Coast-To-Coast Trail: Detailed Hiking Guide From Botanic Gardens to Jurong Lake Gardens

We’re finally at the westmost stretch of the 36km Coast-to-Coast (C2C) trail in Singapore and this stretch covers the areas that we are most unfamiliar with. My experience with the west is pretty much limited to Pioneer and Jurong Point, back from my uni days in NTU a while back. *ahem* This part of the C2C trail (CP 1 to CP4) would lead us to Bukit Batok Nature Park and Jurong Lake Gardens; both of which are beautiful.

Here are the detailed directions for the previous C2C checkpoints:

1. CP10 Rower’s Bay Park to CP7 Sengkang Floating Wetland
2. CP7 Sengkang Floating Wetland to CP5 Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park
3. CP5 Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park to CP4 Adam Road
4. CP4 Adam Road to CP1 Jurong Lake Gardens (See below)
5. CP9 Coney Island to CP7 Sengkang Floating Wetland (Guide coming soon)

Detailed directions between Adam Road and Jurong Lake Gardens

Here’s a summary – From Botanic Gardens, walk along Bukit Timah Road towards King Albert Park Station. Then continue down Jalan Jurong Kechil to Bukit Batok Nature Park. Cut through the nature park towards Bukit Batok Ave 2 then cross the road to Ave 4 then Ave 6. Next, turn left and walk towards PIE and take the overhead bridge across. Turn right and walk along the expressway until Jurong East Central. Walk along Jurong East Central and turn right onto Boon Lay Way. Walk along the roads and turn left onto Yuan Ching Road to reach Jurong Lake Gardens.

The entire journey from Botanic Gardens to Jurong Lake Gardens (along Yuan Ching Road) will take you about 3 to 4 hours at a relaxed pace, including 1 hour spent exploring the parks/gardens.

Starting at Botanic Gardens instead of CP4 Adam Road

CP4 is near Adam Food Centre but we started from Botanic Gardens instead since it was conveniently located next to Botanic Gardens station. From the entrance of the gardens, we crossed the road to Cluny Court and continued walking down Bukit Timah Road. Your first marker to make sure you’re on track will be the Bukit Timah Neighbourhood Police Centre or Crown Centre.

As you continue down, you will pass by Tan Kah Kee Station (Downtown Line) then Hwa Chong Institution. There’s a gardened lane just outside the school to shield you from the traffic. You should go past Sixth Avenue station shortly after.

Continue walking until you pass King Albert Park Station and you will spot a dirt road to your left that somehow looks like a restricted area.

This stretch along Bukit Timah Road is about 5km, and will take you approximately 1 hour at a relaxed pace.

Old Bukit Timah railway station

We only turned into the dirt path (to our left) after seeing throngs of people entering. It’s actually the entrance to the Old Bukit Timah railway station and if you walk in deeper, you will arrive at Clementi Forest.

The Old Bukit Timah railway station was closed in 2011 after almost 80 years of operation since 1932. It used to be the station between Tanjong Pagar and Woodlands before the train continued to Malaysia.

Despite this being one of the ‘coolest’ spots heralded on social media, we’ve never visited. Since it’s along the C2C trail, we decided to hang out for a while even though the Railway station is in the opposite direction as our next stop – Bukit Batok Nature Park.

To continue on the C2C trail, you will still need to turn left towards the old railway station but make a u-turn instead to get on the Railway Bridge. The truss bridge was only reopened in late 2020 after two years of restoration and they’ve also kept the sleeper tracks on the deck of the bridge. It’s a rather narrow bridge so take caution when taking photos as cyclists also use the bridge.

As you get off the bridge (where the arrow starts in the map above), you’ll find yourself on Rifle Range Road.

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Continue walking for about 5 to 10 minutes and locate these stairs that lead upwards to the main road on your left. Bukit Timah Nature Reserve would actually be on your right. We decided to skip the nature reserve and continue down Jalan Jurong Kechil all the way towards Bukit Batok Nature Park.

