Eviltwin & The Butterflies

Every so often my adventurous spirit leads me to try out some new stuff, so when I read about The Butterfly Trail in a local magazine I thought, This sounds like fun. Had some time to kill yesterday, packed the Cybershot, downloaded Map and Zelma's "Little" (more on this in a separate posting) Bird Watching Binoculars as per the instructions for the trail and took the train to the Orchard MRT station as my starting point. I will add the following items, Take a bloody hat and some water if it is a sunny hot day like it was yesterday.

It began as a dream in 2008, but perseverance and planning has seen it become a reality. A 4 Kilometre nature trail in the city, officially launched in June 2010 at a cost of $450,000. Today, City Dwellers can walk the trail in Orchard Road and spot some 52 sorts of exotic Butterflies. Its an ongoing project with more expansion in the making.

With my map I started the trail outside of ION City in Orchard Road and immediately got lost and made a half hour detour getting back to the trail. Honestly the first 45 minutes apart from seeing some very nice flowers and gardens was pretty boring. No Butterflies. Then finally I got to Penang Road Open Space and started seeing the illusive little rascals.

Lesson one, You need a camera with a "very serious" zoom lens else you end up running around like a mad man trying to get a shot. Lesson two, its like trying to take a photo of a group of toddlers in a candy store, they never stand still for more than a second and when you finally sneak up they close their wings. Damn. Oh, Blowing or any gestures only lets them fly away. Luckily no one knew what I was up to or at least I hope. I did see at least 10 different ones but getting photos proved impossible, so here are the fruits of my efforts.



The highlight of the 3 hour walk came at the end of the trail in the form of a little gem called, Istana Park. There is a very nice Arts Restaurant, Ponds, Benches and Arches. A group of painters were sitting on the terrace doing their paintings. One of the benefits of doing the trail is the fact that you get to know Orchard Road from a very different perspective and along the way explore and find new places to visit in Orchard Road.

The Verdict. It's definitely worth walking the trail but if you are an amateur like me and its butterflies you want to see, Honestly, go to the Butterfly Park & Insect Kingdom on Sentosa Island where they are enclosed in much smaller area. Sit on a bench, put the camera on the tripod, point and shoot. Much easier and a lot less walking. Amazing, what I won't do for my readers?

Enjoy the weekend