Discovery of Gaharu Trail

I discovered the Gaharu Trail this morning, Sunday, June 28th, 2026, purely by accident.

My original plan for the day was to have a quick hike at Rifle Range Nature Park and go home. But the park is too small, and in this day, despite early in the morning (7:30am), it was very humid, even the birds didn't want to fly! I did not see anything interesting, the hike from visitor center to Colugo deck, about 1 miles, took less than 30 minutes. It was still early. I decided to continue on the trail.

Quickly I arrived at a junction, where 3 trails intersect, the Rifle Range trail, the MacRitchie trail, and the 3rd one, Gaharu Trail, which I never heard of . Looked at the Signage for Gaharu trail, it reads:

The Gaharu, otherwise known as the Agarwood, is the dark resinous wood from Aquilaria trees which is prized for its fragrance. The trees are critically endangered in Asia due to overharvesting. Part of the Gaharu Trail was once a road known as Jalan Gaharu. The road was expunged when the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE) was built.

This signage led me to learn two things, the agarwood, and the Pan Island Expressway (PIE) history. 

The agarwood tree defensively secretes a resin to combat the fungal infestation. Prior to becoming infected, the heartwood mostly lacks scent, and is relatively light and pale in colouration. However, as the infection advances and the tree produces its fragrant resin as a final option of defense, the heartwood becomes very dense, dark, and saturated with resin. This product is harvested, and most famously referred to in cosmetics under the scent names of oud, oodh or aguru; agar, as well as gaharu or jinko. With thousands of years of known use, and valued across Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Chinese cultures, oud is prized in Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures for its distinctive fragrance, utilized in colognes, incense and perfumes. One of the main reasons for the relative rarity and high cost of agarwood is the depletion of wild sources.

PIE was started in 1964, and built in 4 phases, and was fully open in 1982. The Gaharu Trail was built around 2017, a relative recent event.

This is a different type of trails, I decided to explore it. 

Looking down the trail, there was one person who was taking photos of plant leaves with a shade, no one lese. I marched on - the trail is well shaded by mostly Aquilaria trees, and with some scattered bayan trees, a.k.a. walking figs. 

After crossing a stream, I came to a reactively open area, large plant, and tall grasses, surrounded by quite a few durian trees. A hiking group of sensor citizens was there taking pictures.  I saw fallen broken durians here and there in this stretch of the trail. For a moment, I was concerned that a durian might fall from its perch, and hit hikers. No need to worry though if one stays on the trail. I did not see any broken durians on the trail.  It tuned out that the small er southern loop (see trail map below), Gaharu/Banyan Trail, was once called durian loop. 

Durian is appealing to many people, not me - its smell is repulsive to me. I saw one solo hiker, an old man, picked up a likely freshly broken durian and ate the fruit! I jokingly asked him - tasting good? he did not answer me directly, but said - it is free, why not? When I returned back to the trail junction, another group of senior citizens were debating something excitedly. Apparently one of them wanted to take a fallen durian home! Of course it is against park rules or basic outdoor etiquettes - take nothing  but photos, leave nothing but footprints. 

wild durian tree

fallen and broken durians

The trail is in densely wooded area, tranquility with melodious bird chirps. However I barely saw any birds. The loop trail is not long, from Rifle Range Nature Park, to Colugo deck, continue on the right hand side trail at the trail junction, i.e. the Gaharu trail, which is a loop trail, on return, one can go straight at junction, and return to Rifle Range Nature Park's visitor center, see my trail map at the end of this post.

I hiked about 3 miles (4.8km) in 100 minutes. 

The Gaharu Trail is a lush serenity, a good extension to Rifle Range Colugo trail, which I had never hiked on until this day.

Notes

Gaharu trail is a vivid example that nature can reclaim land quickly. Along the trail, there are a few building foundations overtaken by wild grasses and plants. It reminded me a more dramatic example of nature's power when left to do its work. Chernobyl, despite radio active, absence of human activities, grasses, plants and even wildlife thrive there. 

