Alexandra Woodland is an unmanaged small triangle shaped jungle in the middle of Singapore, with Rail Corridor and Alexandra Hospital to the east, Portsdown Avenue to the northwest, and AYE expressway to the southwest. It is claimed to be the "Lost Ark" in hiking community at Singapore, and marked as The Deck on Google map.
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| The jungle at Alexandra |
We chose to go to the The Deck from Rail Corridor trail, instead of the route recommended on internet. This is the closest entry point to the Deck, but the "trail head" is concealed. Despite a local resident's kind direction guide, we could not see the entry point to the jungle at the other side of the dense tree wall in the following picture. Walking up close to the wall, a faint hole appear, that's the trail head to the Deck in the jungle!
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| The dense woods circled the jungle |
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| a hole in the bushes |
Walking through the tree tunnel in the wall, a large open area appeared, tall grasses, a couple footpaths, a pond on the far left hand side, and the Deck in the middle of it at the far end. The deck was made from two large fallen tree trunks, and the legend had it that a local resident "Ben" built the deck to chill-out long time ago.
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| tree tunnel with leaves accumulated on the ground |
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| The deck |
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| a pond to the southwest of the deck |
We talked to the group of 4 ladies who were at the deck before us. They got to the Deck from northwest side and walked in the woods for some distance. After the group left, we enjoyed the oasis in the jungle all by ourselves. I walked to the end of one of the logs, about 4 feet over the ground. We looked at the Deck up and down. The logs are a perfect accent to this greenery.
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| Walked on the log to the far end of it from the deck |
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| The Deck |
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| the construction of the deck |
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the construction of the deck 2
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| 180 degree panoramic view of the deck :) |
We then entered into the woods on the other side of the deck. It was a jungle inside there: no real trails, puddles and small swamps here and there, fallen trees, accumulated leaves; birds chirped happily, spider webs all over the places ( I removed some in our path by swinging my arm up and down in front of me). We actually knocked a giant wood spider from its web only seeing it after it was on the ground! Naturally there are a lot of bugs there. Despite applying bug repellent in advance, we were bitten many times. So we decided not to donate our blood to the bugs any more, and complete a small loop (see our trail map in the last photo of this blog) and exited from the hole we came in. We were intact from this small adventure except a few red swellings on our legs and arms from bug bites.
The jungle at the Deck is a real wilderness, a great place to explore and adventure if one is prepared for bug bites.
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| quite a few tree tunnels like this |
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| A Giant Wood Spider |
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| exit from the jungle |
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| The trail we took at the Alexandra Woodland |
Note:
1. The deck is a paradise for true nature lovers … despite of no management of the area, it is free of litter, a reflection of "leave no trace behind" motto for outdoor activities.
2. The deck is famed for enthusiastic hikers, but not really well known. We encountered only two other groups at the Deck, but none inside the dense woods of Alexandra Jungle.
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