Red Dot Roaming - Beauty World MRT - Hindhede Nature Park and Bukit Timah Nature Reserve

Those of you with a keen eye may have noticed that my series of Red Dot Roaming adventures are being done alphabetically. However with the opening last December of the second section of the new Downtown Line there are some new stations on the MRT network and therefore potentially other places to visit. A little bit of investigation later and I soon discovered this was true of one of the new stations, Beauty World, which gave me the opportunity to easily explore the Hindhede Nature Park and also visit Bukit Timah Nature Reserve once again. So I'm backtracking to 'b' for my next Red Dot Roam.

Hindhede Nature Park is actually right next to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, somewhere we first visited a long time ago, and I had no idea was the case until we returned to the area. The nature park is a lot smaller than I expected and a very straightforward walk, nice for families etc., but it still made a pleasant Sunday stroll. The main attraction of the park is undoubtedly the former Hindhede granite quarry. The site was an active quarry in the mid-1900s but now, just as in another of my Red Dot Roams to Bukit Batok town park, the granite quarry has been turned into a nature park. After quarrying ceased at Hindhede quarry the crater left behind gradually filled with ground and rain water creating the lovely lake you can see in my photos below. 

Entering the Hindhede nature park from Hindhede Drive you can easily follow some well laid out trails and in no time at all reach the viewing platform overlooking the quarry. By the way you can't get to view the quarry lake from any other point, just this one viewing point. As I mentioned above it does not take very long to get there or follow the trails in its vicinity so we then ventured off back to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve. 

The well-informed among you may know that Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is currently closed for renovations but if you visit the area on weekends you can now enter it via the Hindhede Nature Park (NB. this is currently the only point of access to Bukit Timah Nature Reserve) and at least see some of the reserve and also follow the summit trail. Word of warning, after the ease of the Hindhede Nature Park this walk and climb is quite a challenge. I did vaguely recall how steep the climb was but even so it was still quite something else doing it again, go prepared! I also personally feel the summit is just a little disappointing as, despite being the highest point in Singapore, the view from there really is very limited. However it was still good to revisit the reserve and it extended our visit to this part of the island.

Hindhede quarry

Hindhede quarry

At the top of the summit trail in Bukit Timah Nature Reserve - this sign is a bit of an understatement!

After our climb to the summit we had a brief rest and then began the, much easier, descent with the intention of finding some lunch to end our visit in one of the nearby places we had spotted on our walk from the MRT station. On the way back down Hindhede Drive you pass underneath part of the Rail Corridor where I spotted a runner on a Sunday jog, somewhere else I need to pay a visit to at some point soon.

Beauty World MRT is on the Downtown Line (DT5).

If you missed any of my previous Red Dot Roaming posts, check them out here!