 

Sungei Buloh - Nature Lovers' Interactions

On June 6, I went to Sungei Buloh to see waterfowls and other wildlife at low tide. I was glad I went. I saw Sunbirds, Kingfishers, Egrets, Herons, Painted Storks, ...and monitor lizard, green crested lizard, crocodiles - 4 of them...I hiked 8+ km, in 3 hours, stayed at one spot for almost an hour.

What made this solo outing special at the Wetland were the interactions I had with other nature lovers.

my trail at Sungei Buloh

At 2 mile marker (see my trail map), I saw two men, standing there with their big lens, on tripods, pointing at a tall plant. I looked at the direction, and saw nothing. I turned to the older man, who was closer to me, before I asked my question, he volunteered to tell me that there was a Sunbird nest in the midsection of the plant, and patiently guided me to locate the well-camouflaged bird nest. The nest was empty. He told me that the female bird was incubating, it just left for food, and it would come back in a few minutes.

Indeed a female bird flew to the nest, perching on the opening for a few seconds to check, then entered, turned around and just sat there.

My first reaction was that it was olive backed Sunbird. The old man told me it was copper throated  sunbird. The male has copper colored throat. It was around, but the guy did not have a picture of it. He showed me the photo of the male bird from internet. He then gave me a lesson on the bird. The female had not laid eggs yet, that's why it came and go. The male won't come to the nest until the female laid eggs, and stayed in the nest to brood. When the eggs were laid, the male would come to the nest to feed the female. 

empty nest

the female copper throated sunbird returned to the nest

the female copper throated sunbird about to enter the nest

the female copper throated sunbird stayed in the nest

One time I was told the male copper throated sunbird was around up on branches of a big tree nearby. I did not see it. While waiting for the bird to come or to go, the younger of the two announced that he saw something beautiful,  a green crested Lizard came to visit.

Green Crested Lizard

After some time, I saw the bird's pattern: it would stay in the nest for about  5 minutes and then exited the nest, flying downward, and got away. when it returned, it would first perched on branches of bushes, checking the nest first before flying to the nest's opening and enter. But I missed the opportunities to take pictures of the bird fly-in or fly-out. It had been quite some time, I decided that I would move on once I took pictures of the bird fly-in or fly out. My patience finally paid off, I got the bird fly-in on burst shooting. By then I stayed there for about 50 minutes!

When I arrived at the bridge to the kingfisher pod, I saw a juvenile crocodile crawling/swiming in the tidal river. It was interesting to watch, it was very active, moved around, and seemingly biting something in the air! Three ladies came by, and looked into the river, they did not see anything, so one of them asked me what I was looking at, I told her that there was a juvenile down there. She finally saw it and told her friends excitedly about it. 

When I was leaving, she thanked me profusely. 

As I walked onto the viewing platform on  Buloh Besar River, a guy with a binocular in his hand, told me that there was big crocodile on the river bank, under trees. It was a big one, with mouth wide open. I thanked him when I spotted it.

There was another crocodile swimming in the middle of the shallow river.

The interactions with other nature lovers made me not feel lonely on this solo outing.

Note -

Of course we interacted with nature lovers, bird watchers in particular, sharing information, and excitements  happened many times before. It will be my next Blog - Sharing the Joy of bird watching

Wildlife at Jurong Lake Gardens

Jurong Lake Gardens is one park at Singapore I see wildlife consistently, birds and otters in particular.

It did not disappoint the last time we visited the Gardens a few weeks ago.

Right out of north exit of the North carpark, we spotted a group of otters roaming near lake shore. Shortly a large otter caught a fish, and got onto a boat cushion, with a juvenile otter closely followed behind. The large otter, supposedly a parent, gave away the fish to the small one. The juvenile otter, with fish in its mouth, running around to evade other otters. Quite a show! We lingered for a while to enjoy the show. 

Later we saw another otter having a fish by itself. After it finished the fish, it made calls and some otter pubs coming out bushes to follow the otter. So it was a mom otter hiding from its pups to enjoy the fish and had some alone time :)!

