For starters, my sister and I parked the car at some random area cause we couldn't find the car park. We ended up walking the bridge of Nicoll Highway which took us a good 20mins haha! It was such a workout and we were so happy when we finally made our way to Waterways Watch Society(WWS) The volunteers there were really understanding and gave us directions and all. We felt quite bad cause we were quite late but they were super nice about it! They even helped us collect our bikes and adjust our seats(:
In every basket for our bikes, they also provided us with a towel, pen, booklet, tongs, raincoat and a bottle of water! I was the youngest participant there and I kind of felt like a really small kid cause they all took care of me haha! Well anw, we started cycling and this is actually my first time taking part in a cycling event! It felt soooo much better than walking and my sister and I were just glad we could cycle the whole way. The wind was blowing against us which made it all the more cooler!
Our first unofficial stop was at a drainage.
The facil started sharing with us how our water comes from places such as this drain. He said that the metal bars you see in the photos above, help prevent objects such as leaves and plastic from polluting our waters. The only problem is if too much of it is collected, the flow of water will get blocked. That's why WWS volunteers and cleaners help clear the objects there to ensure that the water is running smoothly!
He also shared with us a not really related but interesting fact about fishing in Singapore! Apparently, at some places, fishermen need to release the fishes that they caught. That's smth I found really interesting and I guess it's to prevent overfishing from happening. So I guess those who fish there must just really enjoy the thrill of fishing haha!
My sister and I were saying how it feels like we're back in primary school on a learning trip. We felt that way with our event shirts and an adult sharing with us certain issues haha! So this stop isn't an official one but the facil wanted to share with us this interesting fact so he asked us to park our bikes here.
Moving on, we continued cycling to our first official stop! We cycled pass marina reservoir and the view was breathtaking! Didn't take much photos then cause we couldn't really stop to snap photos. Moreover, it started drizzling and that's why we had to tweak our itenary a little and skip the first stop. We went straight to the second one cause there's a nearby shelter there and in case it does rain, we'd have somewhere to seek shelter in.
So our second stop is Tan Kim Seng fountain.
A little ashamed to say this but I nvr knew this fountain existed in Singapore! It's a small but really pretty fountain and it was built to commemorate and thank Tan Kim Seng for his efforts in building Singapore. The facil shared with us that in the past, the British were not willing to spend money on developing our infrastructure. Hence, Mr. Tan started to invest and provide money for us to enjoy what we have today! The marina bay project was kick started by him and he definitely gave Singapore the push we needed to become what we are today(:
Well the rain didn't come so we cycled back to our first official stop. Along the way, we passed by a bridge and the vibrancy there is insane! I nvr knew that Singapore was really a happening place! When we cycled pass the bridge, there were groups of ppl playing the guitar, singing, having a picnic etc. That's really one of the things I enjoyed seeing on our trail!
So our first official stop is at the Sir Stamford Raffles statue by Singapore River.
Over here, the facil shared with us our main 4 sources for water. They are our reservoir, imported water, NeWater and desalinated water. The SS student in me was super interested cause we learnt this back in Sec school haha! Did you know that we have 16 reservoirs? They are Lower Seletar, Punggol, Serangoon, Bedok, Marina, Pandan, MacRitchie, Jurong Lake, Tengeh, Payan, Murai, Sarimbun, Kranji and Upper Seletar. I for one didn't know that we had so many reservoirs! Quite a cool fact and who knows, it might come in handy someday!
There were actually 2 more stations that we were suppose to go to but due to the lightning alert, we were unable to. A little bummed but it was still quite an eventful day! On our way back, we stopped by our last stop and that was right in front of the Singapore Flyer.
This is a really hot spot for tourist to come here and sit by the river. Just look at the amazing view from here!
Most of the time, they'd bring food along but due to the lack of bins, many of them leave their litter behind. This is when WWS comes in and organise bike watch where they'll cycle around the area and help pick up the litter. I really got to hand it to them cause it's so tiring to keep getting on and off your bikes! And to cycle the far distance as well, it's not smth that all of us can do. I was alr so tired by the time the bike trail ended that all I wanted to do was go home and bathe haha!
Well so it's finally time to go back to where we started. We had a mini debrief and filled up surveys for them. They also shared that WWS don't only organise bike trails but also kayaking ones where they clear the rubbish in the water as well! I think kayaking would be quite fun but I'm quite horrible at it and my boat will probably end up at some random corner haha!
Well overall, a really fun experience and it's definitely smth new! It brings both me and my sister back to our primary school days where we went on field trips and I guess this is smth you probably wouldn't get to experience often. I really learnt a lot and I nvr knew that so much effort is put into conserving our environment. I guess it's really time for us to step up and help save the environment. From simple things such as recycling, it will really make a big change if all of us do it! I was really beat when I got home and slept right after I bathe haha! Nevertheless, a tiring but eventful day(:
If you're interested to check out more about International Water Week, head on over to waterchatter where you can read up on other articles on different events that took place by bloggers!
To end things off, a few more photos from yesterday!
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