had a fun time at forest adventure today. heard about it just a few days ago and decided to give it a try. booked online for a slot at 10.30am this morning.

we left home early for breakfast to make sure we had enough energy, and arrived at bedok reservoir early enough for a brief stroll enjoying the view before the stipulated start time. disclaimer forms signed, fees paid, bags deposited, and we’re all set.

forest adventure is a treetop adventure with 2 aerial courses – grand course for adults and kids course. the obstacles use ladders, bridges, trapezes, nets, swings and zip lines, connecting one tree to another, about 5 meters above the ground. participants move unaccompanied from one obstacle to the next – only with limited supervision from the safety instructor down below. everyone is equipped with harnesses and is required to be attached to the safety system with at least one safety line at all times. only one participant is allowed to be on one obstacle at any one time, and a platform can only accommodate maximum 3 people.

the grand course is divided into 4 sites. the first site is built near the reception area and comprises of easier obstacles. each obstacle has a sign indicating its name, safety instructions and its difficulty level. there are 4 levels in total: green, yellow, red and black. the first obstacle in a site is always a rope ladder to get up to the treetops, and the last one is always a zip slide – the flying fox.

our group was quite big, therefore sometimes we needed to wait a while for those who went before us to move further to the next obstacle before we started ours. and we could not stay idling too long at a platform as well, since those who came after us would need to use that platform soon. one of the safety instructor’s jobs is to check the flow.

there are two different paths at some of the platforms. participants can only choose one of them, but both always end at the same platform. the choice is either 2 of the easy obstacles, or 1 of the more challenging one - something like shortcut path.

before the session starts, we wore the harnesses and helmets, then the instructor briefed us on the safety procedures and demonstrated how to use the equipments. we finished all 4 sites after about 3 hours. when I first started at site 1, I was thinking to myself - goodness, what am I doing here.. but not long after, I started to enjoy myself.

the most scary part is the ‘tarzan’ obstacle, where we swing from the platform to a net, grab the net and use it to reach the next platform. my favorite obstacle is the zip slide – there are 5 in total, 4 at the end of each course and 1 at the beginning, used for practice. sliding on the steel cable from a treetop platform to the ground below across the reservoir, while enjoying the view and gentle breeze - it’s really fun!