This is  the second time we see otter eating live fish at Jurong Lake Garden. The last time the show was in the lake.  It is interesting to note that Singapore is home to two species of otters – the Smooth-coated Otter and the Asian Small-Clawed Otter.  The former is named for its velvety smooth coat, is the largest otter species in Southeast Asia. The latter is the smallest otter species in the world. What we saw both time was the smooth coated otter.

After the otter shows, we saw a Asian Openbill Stork, and then a pair of the storks on the fence of a viewing platform, while taking pictures, a few more came to join them. While continuing toward the south side of the park, we saw a few more storks on top of some flowering trees. We did not see storks before at the Gardens. According to Google search results, this influx of the Storks is due to natural bird migration, not artificial introduction.

Asian Openbill Storks at Jurong Lake Gardens

A stork rest on top of a tree

Walking south, we chose to walk on a less travelled trail by the lake, we spotted a yellow vented bulbul resting on the ground, partially exposing its yellow vent. We saw a group of photographers aiming their big lens at a pile of withered fallen leaves, on a trail 100ft away. I instantly knew that they were taking pictures of night jars hatching on the ground. We saw this about a year ago at Botanic Garden. We walked over in a hurry anyway, and sank our shoes into "swamp" like area (due to heavy rains a couple days before) between the two trails. Indeed it was a nightjar, and additionally two chicks. They camouflaged so well in the withered fallen leaves, I did not see them at first glances.  

the mom nightjar with two chicks

can you see the 3 birds? double click on the photo to enlarge it for better view

To avoid disturbing the nightjars and the photographers, we walked on the trail in reverse direction to take a detour. Lucky we were, there were 3 photographers aiming into a few tall trees. One photographer told me he was taking photos of a Robin feeding a chick. The parents left to fetch bugs. It was Magpie Robins. We waited for a few minutes, finally the parent birds came back:

One flew into trees, making calls, the other landed on a concrete, with a bug in its beak. It struck the bug against the ground repeatedly before carrying it to the cavity on a tree, where the chick was, fed the baby, looked around, and looked into the cavity(hole), before taking off.

This was the first time we saw Magpie Robin feeding baby bird. 

caught an insect

struck the bug against the ground

checking on the chick

dove in to feed the baby

check again

flying away

Walking into the Grassland at the Garden, I spotted a lizard running across the trail in front of us, and snapped of photo of it. After the Grassland, it was almost 1pm, we turned around, had a late lunch at Fusion Spoon, went home.

During the nearly 5 hour time at the Gardens, we also saw Collared Kingfishers, Sunbirds, Waterhens ...

It was a beautiful day, we had great time there

edge of the grassland

the Lone tree - a sculpture

A lizard ran into shade from the Grassland

Notes

We went to the Jurong Lake Gardens many times. I wrote two blogs about the visits before - 1) Flora and Fauna at Jurong Lake Gardens in 2021, and 2) Singing in the rain in 2024, we saw many birds we did not this time -

Brown throated sunbird

Lineated Barbet

Blue throated bee eater

Black napped oriole 

White Bellied Fish Eagle (overhead in the Sky)

Red-wattled lapwing

Herons

Egrets

The Sculpture Trail at Singapore Botanic Garden

Over two years ago, I enjoyed the full SBG by walking to every major point of interests without repeating my track, when Lily was on a business trip. Early in May, we decided to enjoy the full garden again, together, with a twist - to locate every sculptures in the Garden.

The Garden published the list of sculptures on its website, and suggested 2 trails to go to visit each of them. This made it easier for sculpture hunt. We completed the two trails in one 5 miles (8km) hike in 3 hours.

Sculpture trail at SBG

We started from  the famous iron Tanglin Gate,.

We are very familiar with the area - but had a hard time to locate the first Sculpture on the list - The Book Reader.  In the search process we saw the usual wood sculptures but the not the Book Reader. We almost gave up before walking deeper into the Botany Center first floor hallway, the book reader is at a corner by the lift, on a stone bench, leaning to a column.

wood sculpture of an owl 

The Book Reader

The next several sculptures, Swing me Mama, Flight of Swans, Gees, Chang Kuda,  Joy, Sundial, Swiss Granite Fountain, Nurturing, Lady on a Hammock, Girl on a bicycle, Girl on a sing, are along the main paved trails, I remember exactly where they are, but did not know their exact names. 

