March is month of Durian Flowers and Little Piggies

The Crabs are back in action after a 2-month break! And we have lots of interesting stuff to report from our short outing to Chek Jawa with 50 visitors and 7 guides.

Some of the guides are huge durian fans, so we always look out for durian flowers when we visit Chek Jawa in March. Impeccable timing because we did find a carpet of durian flowers on the gravel path near the information kiosk! Guys, this means we are on target to have a bountiful durian harvest in July. On one very important condition though .... that the humble, often-maligned fruit bats are still there to perform their very important role of fruit-pollinator in Chek Jawa. We always remind our visitors: No bats, no durians!

We also found out an interesting fact over the weekend. The durian flower can be used as an ingredient in some South-east Asian recipes: durian blossom curry, with belacan, in a soup, or fried in an omelette, according to Grace, one of our nature-loving friends. Here's a collection of recipes from the Internet that use durian flowers as an ingredient. We learnt something new again!

12 Apr (Sat) evening: Free guided walk at the Pasir Ris mangroves

Especially for families and kids! Join this FREE guided walk by enthusiastic volunteer guides. All you have to do is fill out this online registration form.

Pasir Ris mangroves is just a short walk away from Pasir Ris MRT station, and is supported by a broadwalk that passes through the entire area, so it is all very safe and you will not get your shoes muddy! Despite this, there are many animals to be seen from the broadwalk, like mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, shorebirds and many fish. If you are lucky, otters and monitor lizards may even grace us with their presence! We promise that you will have an awesome time exploring the mangroves with the Naked Hermit Crabs!

2014 - Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk trips on the 4th Saturday of each month

** Update 28 Sep 2014 **  We have just received notice from NParks that the Mangrove Boardwalk and Jejawi Tower at Chek Jawa Wetlands will be closed for upgrading works from 29 September 2014 to 31 January 2015. As a result, the Naked Hermit Crabs are changing our schedule for the remaining months of 2014 as follows.

25 Oct (Sat) - changed to Pasir Ris Mangroves at 5pm

22 Nov (Sat) - cancelled
30 Nov (Sun) - Ubin Day - more info on the Ubin Day website

27 Dec (Sat) - changed to Pasir Ris Mangroves at 5pm

Pasir Ris Mangroves sign up form: Click Here

To our visitors who have signed up for the CJ walk in October, we will be contacting you shortly to inform you of the change.

Cheers,
LK

*****

Hi Friends, we are back with our monthly Chek Jawa Boardwalk trips! This year, we've picked to do our walks on the 4th Saturday morning of each month. This date avoids all major low tide dates and also long weekends when Ubin can get crowded. It works well for the volunteer guides too as these dates 'conflict' least with the low tide shore trips that many of the Crabs are doing with various organisations.

Proposed dates for 2014:

22 Mar (Sat) - school holidays

26 Apr (Sat)

24 May (Sat)

28 Jun (Sat) - school holidays

26 Jul (Sat)

27 Sep (Sat)

25 Oct (Sat)

22 Nov (Sat) - school holidays

27 Dec (Sat) - school holidays

Meeting time: 9:30 am

Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Duration of walk: around 2 hours

Fees: none. You just have to pay for transport to get to Chek Jawa.

Why are we doing these free nature walks?

Simply because we want to share our love for the mangroves and inter-tidal ecosystems with you. These walks have proven to be an eye-opener to many people who do not realise there is much richness in plant and animal life in the coastal regions of Singapore. This is a public outreach programme run entirely by volunteers, and our heartfelt desire is to see more people understand the importance of nature conservation of our natural shorelines.

An interesting bit of information: we have done over six years of free boardwalk trips to Chek Jawa! Our first guided walk was in September 2007. How many visitors attend our Chek Jawa walks in a year? Roughly 500. Do help us spread the word!

How do you sign up for our walks?

It's easy. You sign up at our Online Registration Form, and we give you a reply to confirm the places that you need. 

Typically, we open registration one month before the walk, and replies are processed during the weekend. Do be patient with us as we all hold day jobs, and we will get round to doing replies.

If you have questions, please write to us at nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com

Who can sign up for the walks?

We welcome small groups of friends and family. 

Our walks are not designed for large groups from schools, corporates or other organisations. If you are organising a day trip for a large group of people, it is best if you contact the professional nature guides or event organisers. Here is a list of professional guides in the wildsingapore.com website.

There is no age restriction as long as you are able to look after yourself, and be able to walk 2 km, walk up the stairs of a 6-storey high bird-watching tower, tolerate whatever the weather throws at you (rain or shine), and in general, enjoy being outdoor in a great natural setting.