Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Discovering Singapore's newest green hub - The HortPark with Alber Adventure

Let me introduce two "firsts". The first is the latest attraction for nature lovers - the opening of HortPark, a seemless nature trail of parks connector of some 23 hectare of green space.

"HortPark is a one-stop gardening hub that brings together gardening-related, recreational, educational, research and retail activities under one big canopy in a park setting. It is a knowledge hub for plants and gardening and provides the platform for the industry to share best practices and showcase garden designs, products and services. This 23-hectare regional park in South-Western Singapore is also a park connector, connecting Telok Blangah Hill Park to Kent Ridge Park."

To read more, click here.

The other first is the testing of the fastest power wheelchair currently available here. The German-made Alber Adventure power wheelchair with a top speed of 14kph will blow you away. The Abler is one hell of a dream machine. I had this rare opportunity of riding this uber wheelchair due to the kind courtesy of Mr Cheong of Start-Centre, the person who is responsible for marketing it here. The photos below showed the dual joy of discovering Singapore's latest green lung on the fastest power wheelchair here.

The rather deceptive path leads to a flight of steps with no indication or signage of the imminent danger. There is however a flat path just besides it. From the wheelchair rider's perspective, it appears a slope downwards. I hope the NParks will look into this immediately.

The dangerous view from the other side.
The Alber was a joy to ride on - its excellent suspension coupled with comfortable seat made me feel like I am travelling on business class seat of my beloved Singapore Airlines. It is a continuous climb of slope of some 500 metres or about 10 minutes to reach the top of South Ridge by Alber power wheelchair.

Me and Alber. What an achievement reaching the top of South Ridge, well almost the top. Our journey was hampered by a flight of steps to continue a little further.

Feeling contented of conquering South Ridge without a sweat, I travelled down.
Feeling supremely happy with being in touch with nature, the Alber just made it so much enjoyable like travelling into the heart of Congo.

1 comment:

Mary Laver said...

I have three power wheelchairs but the one that this blog is talking about is the Alber Adventure. for more details go to http://www.adventure-news.de/en/history/concept.php
I regard my Alber as the formulat one of power chairs. The suspension makes the ride comfortable. i revently did 67k in mine while attempting the famous Lands End to John O'Groats ride. I failed but i am hoping to do it again in 2009. If any readers would like to join me an or want more intoformation, please email me at mary.laver.e2e@googlemail.com or visit my blog. I look forward to hearing from you.
Mary Laver