Before we went for our adventurous but tiring trip to Johor Bahru on Saturday (see Adventurous Trip to Johor Bahru), we had actually already planned for an outdoor nature day trip to West Coast Park on its following day, Sunday.

Since we had already made plans for this trip, we just needed to ensure we had rested sufficiently through the night, which we did. We woke up quite refreshed on Sunday morning for the trip.

We left home at 2pm and decided to head to Bukit Batok Town Park first, as the place was shady with much vegetation protecting us from direct sun rays in the afternoon. The last time Catherine and I came here, Darius was still inside her womb so this would be the ‘second’ time he visits this park, though the first time that he would actually get to see the place! ^^

Unlike the car parks of other national parks, the one beside Bukit Batok Nature Park does not have free parking, even on Sundays and Public Holidays. The reason, I believe, is due to its close proximity to the housing estates so nearby residents might abuse the car park by parking their cars there free of charge.

Entering the park from the main entrance, there was a long stretch of concrete road mostly shaded by trees. To our slight amazement, we were not the only ‘weirdos’ who had decided to visit parks in the hot afternoon; there were quite a number of park goers around, mostly children. Some of them were however cycling very fast on the road so we had to keep a close watch on Darius for his safety.

Anyway, Darius appeared to be in a dazed mood when we placed him on the road to walk by himself. Before we left the home, he already had an hour or so of morning nap so he couldn’t be sleepy then.

Perhaps he was still adjusting himself after suffering from some kind of motion sickness during the car ride? Hopefully not though, as that would mean I had driven badly. ^^|

Darius was carrying an expressionless look while he walked slowly and reluctantly, turning around and wanting to be carried instead. And so I carried him for a distance before putting him down again, this time pretending to chase him from behind.

With that, he perked up from his favorite activity of catching and started walking around with more zest and energy. ^^

At the end of the long road, we came across the park’s public toilets and a fitness corner and playground surfaced by sand. A scenic view unfolded in front of us too, with a big pond of water and cliff in sight. This was the highlight of the park and it’s really quite a beautiful sight to behold.

We decided to take a rest sitting on rocks under some shade, just beside the pond. We started eating the bread we had brought along and taking some sip of water, while Darius obediently sat on my lap as I fed him some of the bread.

After he was satisfied with the food and drink he took, Darius started to explore the surroundings. He was especially curious about the wooden fence around the pond and kept walking towards it. We had to stay close to him in case he slipped through the fence and into the pond.

Moving on, we headed up a gentle slope where it led to several other roads, two of which would lead deeper into some thick vegetation. We decided to be adventurous and move into one of these roads to find out where it went.

The road was pretty bumpy with varying gradients. When the sloping was too steep, we would carry Darius up instead of letting him walk freely. We had forgotten to bring along insect repellent so were concerned if he would get bitten by mosquitoes along the way (fortunately no bite marks found on him after the trip).

After walking for another 5 minutes, we still did not see where the road was leading to and decided to backtrack instead.

Returning to the main path, we took the route leading to the toilets since it’s about time to bring Darius to relieve himself. As I carried him and ran down a slope along the way, Darius got very excited by the up-and-down movements and seeing his mother walking behind us, resulting in his non-stop laughing. We were glad he had enjoyed himself in this nature setup. ^^

After visiting the toilet, we bought a bottle of cold green tea to refresh ourselves amidst the hot weather. We were glad that the vending machine was accepting dollar bills as I’ve run out of coins.

Upon returning to the car, we began our journey to our main and next destination of the day — West Coast Park!

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