Last Saturday, we planned to take the kids cycling. A few months ago, we visited Lower Peirce Reservoir Park for the very first time and we absolutely loved it! This time we thought we’d check out Upper Peirce Reservoir Park nestled just next to the Upper Peirce Reservoir.
I've written about the history of the Peirce Reservoir in my last blog entry but I'll reiterate just in case you stumbled here for the first time. The original Peirce Reservoir was constructed in 1922 and named after Robert Peirce, who served as the municipal engineer of Singapore from 1901 to 1916. It was created by impounding the upper reaches of the Kallang River with the construction of a dam.
In 1975, in order to develop new water resources to grapple with Singapore's burgeoning population, a dam was constructed at the upper reaches of the Peirce Reservoir, forming the Upper and Lower Peirce reservoirs. The adjoining parks are touted as the most scenic nature parks in Singapore. Both the Peirce Reservoirs are located near MacRitchie Reservoir and Upper Seletar Reservoir. These four reservoirs together with the surrounding forests form the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. The nature reserve acts as a water catchment for the reservoirs in the area. All of the reservoirs are designated as protected catchments, which means that development is prohibited there so as to preserve the ecological balance in these areas and minimize the risk of pollution.
Upper Peirce Reservoir was officially opened by then Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew in 1977. Today, the reservoir park is a popular retreat with visitors who enjoy its unique panorama and tranquility.
On the scheduled day of our anticipated family outing, we woke up to dreary weather. The sky was overcast and it was drizzling. The rain map of Singapore looked rather ominous. We swiftly dropped the cycling plan and settled on a hike at Upper Peirce Reservoir keeping our fingers crossed. It was raining throughout the drive and I couldn’t help but think that we should have stayed put at home, snug in bed sipping on a hot beverage 😕
We had keyed in "Upper Peirce Reservoir" in our car's GPS (in hindsight, we should have entered "Upper Peirce Reservoir Park") and it ended up pointing us in the wrong direction and taking us to a remote nook of the Central Catchment Reserve which delayed us by half an hour or more. I guess the irate chants of “Are we there yet??” from the kids were justified! Once we figured out the reason for the unnecessary detour, we felt kind quite foolish to discover that the Upper Peirce Reservoir Park is located neighboring to the Lower Peirce Reservoir Park which we had been to not long ago!
I'm still not sure why but we mistakenly assumed that the path leading to the park was closed so we ended up parking at the Casuarina car park which happens to be quite far away from the nature park. We ended up going on at least a half an hour long hike along a narrow winding and steeply sloping road while it was still lightly drizzling. It wasn't at all bad though - the route was deserted, flanked by lush tropical greenery and we occasionally caught sight of the long-tailed macaques. Most importantly, the kids did not complain about having to walk the distance. In fact, they were full of beans and racing ahead of us! It's safe to say that we got the exercise we had been hoping for! I would recommend this walking route if you have the time to spare. Otherwise, you can park right at the mouth of the Upper Peirce Reservoir Park.
I had brought along a few things to keep the girls occupied - tubes of bubbles, a ball and a frisbee. But they were not really interested in any of them. They were so taken with the surroundings that all they wanted to do was explore!