We noticed most of the sculptures the first time we walked around the area. Lady on a Hammock is an exception. We passed by it, which is in the shade of a couple of trees, and separated from the road by plants, many times, and did not see. We were surprised  to "discover" it one day. 

swing me mama

Joy

Lady on a hammock

There are a couple of wire formed sculptures near the Sundial Garden - The passing of knowledge and Love in the Air. It is interesting to note that the latter is not on the SBG sculpture trail map, but on the SBG website sculpture list. In the Sundial garden, the sundial is listed as a sculpture, but the not the 4 white sculptures at the 4 corners of the garden -  the sculptures are based on the same model. Not sure how the sculptures are counted on the list.

Passing of Knowledge

l

Love in the Air  - on SBG Sculpture list

The sundial

A white sculpture at 4 corners of the Sundial Garden 1

A white sculpture at 4 corners of the Sundial Garden 2

A white sculpture at 4 corners of the Sundial Garden 3

A white sculpture at 4 corners of the Sundial Garden 4

The next group of sculptures are around Ginger garden/Orchid Garden/rainforest, which include Rainforest Mural, Clock towers, fifty wings, Chopin, Conversation from Nature, and A little Girl Swing on a tree at Ginger garden - which is not on the trail map, we saw before but did not take picture this time. I took a picture of it later, and added it to the post.  We see all them regularly, but are more interested in some but not others - We actually read the signage for the conversation from nature, but never checked the other sculptures signages until this time. 

The rainforest mural

Fifty Wings

conversation from nature

A little Girl Swing on a tree at Ginger garden

Next stop after the ginger garden and etc. is Nassim Gate which is the end of SBG trail1, and end of trail 2 as well. We basically walked trail 2 in reverse direction. There are two sculptures Gaboon Viper, Bull frog on the trail map, and the sculpture list. We saw them before, never realized those are sculptures - and had a hard time to locate them - we looked at wrong places! They are in the bushes and lay low on the ground.

Nature has its own art pieces as usual. On the way to evolution garden, a white fallen flower elegantly rested on the gate to the corner house. The sculptures at evolution garden are decorative, immersive to the environment and we did not regard them as sculptures - stone trees and Lepidodendron. 

Nature made

Stone Trees

Lepidodendron

The next cluster of Sculptures is located at the Seed Bank Garden - we checked them out before, and one more time this time for completeness. But we did not see the Tandok-Tandok Seeds in the seed bank garden. After some detective work, we figured that it was not in the seed bank garden, but at seed bank building's front entrance!

Tandok-Tandok Seeds

The last batch of Sculptures is located in the Echo lake area - Ethnobotany Garden, and Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden. 

In Ethnobotany Garden, the sculptures are mostly stone murals, and a few standalone sculptures in the trees, they might be decorative but not really artistic. We saw that one sculpture,  the wooden spear in the hands fell off  - due to aging and likely inadequate design.

stone mural

hunter gatherer 1

Hunter Gatherer 2  - damaged due to age - spear on its hands were broken

The last two pieces of sculptures are Native Wildlife and Mystree just outside the Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden, which marks the start of sculpture trail 2, and the end of our Sculpture trail.

Native Wildlife

Mystree

We have been to the garden over 1500 times, almost daily visit there in the last 5 years, it is our backyard garden, we appreciate the flora, and enjoy the fauna, especially birds.

This hike was different, it was a unique, very interesting, informative and fun hiking for us. 

Notes

1.We did not see every sculptures on the list due to mismatch between the trail map and the Sculpture list, we saw many more sculptures that are not on the list as well. 

2. Sculptures at Gallop extension

"Contract" is a piece by British sculptor Antony Gormley. I saw Gormley's sculptures at National Gallery before. The other is "seeds" - similar to one sculpture at Seed Bank.

"Contract" is a piece by British sculptor Antony Gormley

seeds