Dear readers, Rifle Range Nature Park was opened to the public on 12 Nov 22. I had the good opportunity to visit Rifle Range Nature Park just recently. If you would like to find out how to go to Rifle Range Nature Park as well as what to do at the park, you have come to the right place, for I would share with you the answers to these which you are looking for.
To get to Rifle Range Nature Park by public transport, alight at Beauty World MRT Station (DT5) and proceed to Beauty World Centre, 4th floor where the popular hawker centre is. Proceed to the corner of the hawker centre overseeing the road, you will see a bridge (see photo) below and this bridge will be the start of your journey!
To digress a little here, if you are like me, going to Rifle Range Nature Park on a weekday morning, many of the stalls at the 4th floor hawker centre of Beauty World Centre would not be open yet. If you would like to fill your stomach before going for hike at Rifle Range Nature Park, you can consider May’s Kafe located at basement of Beauty World Centre (see below).
I ordered a cup of Kopi Gao (thick coffee), two soft-boiled eggs and toasts for $5.20. The stall assistant gave me a “beeper” as it would take some time for the toasts to be ready. So in the meantime, I dug into my eggs and coffee. I was impressed with the soft-boiled eggs, which was also neither too liquid nor solid. The coffee was good but could be a little more in size. When my beeper rang and my toast came and I sank my teeth in the toast, the toast were really the best of the trio as they were yummy! I would recommend this breakfast set for all adventurers of Rifle Range Nature Park.
After a hearty breakfast, I was on the bridge at the 4th floor, ready for my adventure! Soon the bridge led me to an entrance of Rifle Range Nature Park, with an obvious signage on the gate (see below) which is really useful to point to all visitors correctly to Rifle Range Nature Park! (As a quick note: please do not climb down the bridge before you reach the above signage, else you will be headed to the Railway corridor rather than Rifle Range Nature Park!)
As I started my journey into Rifle Range Nature Park via Rambai Boardwalk, I could not help but recalled my trekking episode related to Rifle Range road, last year or earlier this year (I cannot really recall). I had trekked deeply in Macritchie and was trying to make my way to Bukit Timah Nature Reserves when I somehow lost my sense of direction and ended up walking the entire stretch of Rifle Range Road (really the road itself with cars passing by me), amounting to some 8km to 10km, under the hot sun.
I vaguely remembered then seeing some construction of Rifle Range Nature Park and there I was on, right on this trail at the revamped Rifle Range Nature Park!
Going into the park, the trail was relatively easy and as I walked and walked, finally I reached a junction with signages. And just like Alice in Wonderland, I had to choose a path.
My choice was easy, I chose “Colugo Deck” as this was one of the must-visit attractions at Rifle Range Nature Park touted in the mass media. Prior to my visit of Rifle Range Nature Park, I did not quite know what “Colugo” means, except that Colugo seems to sound like Condor and I thought it was a bird.
Colugo deck is actually a viewing point located 31 metres above ground, near a former quarry which has now been turned into a wetland. After some time in my trekking, Colugo deck was hard to be missed (see picture below).
Following the sight of Colugo deck, the trekkers including myself were greeted with two paths, labelled “Challenging” and “Moderate”. I chose the more challenging path (see picture below).
After some time, I reached Colugo deck and at the deck, great views await, see pictures below.
After visiting Colugo deck, it was as if the main mission of the visit for Rifle Range Nature Park has been achieved. There were two other trails to explore: Banyan Trail and Gaharu Trail and I trekked through these trails, after which I made my way as per the signage to Macritchie Reservoir catchment area, only to find that the path there was not ready as the end point was a closed metal gate.
After having completed all there are to be visited at Rifle Range Nature Park, I made my way back to Rambai Boardwalk, back to Beauty World Centre, but not before visiting the visitor centre and having a toilet break there!
It took me 1.5 hours for the whole visit for Rifle Range Nature Park, from the bridge at Beauty World Centre into the park and back again a Beauty World Centre. As there were relatively fewer trekkers on the day of my visit and I am a fast trekker, I believe an ordinary visit for many other visitors will be about 2.5 hours.
That’s all for my sharing of Rifle Range Nature Park, hope you enjoy the post and have a Great outing if you are visiting the park!
How to walk Railway Corridor North from Hillview to Kranji?
How to go to Bukit Timah Nature Reserves from Macritchie Nature Reserves?