Saturday 16 April 2011

Day to Night Hike.


Details for the "Day to Night Hike":

Objectives:

1. To experience long distance hiking with load
2. To Experience night hike
3. To train for camp 2


Date: Saturday, 16 April 2011

Meeting Time: 2pm

Meeting Venue: Bukit Timah Nature Reserve Visitor Centre

Target End Time: 11pm

Finishing Venue: Woodlands MRT

Area Going To Cover:
Bukit Timah Hill, Upper Pierce Reservoir, Chestnut Ave, Bukit Panjang,
Mandai, Woodlands Ave 2

Attire: Long pants, covered shoes, long/short sleeves tee, tights (to prevent abrasion)

Things which you must bring:
• Minimum 5 litres of drinking water
• Running dinner
• Motivational food/ fruits
• Rain-gear (poncho)
• Whistle
• Head-lamp with extra batteries (for the night walk)
• Backpack the one that you are going to bring for camp 2)

Things which are good to have:
• Isotonic drinks
• 1 set of clean clothing
• Towel
• 1 pair of sandals
• Insect repellent
• Personal 1st aid kit
• Sun-gear (cap, shades, etc..)

Please water-proof all your belonging and you must have minimum 12kg load before start of the hike.

Some pointers to note:
• Please be on time and we will wait 15mins for the late-comers.
• Warm-up before we start the hike.
• To have Buddy system. The strong & fit boaters to be at the back of the line.
• Do head court before we set-off
• Please inform the facilitator if you need to leave the group.
• Keep within sighting distance of each other. Pls shout 'a-o-nah' if you can't see the pp inform or behind you.
• Look out for one another.
• Look out for cyclist.
• Keep to the left side of the cycling trail and walk in single row.
• Trail ourtesy at all times.
• Only leave nothing but our footprint

Most importantly, please remember that YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY




for our day to night hike, we walked from Bukit Timah Nature Reserve's visitor's centre, till woodlands, blk 510.

we covered about 20.1km of flat distance, close to 1600m total elevation, lots of winding trails, and have a body-full of aches to prove it! ^.^

according to a fellow BOATer, this is currently Singapore's longest hiking trail.

from Bukit Timah, we went via Chestnut drive, till Upper Pierce Reservoir, down to Mandai, all the way to Woodlands, pass the Singapore Sports School.

we stopped at Upper Pierce Reservoir to enjoy our well deserved running dinner, and to catch the beautiful sunset.


although the real highlight of the day/night would be after crossing Chestnut drive. to liven up the atmosphere, a few of us starting singing random songs such as Black Eyed Peas' I Gotta Feeling.

we ended up singing at the top of our lungs from there till the Singapore Sports School.

after the trek, most of us further walked to Woodgrove for a nice supper together.

from Woodgrove, i walked home.

so i guess, we covered about 21km in total? ^.^

reaching home, my legs gave way, and i think i may have pulled a muscle on my left calf. i am walking funny with a limp, and someone said i look like a duck now.

the hike was absolutely enjoyable, and i hope to be back at it again soon.


Mabel.
16/4/11.

Sunday 10 April 2011

Risk Management

today's session was on Risk Management.

the 4 kinds of hikers, namely, the unconscious incompetent, the conscious incompetent, the unconscious competent, and the conscious competent.

how to identify "lemons", dealing with them, etc.

"lemons" include all things that may make the trip sour, eg. going off trail, monsoon season, hypothermia.

after listening to the theory, we were broken into 4 groups, and each group was given an article from the news about accidents/fatalities during previous expeditions. most articles including drowning at a waterfall, in places we would be going during our camp 3.

after identifying them, we had to suggest ways to avoid those "lemons", or how to deal with them.

the YFFs also told us about their own experiences where they encountered "lemons" due to unconscious incompetence, etc.

during our hike 3, we'll be going to bukit timah, and finding out which category of hikers we fit into, and what our "lemons" are.

Mabel.
10/4/11.

Thursday 7 April 2011

PT 3 & Ropework 3

this time, the scheduled was a 6-8kg load, 4 rounds of 40stories.

i went for 7.5kg, (2.8l of water in my 50+10 Jade backpack), and managed to complete only 3 rounds.

from the first round, i could feel my dehydration catching up with me, and i had to stop and rest a few times in the next 2 rounds.

i stopped after the 3rd round, due to time constraints. it was approaching 10pm when we walked back to the CC. today was supposed to end at 10pm.

a very heartfelt thank you to those who encouraged me during the rounds, waited for me, and stayed with me throughout!

for ropework, we did a 'fisherman's knot', and a 'double fisherman's knot'.

as i am an avid angler, i enjoy tying my own rigs, and am used to the above-stated knots.

these are meant to tie 2 loose ends of string/rope together.

i normally use it to join my hook line to my main line.

Mabel.
7/4/11.

Saturday 2 April 2011

Camp 1 2/4/11-3/4/11.

our camp 1 was held over the weekend, for 2 days, 1 night.


we met up at 8.30am to take a ferry to Pulau Ubin.

the first thing we did upon reaching the island was to walk to the campsite and pitch our tents.

for most of us, being city folks, it was the first time pitching a tent.

the YFFs showed us how to properly set up a 6-men tent with just 4 people, then we all tried our hand at setting up our own.

after everyone set up their sleeping quarters, we prepared for lunch.

lunch was beehoon with black fungus, mushrooms, fishcakes, cooked with our indian pots.
dessert was beancurd skin with barley.

both tasted really good.

after lunch, we split into our individual teams for activities.

the YFFs put up a skit for us, about a kampong murder. in our teams, we're supposed to find clues at each station to solve the murder.

at each station, we had to complete a different task.
eg. at 'Elvis', we had to pitch a steady basha within 15mins.
at 'Ah Leow', we had to transport him from one place to another.
at 'Or Gow', we learnt how to make a fire from materials we could find.

after dinner, we had a tiny campfire, where the Entertainment team put together about an hour of team bonding.

we ended the first day at around 9pm for everyone to wash up, clean up, and get enough rest for the next day.

at 7am, we were all awake, and by 8.30am, everyone had washed up, packed up, had breakfast, and broken tent already.

at 9am, we set off for our topography exercise, where we followed a map using a compass, to 3 checkpoints around the island. at each checkpoint, we were given another task.

eg. checkpoint 2 was at the base of a hill overlooking a quarry and river. we were split into pairs, and each pair was given a place to find, by a compass, given bearing, and distance, and a clue.

the view from the top of the hill was beautiful.

we ended our topo exercise at 12.30pm, and returned to singapore's main island at 1pm.

at 2+pm, we reached back at ToaPayoh Central CC, and did our campwash.

we ended everything, including debrief at 5.30pm.

our debrief was really detailed, and gave us a clear insight of how camping in an unfamiliar place would be like.

for our camp 2, we would be going to malaysia, to a mountain without any water source, or such luxuries like a toilet, etc.

i am looking forward to it.


Mabel.
3/4/11.