Colours Of Nature: The Virgin Forest

Virgin forest
Definition: A forest that had attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological features. Includes diversity of tree-related structures that serve as diversified wildlife habitat that leads to higher bio-diversity of the forested ecosystem.

Also known as: Primary forest, old-growth forest, primaeval forest, or in the UK, ancient woodland.

(Source: Wikipedia)

Sounds like nothing that we would encounter in Singapore? Well, one of our favourite to-do things over weekends would be to look for stretches of greenery in sweltering Singapore, and revel in the lush, verdant beauty. A tall order in blazing hot Singapore? Not surprisingly, nature reserves, forests and parks have one of the lowest temperatures due to the nurturing canopy of giant trees. So, even if we are trekking around under the mid-day sun, it will be cooler than walking around in the concrete jungle of Orchard Road!

The gorgeous forest canopy enveloped us from all perspectives

Which is why I love to immerse deep in the woods of Singapore. The smells of age-old trees and their leaves, the sounds of orchestras of unseen birds and insects chirping and shrilling away, the visual spectacle of endless verdure and minimal human traffic....all these are divine, to say the least.

We traipsed around the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve recently, in the Taban Loop of the Taban Valley, to be specific. It was just a hike almost in mid day, but one could never guess it was high noon from the cooling temperatures underneath that dense canopy. The Taban Valley is undulating, so there were plenty of really steep and high stairs built into the ground and lots of rustic forest paths. We deliberately avoided the masses of people thronging the main asphalt road just outside the woods, as we would rather have insects and trees as our companions when trekking. And true enough, many people avoided the more challenging forest walk, preferring instead to stroll in the comforts of the man-made roads outside.

We saw big spiders spinning intricate, colossal webs; we caught glimpses of amazing wildlife through the density of the foliage (we stood at a tiny rundown bridge on a tiny languid stream, enthralled by a rare rusty-brown bird bathing itself in the stream!); we listened to different calls of the wild and wondered what they are; we focused a lot on the narrow, rugged forest path to prevent ourselves from falling into the wooded valley below, and feasted our eyes on myriad plants.

According to the National Parks website, our nature reserves are home to more than 840 flowering plants and over 500 species of animals - and that the number of plant species growing in the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve alone is more than that in the whole of North America! And some of the trees in this forest are a few centuries old. How amazing is that...!

We completed the loop just under 1.5 hour, which was way too fast for Big Bee, who wanted to trek up to the summit. However, we had to consider poor Little Bee, whose short legs were so tired from scaling those numerous high steps cut into the ground!

Which means we will be back very soon, in a bid to climb to the top...