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New Paper, 30 Jan 05 6,000 people flock here every weekend by Teh Jen Lee After a lovely 1 1/2-hour walk in MacRitchie reservoir, your reward... a stairway to heaven - a walk among the trees where you'll see...monkey business... flower power...and sting in the tale SINGAPORE'S latest attraction cost $1.6m to build but it costs nothing to visit. The MacRitchie tree-top walk in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve, which was launched less than two months ago, has been attracting between 2,000 and 3,000 visitors a day on weekends. Ms Sharon Chan, assistant director of the Central Nature Reserve Branch, said the response has been very encouraging. She said branch officials are comfortable with the number of people visiting the place as 'it allows visitors to fully appreciate the flora and fauna at the tree canopy'. And for those who want to see animals, like reptiles and birds, the 250m bridge - suspended up to 25m above the ground - puts you right where the action is. As nature guide Subaraj Rajathurai, 41, described it: 'Instead of looking up and breaking your neck just to get a glimpse of an animal's silhouette, you see it at eye-level. 'Some of the most beautiful birds in the forest are found in the canopy.' His son, Serin, 9, was with him and was obviously enjoying his first tree-top walk. With round-eyed earnestness, the boy listed the birds he had seen that morning: 'Dollarbird, bee-eater, fairy blue bird, banded woodpecker...' He also spotted butterflies and was trying to match what he had seen with the laminated identification cards placed along the bridge. Preliminary surveys from the tree-top walk have recorded over 80 species of birds and reptiles. Unlike similar bridges which are anchored onto large trees, the one at MacRitchie is free-standing and suspended between towers at Bukit Peirce and Bukit Kalang. The tree-top walk took two years to complete and extra care was taken so that no trees would have to be cut down. HSBC Bank and NParks have set aside $300,000 to enhance the tree-top walk as an outdoor classroom for the natural sciences. The fund will go towards programmes for students, workshops for teachers, the training of nature guides and the production of educational materials. links Fact sheet on the Tree Top Walk with links to more articles. Related articles on Re-creation in our wild places |
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