a walk to the tree top walk @ macritchie




the last time i attempted to walk on the tree top suspension bridge met with failure. the ranger at the post would not even allow me to traverse a short distance. he stuck to the ruling: one way traffic; no turning back, even if it was just a short distance. i had wanted to take some pictures but he would not accede to my request.

i had parked the car at venus drive and walked the more than 2km to the tree top walk. it was a pleasant walk through the secondary forest.

there is this stream which reminded me of my early days living in a kampong.

in those days, the undisturbed stream had no concrete lining the sides and the bed. it was teeming with tubifex worms and fish. the sand at the bed of the stream was a breeding ground for the worms. i would use a length of string and dredged the sand for worms. the worms would stick to the thread and i would slip them into a container. the container was in the form of the shallow, oval sardine can. it was no problem harvesting a full container of worms.

although there were fish in the stream, we did not go out of our way to catch them. there was no thrill in catching things which were found right at your doorstep. the stream was also inhabited by eels and cat fish. i avoided cat fish because of the sting but i did catch eels. we would use a hook and line to catch the eels. however, it was a real struggle to haul the eel out of the hole in the earth.

when they converted the stream into a monsoon drain, there were still tubifex worms found between the gaps in the concrete but the number of fish dwindled, so did the population of eels. the cat fish disappeared altogether. then i would use a length of wire, fashioned into a hook, to get at the worms found residing in the gaps.