of trail, the Henderson Wave. The scenary was really magnificent.

At the end of the bridge was the Mt Faber Park. The scenery was also as beautiful as the rest. We walked pass the Grand Jewel Box cum the Cable car station. There were signs around showing the way of Southern Ridges.

Lastly, we had reached the Marang Trail. It's nothing except many steps of stairs. So if u start from Harbourfront, u have to climb up all these stairs before u can enjoy the scenaries. Afterall, it was a great workout and exploration. Feel free to try it out. ;) Hope this will act as a simple guide.