A long time ago, some time in 2006, a friend and I took a lil walk into the depths of MacRitchie reservoir.  It was an adventure to search for the famous Syonan-Jinja that was buried luscious green vegetation of the reserve.

Unfortunately, both my friend and I underestimated the hike in, and in our own capabilities.  We went into the weeds,armed with some photos and a “general” direction off a map we had  gotten of google earth of where the shrine was.  We didn’t pack a GPS, or even a compass.  Just us, the trees and more trees.

Things seemed a little odd on the way in.  The path in was supposed to be well-hiked by uncles and aunties who frequently made the pilgrimage to pray for 4D and To-To numbers ( in sandals, shorts and singlets…). Strangely, the vegetation looked deliberately covered and messed up as though people didn’t want us there.

Sensing the “disturbance”, I took out my handy roll of white-tape and started tying strips to the trees as we proceeded.  I guess that was why we didn’t get lost after all.  I figured the rain somehow changed the environment, and that was why everything looked a little strange.

15mins later, we found out why.  A whole bunch of kids from some JC’s ODAC club were in the weeds ahead of us.  We surprised their “rear guard” a little as we suddenly popped out from behind them.  After speaking to their teacher / guide, we realised that they were as lost and disoriented as we were.  Putting our stuff together ( our foreknowledge of the area ), and started locating where we were and how to get to where we wanna go. 

After a brief look at the surrounding terrain and features, we scouted ahead of the entire group and discovered that all our access routes were blocked off by a number of large fallen trees.  Turning around, we briefed their group about it and advised them to return instead.  The students were there in T-shirts shorts and track-shoes.  The route that was required of them would leave them badly scratched by thorny vegetation.  They followed our trail out, while we ended walking around a bit before deciding to call it a day before it started raining.

For a brief moment, we got seperated.  It was amazing how we were less than 50meters apart and yet unable to see each other.  We managed to regroup after calling out to each other.  Looking at our cellphones, we realised that there was actually coverage even within the forests of Macritchie.  Singtel totally rawks! 

Picking up our white-tape trails, we managed to “find” our way out before the rain came in. 

We’d have gotten lost if we didn’t realise that we had good chance of getting lost.