Singapores’ Coast to Coast Trail

Singapore has a coast to coast trail. It is billed as a hiking trail but, as bikes are allowed to use pavements as long as they cycle slower than 10 km/h we decided to take the bikes out.

We are living in a house right next to the center of Singapore and the middle of the trail so we divided the tour in to two trips. The first time we headed west and the second time we west east.

Unfortunately Singapore is building a huge expressway across the island. The plans are to incorporate a dedicated cycle path in to the new connection but, right now, the old path is currently a long building site. This meant that on our first day we had to wind through backstreets and then take the main road. It was while we were winding that we cam across six Buddhist temples where we stopped for a look. The caretaker greeted us and immediately handed us each a bottle of water before explaining the history of the beautiful temples.

Once we were passed the building site, we moved on to the park connector network which are wide multi use paths that mostly wind through green spaces and parks. This one followed a river and then a canal through the new town of Punggol until we reached the sea and Coney Island National Park. As you cycle through the trees and passed all the greenery, it is hard to believe that there are six million people crammed in to this small island. But then you look at the massive skyscrapers that can each house a few thousand people and see how it is possible.

This being a hiking trail, you occasionally have to cross footbridges over six lane expressways. The bridges are high enough that a double decker bus can pass under them so there are plenty of steps to train your muscles on. Luckily many bridges and steps have an extra channel next to the steps to push the bike up and down. Another great idea is at the traffic lights. As a pedestrian or cyclist you can press a button so that the “green man” appears to stop the cars. If you are elderly or disabled you can hold your ID-card to the button and the green man stays green longer giving you more time to cross. They are not stupid here.

Our second trip also started on the roads but then moved us on to the park connectors and some relaxed cycling. It is funny that when the locals hear that we are from Germany they all ask how we are coping with the heat while cycling round. They obviously all assume we flew in to the tropics last week and can not imagine why we have not melted.

We cycled until the beautiful Jurong Lake and then around its shores. We found an area of tiny gardens which a lady explained the residents rent from the council to grow food. Her mini garden was growing like mad and the council had told her to cut it back a bit. As a result we cycled home with a bag of Thai Basel.

On the way home we diverted through the forest at Bukit Batok Nature Reserve and then again at Bukit Timah Nature Park. At the latter we met a mountain biker who showed us the start of a MTB trail. He looked young and fit so we asked if it would be OK for us. He replied that we looked fit and competent and it should be OK. The Bukit Timah Mountain Bike Trail has reviews saying “mountain biked in the past and believe my reflexes are pretty decent, but this trail is tricky“. The various sections are marked according to their severity and two black diamonds are definitely not for us. One black diamond was doable but “exciting”. Luckily each double black had a single black alternative. The whole trail was fun but the sweat was pouring off us all the way.

At the end of the trail and in the middle of the forest we realized that we had an hour until our online grocery order was due. We took just over half an hour to get back but arrived, after a total of 45 kilometers, as two balls of sweat who drank a liter each of water and a coffee and two cokes and ate all the cakes Ganis had made for us.

We are definitely seeing Singapore.

First track at allTrails (47 km)
Second track at allTrails (45 km)
Singapore pictures at Google