Welcome to the Southern Ridges! The Ridges are a series of seven connected hill and coastal parks that span the length of Singapore’s south-western coastline. The full length of the hike from end-to-end is about 9 kilometres or about 3 – 5 hours walking time. Beginning with a hike up to Mount Faber Park, the path winds through Telok Blangah Hill Park before either turning south to Labrador Park via the Alexandra Floral Trail and Berlayer Creek Boardwalk, or continuing west to HortPark. After that, the route rises to cut across Kent Ridge Park and NUS Kent Ridge Campus before descending through Clementi Woods to West Coast Park.
The Southern Ridges can be traversed on foot or on bike, and are suitable for all ages and abilities. These parks feature both natural and urban beauty spots – ranging from serene forest walks through regenerating secondary forests to unique architectural gems. Most sections of the Southern Ridges are open 24 hours every day, except for HortPark which is open from 6 am – 11 pm daily.
This series of caches will highlight the various attractions you can find along the ridges, and help you learn more about these places and locales. Bring your family and camera along, and enjoy the hike through a scenic park of the island. We hope you will enjoy the walk as much as we did!
Stage 8: The Singing Forest
Located along a section of the Telok Blangah Hill Forest Walk is the Singing Forest, an initiative by NParks to increase the biodiversity of urban Singapore.
Visitors to Southern Ridges will, in time to come, enjoy a wonderful chorus of birds singing at dawn when a new collection of bird-attracting tree species is established. Conceived to create a bird-friendly forest using regional native trees, the Singing Forest is part of the National Parks Board's plans to enhance biodiversity within our urban areas. This project is sponsored by STMicroelectronics.
Showcasing trees from 38 native tree species that originally dominated our regional landscape before urbanisation, the Singing Forest project aims to intensify the already high diversity of native bird species in the Southern Ridges. Care has been taken to select the native tree species from four botanical families that will provide a wide variety of suitable food sources as well as shelter and nesting areas for native birds. When established, the additional planting of suitable tree species will eventually provide an opportunity for visitors to learn and appreciate the diverse collection of birds and trees in Singapore.
The cache is located behind a sign describing the project. From here, it’s a couple of hundred more metres to the Alexandra Arch and the next section of the Ridges.