The Jalan Jurong Kechil stretch will bring you from public housing estates to shophouses and to a hostel-like place. This stretch is about 1.5km, and will take you about 20 minutes.

Note: The designated C2C route would have skipped Rifle Range Road and have you walk along Bukit Timah Nature Reserve but we kinda got a little lost with the signs there and went for the fastest option towards Bukit Batok Nature Park.

Bukit Batok Nature Park

Instead of just bypassing the park, we decided to explore the nature park as it was our first time visiting. The park was built on an abandoned quarry site and is now a beautiful and tranquil park. We made our way towards the lookout point that offers vantage points looking out to the quarry pool. We mistook the lookout point for Xiao Guilin. 😛 It’s pretty similar but I guess Xiao Guilin would be more magnificent and expansive.

For reference, we spent about 30 minutes in the park and the above was the route we took in the park.

If you exit the park via Bukit Batok Ave 2, cross the road and make a u-turn and turn right into Bukit Batok Ave 4, before turning left towards Bukit Batok Ave 6 (green arrow). If you happen to exit via Bukit Batok Ave 6, then that’s great! Just continue down Ave 6, along the canal (purple arrow).

Just before Mandarin Self Storage (orange building in the photo above) where the canal meanders left, turn left too.

Continue walking straight towards the PIE and there will be an overhead bridge that will bring you across the expressway. It will take you about 20 minutes from the nature park to this overhead bridge.

The overhead bridge was decorated with beautiful bougainvillea in full bloom when we were there. There was this tree with strangely intriguing blue fruits, I doubt they are blueberries, right?

Turning into Jurong

After crossing the overhead bridge, turn right and continue walking along the expressway. When you spot Jurong East Central about 5 minutes later, turn left and continue walking straight under the MRT tracks.

When you spot Yuhua Spring, which you will recognise by its distinctive oriental-styled gate in front of the HDBs, turn right onto Boon Lay Way. (Gosh, I sound like a GPS now, don’t I?)

Continue walking down Boon Lay Way and keep to the left side of the road. If you’re on the opposite side (Yuhua CC’s side), cross the road just after Yuhua Community Centre. Try to look out for Blk 115; that’s where you turn to your left into the estates.

From the expressway to Blk 115, cater 20 minutes as it is about 1.5km.

Getting to CP1 really soon!

As you cross through the estates (along Blk 115 then 116), you will find yourself at Jurong Town Hall Rd. Locate the C2C signage just in front of an overhead bridge. Cross the overhead bridge and you’ll find yourself at Chinese Gardens! This is the official CP1 checkpoint!

Chinese Garden is temporarily closed (as of Apr 2021) but we decided to walk within the gardens along Jurong Connection Park (which was more like a construction site currently actually). We exited around to the main road at this point called “Skywalker crossing” on Google maps. And somehow walked away from the gardens and went one whole big round in the estates. Don’t be like us!

Getting to Jurong Lake Gardens

Alternatively, it would be much easier if you were to continue down Boon Lay road (instead of turning into Jurong Town Hall Rd) and walk around the garden for about 15 minutes (along Boon Lay Way and turn left into Yuan Ching Road). You will get to the other side of the lake just after Yuan Ching Secondary School. We spent a while exploring the gardens and here are some of our favourite spots in the gardens:

You can also have lunch at Fusion Spoon, one of the restaurants in the gardens. The food’s pretty decent and prices are affordable too!

Overall this was a pretty interesting stretch in the Coast-to-Coast trail and I was happy to be able to explore another part of Singapore! And with this, I have just one final stretch of the C2C trail to document! Stay tuned for the last segment from Sengkang Riverside Park to Coney Island.

If you prefer trails with lots of nature or more things to look at, check out Marang Trail which brings you through Mt Faber and Southern Ridges, or the scenic hike around the Marina Bay area.