15 Mar (Sun): Fun under the sun at Chek Jawa during the March School Holidays

Join us at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 15 March, Sunday. This is a very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves, and the best way is to explore this place is with a nature guide. Our walks are designed for small groups of young families and friends. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 15 March 2020 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

15 Dec (Sun): Celebrate the school holidays with a trip to Chek Jawa!

Join us at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 15 December, Sunday. This is a very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves, and the best way is to explore this place is with a nature guide. Our walks are designed for small groups of young families and friends. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 15 December 2019 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

8 September (Sun) - Spend your school holidays with us at Chek Jawa!

Join us at our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 8 September, Sunday. This is a very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves, and the best way is to explore this place is with a nature guide. Our walks are designed for small groups of young families and friends. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 8 September 2019 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

18 Aug (Sun) - Free Guided Walk at Chek Jawa

Join us at our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 18 August, Sunday. This is a very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves, and the best way is to explore this place is with a nature guide. Our walks are designed for small groups of young families and friends. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 18 August 2019 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

2 Jun 2019 (Sun) - Balik Chek Jawa

Once a year, and only once a year, during Pesta Ubin, volunteers from several groups come together to offer a Chek Jawa Open House. Free, no registration required, simply come to Chek Jawa!

Date: 2 Jun (Sun)
Time: 10am - 2pm
Meeting point: Chek Jawa Info Kiosk
More details here: tinyurl.com/balikcj2019

Volunteer guides will be stationed all over the boardwalk to share about Chek Jawa's amazing heritage  and wildlife. 

See you at Balik Chek Jawa!

14 Apr 2019 (Sun) - Chek Jawa, here we come!

Join us at our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 14 April, Sunday. This is a very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves, and the best way is to explore this place is with a nature guide. Our walks are designed for small groups of young families and friends. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 14 April 2019 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

Great day at Chek Jawa on a Saturday morning

We had a great day at Chek Jawa with about 20 visitors on 23 Feb 2019. So happy to meet with enthusiastic visitors. Very lovely people!

We saw lots of animals including monitor lizards, an Oriental Whip snake, fiddler crabs, tree-climbing crabs, wild boars and macaques. Strangely, we did not see mudskippers in the mangrove and at the coastal side too. Not sure why.

The sun was out, the sky was a beautiful blue, and lots of fresh air. It's a good day to be out enjoying some nature!

One of the kids in the group spotted a pair of needlefishes in the waters just after the beacon. The fishes are about 40 cm long. What a treat to be able to see theses fishes!

We saw lots of long-tail macaques before and after the walk. The guides took the opportunity to remind visitors not to feed the monkeys.

A shout-out with thanks to our volunteer guides - Sumita, Ria, Xiang Tian, LK and our intern, Francine, for guiding!

Also, check out the video that Ria made of the walk: https://wildshores.blogspot.com/2019/02/black-water-at-chek-jawa.html#.XHZanogzY2x



Do join us at our upcoming events in March:

10 March, 2019 (Sunday) - guided walk at Berlayar Creek by trainee guides

16 March, 2019 (Saturday), 4 to 8pm - a community event organised by Celebrating Singapore Shores. Come and meet the wonderful people who are involved in marine conservation and education in Singapore! No registration is needed.

14 Oct (Sun) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Join us our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 14 October, Sunday. Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Just gather your family and friends, and have someone do the signup on behalf of the group. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Register on Eventbrite here.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of our volunteer guides, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 14 October 2018 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted
Sign up here.

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you.

More photos in the next section.

Flowering durian trees at Chek Jawa

Every Naked Hermit Crab is always different and you never know what you're going to see! During our walk yesterday, we enjoyed the sight and smell of durian flowers all around us on the ground and up in the trees. As most of us enjoy the taste of durians, we were grateful for the presence of bats and their role in helping pollinate durian flowers. You can read more about that here.

Durian flowers (Photo by Ley Kun Wong)

Photo by Liz Lim

18 March (Sun) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Join us our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 18 March, Sunday. Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Just gather your family and friends, and have someone do the signup on behalf of the group. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Click on our Online Registration Form.


Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of an experienced volunteer guide, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 18 March 2018 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you.

More photos in the next section.

25 Nov and 16 Dec, 2017 (Saturdays) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

The year-end school holidays are here.... YIPPEE! If you are looking for outdoorsy nature activities to do with the family during the holidays, why not join our nature walks at Chek Jawa Boardwalk, Pulau Ubin? Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Best of all, our nature walks are free!

