Wonderful hike today

We hiked tree-top trail at MacRitchie Reservoir today with our new friends, the Finklestein's. They have 3 children at the ages of 9, 8 and 2. Parrish and Sabrina ride the bus to school with their 2 oldest. Part of the hike is on this high suspension bridge that is literally above the tree tops, 25 meters from the ground. This walkway is really spectacular because it really gives you a look of the forest canopy where you can hear so many different species of birds (and insects too, I think). We also got to watch a monkey (long tailed macaques) climb around on the bridge structure.

Here's a picture of Parrish with her friend Kyra and unsuspecting monkey in back ground just before we started walking across the bridge.


The hike was around 7k (a little over 4 miles) and the kids did great. We had lots of stops for water and snacks to keep the kids happy and that worked pretty well. Having the distractions of the wildlife we saw was a huge help. Sabrina was so cute hiking with her little backpack and watermelon hat. She was all about hiking most the trail. Such trooper. Here's a picture of her with her friend Leigha. These two hiked nearly 80% of the trail!

Here's a picture of Rob just before we finished walking on the suspension bridge.


Aardvark's would thrive in this climate. I've never seen so many ants in all shapes and sizes. Check out this monster ant on the steps of this wooden bridge.




At the end of our hike, we saw many more families of monkeys. I wonder if they eat ants? There were lines of ants on the wooded railings scurrying about and gathering food. We also saw a monitor dragon, which I did not get a picture of, but they are very big and very prehistoric looking lizard.