Rail Trail further explored

We finished the last of the Parent Teacher Interviews on Sunday. It wasn't as hectic this week with the bulk of them done the week before. Eric had to have the Wednesday off to get over the cold and returned to work Thursday just in time for the Senior Staff mtg. Heather and I went shopping for Great Race trophies and both of us came home with a new pair of shoes, as you do. 'The Great Singapore Sale' has already begun so there are bargains galore for the next two months. 
That's it for the Great Race preparation. We have the legs completed, the instructions and questions printed and by this time next week it will all be over. The teams are all in their stables and will be under starters orders from Saturday night when we tell them where the starting line is. It has an equine theme since it is the Year of the Horse. There have been weekly pre-race competitions which included cryptic clues for staff names, name the movie or book title featuring a horse etc. which has encouraged a lot of interbranch discussion once again. Competition brings out both the best and worst in people doesn't it?
On Friday I had my hair cut while Eric had his branch audit interview. When they audit they inspect teachers' boxes to see that class preparation is in place and recording is up to date. The leader interview is all about knowledge of the handbook of procedures and being able to locate things like first aid kits and registers. Tiresome trivia but it has to be done. 
Heather and Michael have friends over from Lismore so they joined us at Joe's on Sunday night and again on Monday for the walk up Bukit Timah. It was no trouble for them, in fact they did it more easily than some of our regulars. Must have forgotten to mention that we do it at Nepali Pace! 

Bev spent the afternoon with us sorting out some issues on her laptop and then Peter, who has been away visiting the KL Branches, joined us for dinner. We started with plans to go into town or at least somewhere along the green line so Bev could get home easily to Jurong but in the end we just ate at the local stalls across the road then came back to the couches for more chat and refreshments. Peter returns from KL with liqueur chocolates each trip!
We needed to walk all that off, so on Tuesday morning he joined us for a walk along the rail trail that I had had just a brief taste of last week.  We took the train and bus all the way back to Bukit Timah and got off at the Rail Mall. The line only closed on 1 July 2011 following aan agreement between the Singapore and Malaysian governments. There was no community consultation. We walked for 2 hrs along the original rail track to where Alexander Rd crossed overhead. We had considered taking binoculars, but as Peter was with us we figured we would just enjoy the exercise this time. Won't leave them behind next time! There was plenty of interesting birdlife including our first blue breasted quail, munia, kingfishers, parrots, doves, crested laughing thrush, coucals and other 'unidentifiables'. It was so nice to walk on surfaces other than tar and cement and when you weren't beside a construction site or road it was lovely and quiet. 

We came across the original Bukit Timah Railway Station, built in . The entire line originated at Tanjong Pagar Railway Station at the southern end of Singapore island and crossed to Woodlands Train Checkpoint at the northern end. This station was a freight interchange for the Jurong Branch Line and signalling control house. Seeing the manually operated signal controls reminded me of visits to the Yarra Glen station as a child, where we used to collect parcels delivered by rail to the farm. 

The pole in the photo above intrigued us and I have only understood its purpose since coming home and searching Google. Eric wasn't too far off the money when he suggested it was for mail exchange but it turns out it was more of a safety net to avoid collisions. A token was dropped off by the driver of a train after passing through a section, it would then be taken by the station master and handed over to an awaiting train. That second train could then proceed into the sector previously passed through by the first train. 

This photo shows the old trail with a train travelling on the newer green line above. For most of the way it was overcast and not too hot considering you are very exposed for much of the walk with trees and thick undergrowth thick on either side but not overhead. The only downside was that unfortunately the track was quite wet most of the way, downright sloshy in some places. Occasionally it even had a smell that reminded me of days herding the cows up to the milking shed. We've never been so dirty in Singapore, our shoes soaked and with mud flicked up to our knees. We got some disapproving looks as we got on the train at Labrador MRT after a half hour walk along Alexander Rd, past Hort Park and the Interlace Complex which has 31 interconnected six-storey blocks stacked around communal gardens, containing 1,040 apartments.

So long as we chose a week that hasn't had rain each day, we figure we have found an interesting new walk for the Monday group beginning at Buona Vista MRT and walking in the reverse direction to the Rail Mall for lunch. We also want to explore the track north from the Rail Mall to Woodlands, just before the causeway to Johore Bahru, it looks like a similar distance.  We'll wait until the track dries up. Another option would be to cycle the whole length.............
In the evening we joined Heather and Michael and their Lismore friends back at Plonk in Serangoon Gardens. They had spent the day hoofing it on foot all over down town Singapore so all of us were a little weary and it wasn't a particularly late night. Very clever of us really, since one couple had an early taxi booked for the airport. They are off to Vietnam in the morning while we return to work.