My gal (I am going to call her Missy 10) and my boy (Master 8) ‘s school principal once called upon all parents to bring the children outdoors regularly. In fact, with the Ministry of Education initiative of “Leave no child inside”, I am going to aim to bring the children to nature places every weekend. With outdoor walks and play, we can bring the family closer, feel the endorphins surge = happy, give the children and also the adult some “childhood” plus being outdoors can keep myopia in check!
So, last weekend, we decided to visit Sungei Buloh for the very first time.
We invited the grandparents along. No doubt with the grandparents always come lots of joy because they always share lots of their childhood experience and knowledge with the grandchildren who greatly enjoy their company.
Sungei Buloh has 2 entrances and 2 main carparks, about 1 km away from each other.
One enters to the Wetland Centre nearer to Mangrove Trail and the other leads to the Visitor Centre to the Coastal Trail and Forest Trail.
We started from the Visitor Centre, went through Coastal Trail and Forest Trail and then to Mangrove Trail and Migratory Bird Trail (altogether 4 Trails) before we ended at the Wetland Centre.
Walking to the Visitor Centre on a Sunday morning
It was a breezy and cooling morning. We were lucky to have such weather on this day in the hot summer months in Singapore.
This is the fantail observation pod that oversees the scenery.
We climbed up to the top and had a serene view in front of us.
On the way, we saw many of such big spiders.
And milipedes.
And big red ants wrapped up in leaves. See the beautifully wrapped up pyramid shape leaves?
Mudskippers
As we walk, we see many informative signs and educational signboards like this one.
Then we reach the “Mud Experience” at the Mudflats.
This net bridge is a joy to walk on and a hit for my kids, especially Master 3.
And it leads to more interesting things to see…
Water snake – see its head taking a breather out of water?
And the hub held up a Horseshoe crab for the kids to see in proximity
There are these information boards that were fun to play with. Just turn the wheel and the boards go up and down.
The boards introduce what you shall see in the Mudflats. Master 3 was thrilled since he loves anything that can turn like a steering wheel.
Next is the Migratory Bird Trail. We saw many of these gigantic birds silhouettes with amazing questions and answers.
Do you know that Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve is a wintering ground for Migratory birds as far as 28,000km from Russia and Alaska??
They can really fly!
What a tranquil scene!
There are a few observation hides that allow bird watching without scaring them away.
When we reached the Migratory Bird Trail, it was a little too late to see many birds around as it was getting hotter. And some birds were too small to be captured with my mobile camera. But we saw these imprints of puppy foot steps which intrigued the little one.
And saw huge monitor lizards and one that just swallowed a frog.
We ended our excursion at the Gallery which was very informative on the water and land insects and animals found in Sungei Buloh.
There were real specimens displayed at the Visitor Centre.
Our explorers 🙂
We enjoyed the trails which were not too long for young and old. And it truly is a Living Classroom!
If you are thinking of going to this place this long weekend, here are more information for you.
More information on Sungei Buloh:
Where: 301 Neo Tiew Crescent Singapore 718925
When: 7am to 7pm daily
How much: Admission is free
Tel: 67941401
Website: www.nparks.gov.sg/sbwr
Look like the place has done up a lot! Time to revisit;)!
PC, I was not aware of the reno prior, no wonder everything looks new 🙂 You should really go, I like the place lots!
This looks like so much fun! I love taking Z on nature walks… though most of ours are in the evening because of the heat. 🙂
Thanks 🙂 Evening is a good time. Mornings are too early for us usually, but this time we planned for it and made it 🙂
Such a shame we got this time better flights via Hong Kong to NZ as there are so many places in Singapore I’d just looooove to go to!
You must come to Singapore one day and be sure to let me play host to you and your family!
My husband and I have been talking about visiting this place for ages, but we still haven’t go yet. Sigh, waiting to explore once my nursing duties are over. Lol.
I can understand you Little Mom! The funny thing is after my 3rd child was born, we took things as they go and the nursing part never bothered us anymore once I tried bf in public. I bf everywhere you can think of haha… even standing in queue with one hand pushing the stroller. Maybe you can think abt that, just go out and lug along really essential things to make your diaper bag lighter.
It’s not the latching. It’s the pumping. And my breast pump is noisy and bulky. 🙁
Oh, if you are bringing breast pumps outside, then it will be a hassle with milk bottles and ice pack storage. I didn’t have that much milk, so latching was enough to relief my supply haha..