I took a slow walk through the northern rail corridor recently, starting at Yew Tee and ending near Kranji Reservoir after passing the War Memorial and State Cemetery. It wasn’t a dramatic expedition. Just a steady, unhurried trail accompanied by a trained naturalist who could read the landscape the way some people read a familiar book.
And somewhere along those tracks, something shifted a little for me.
Most of my days are spent surrounded by relics, manuscripts, blades forged centuries ago, and the stories of people who shaped our past. I love that world. It grounds me. But this walk reminded me that there is more to life than collecting and studying what has already happened. The present has its own voice, its own quiet truths. And we lose something when we forget to listen.
It has been years since I last moved through a forest with any real intention. I used to bash through jungles across Asia, soaked, scratched, exhausted, yet strangely alive. This walk was gentler, slower, but no less meaningful. The silence felt earned. The breeze carried a kind of familiarity. And the forest reminded me that life is still unfolding now, not just in the pages of history.
Along the trail, we spotted wildlife almost effortlessly. Birds blending into shadows. Insects hiding in plain sight. The small rustle of something curious just metres away. I took over thirty photos without forcing the moment. They came naturally. And I realised that when the mind is quiet and not fighting the world, your senses sharpen. You start to notice what was always there.
Singapore’s biodiversity is richer than most expect. It sits quietly along forgotten tracks, beside reservoirs, in pockets of green that survive despite everything we build. But nature does not shout. It waits. And it reveals itself only when you slow down.
Maybe this walk was a gentle reminder that the present needs tending too. The past teaches us, yes, but the present invites us to pay attention. To see, to breathe, to reconnect.
There is more to life than the relics we preserve and the histories we debate. Nature asks only that we show up with a calm spirit and a willingness to look.
TLDR: A slow rail corridor walk from Yew Tee to Kranji brought back old memories and revealed how rich Singapore’s present-day biodiversity really is. A reminder that while history matters, life is still unfolding in front of us, waiting to be seen.