May 27, 2012

Bedok Reservoir - Tampines Quarry

The general plan was to walk around Bedok Reservoir starting from Bedok Station bus stop. We would include a side trip to Tampines Quarry and finish by walking along the Bedok Park Connector to Simpang Bedok. 

Bedok Reservoir
From Bedok Station bus stop we walked along Bedok North Ave 3 which went under the Pan-Island Expressway then emerged at the Bedok Reservoir. We turned westward and walked until the walking jetty. From here we went to Block 739 for an early lunch.

After that we returned to the reservoir and moved on westward to follow the track that led to the hilltop (behind the Archipelago Condominium) where there were benches and shelters. This hill gave a panoramic view of the reservoir from a higher viewpoint. Near the northern part of the reservoir, we walked through the carpark leading to a bridge that crossed a wide monsoon drain.

Tampines Quarry
Then we crossed Tampines Ave 10 at the edge of the Tampines Quarry Park. To get to the trail, we walked northward until abreast with Tampines Ave 1. We saw a cyclist ahead of us and just followed him to the clearing used by anglers.

We caught up with the cyclist at a clearing. He came from Pasir Ris. He seemed to be familiar with the place. Asked whether there was a trail around the quarry, he said partially but with a bit of bashing, we could go around the quarry. Thanking him for the info, away we merrily went, little did we realize that when we ran out of trail, we had to really 'bash' through waist high lalang. All of us ended up with cuts of one kind or another. Some were allergic to the rubbing of the grass and suffered itchiness in the exposed legs.

Fence along the sand stockpile at Tampines Quarry
During an earlier visit we saw a couple of guys playing around with their rc boats. They had lost control of one of the boats which was drifting westward. They were preparing to move to the other side of the pond to retrieve their boat.

Fishing Deck at Bedok Reservoir
We followed the trail toward the north. We ran out of trails near the northern part of the quarry and had to resort to bashing down the tall lalang. We soon ran out of accessible trail and instead bashed in the direction of a fence. Here we were happy to find that there was a trail beside the fence for us to us walk along. Had we known this we would have aimed for the fence earlier. The fence formed the boundary for the sand stockpile facility.

We returned to Bedok Reservoir to continue our walk along the north perimeter. Just past the Forest Adventure Park (where you learn to walk from treetop to treetop with your colleagues or classmates) we crossed Bedok Reservoir Road to the Bedok Park Connector. We continued along the connector until we reached the Simpang Bedok food outlets for a well-deserved rest and refreshment.

GPS Track
 
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