We are running two public walks, and both dates are open for registration now! Just appoint someone to signup on behalf of the group. We welcome small groups of families or friends. Unfortunately we are not able to accept registration from large groups of people due to our limited resources. Click on our Online Registration Form.

Date: 25 November 2017 (Saturday) and 16 December 2017 (Saturday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of an experienced volunteer guide, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you. The post will also give you lots of details like how to get to Chek Jawa, where to meet, what to bring.

Meeting place: Information Kiosk at Chek Jawa Wetlands

Group photo before the walk begins

Click to see more photos of our past events at Chek Jawa.

15 Oct (Sun) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Join us our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 15 October, Sunday. Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Just gather your family and friends, and have someone do the signup on behalf of the group. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Click on our Online Registration Form.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of an experienced volunteer guide, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 15 October 2017 (Sunday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you.

More photos in the next section.

19-Aug-17 (Sat) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Hi everyone! We are back with our regular Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing on 19 August, Saturday. Come explore this very special and beautiful corner of Singapore mangroves with us. Just gather your family and friends, and have someone do the signup on behalf of the group. Best of all, this nature walk is free! Click on our Online Registration Form.

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of an experienced volunteer guide, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 19 August 2017 (Saturday)
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

For more information on what to expect at our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outings, and when preparing for your visit, please make sure you read our post specially written for you.

More photos in the next section.

3 Jun, 2017 (Sat): Balik Chek Jawa with the Chek Jawa community

FREE, no registration required, just come to Chek Jawa! Volunteer guides will be stationed all over the boardwalk to share about Chek Jawa's amazing wildlife. From monkeys to wild boar, birds to butterflies, crabs to mudskippers, and fascinating plants of the mangroves and shores, some of which are rare elsewhere. If we are lucky we may encounter otters or even a dugong.

A spectacular view from Jejawi Tower

Date: 3 Jun, 2017 (Sat)
Time: 10am - 3pm
Meeting point: Chek Jawa Info Kiosk, 3.3km away from Ubin Jetty (map). About 1.5-2 hour walk or a 15-min van ride. More on how to get to Chek Jawa.

No charge, the activity is free!
No registration required, simply come to Chek Jawa.

A Jelly Good Time with the Naked Hermit Crabs!

The March holidays are here, and we are glad to have a group of 44 visitors join us for our monthly Chek Jawa Walk!

Say Cheese!
Photo by Mohammad Juhari.

After a quick briefing, we split into four groups and set off to explore! Each group was led by one of our four guides, Ria, Dayna, Sumita, and Ian.

18-Mar-17 (Sat) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Hi there! It is the March school holidays and we have a free Chek Jawa nature outing on the boardwalk this coming Saturday, 18 March. We still have about 20 places available for sign-ups. To sign up, do so at our Online Registration Form

Chek Jawa is rich in biodiversity, and with the help of an experienced volunteer guide, you should be able to see lots of interesting plants and wildlife. Even though we are not going on to the shore, there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Date: 18 March 2017 (Saturday)

Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Meeting time: 9:30 am

Duration of walk: 2 hours

Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

More information can be found in this link.

What to expect during a Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing with the Crabs

Here's some useful information about our Chek Jawa Boardwalk nature outings.

Naked Hermit Crabs is a small and informal group of volunteers who have been conducting free nature walks at Chek Jawa and Pasir Ris Mangroves since Sep 2007. We want to raise public awareness of the rich biodiversity and fragile coastal ecosystems found in these nature places.

Even though we are not going down to the shore (yes, the nature walk is conducted on the boardwalk), there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

During these walks, we will meet and greet you at the Chek Jawa Information Kiosk. Our visitors are split into groups of around 10 to 20 people, led by a volunteer guide. Each group will proceed to explore the mangroves followed by the coastal area, before ending the walk at the English Cottage. We usually end the walk with a short drawing session to allow the kids (and grown-ups too) to express their thoughts about the trip.

2017 schedule - Naked Hermit Crabs turn 10!

We are turning 10 this year! 10 years of bringing you the fun and FREE nature walks at Chek Jawa Boardwalk and Pasir Ris Mangroves. We couldn't have done this without the constant support and encouragement of our visitors. Sometimes we felt like giving up, and sometimes we went slow to give ourselves some rest. But we're still here, and we hope we have done a little for the ground-up conservation efforts of our nature places in Singapore, especially for threatened natural shores such as Chek Jawa.

It gives us much joy to share what we know about the plants and animals that live in the fragile coastal ecosystems of Chek Jawa and Pasir Ris Mangroves. Sign up for our walks and get to know Singapore's own biodiversity from volunteers who care about such things.

Here is our schedule for 2017. All walks are held at Chek Jawa Boardwalk (Pulau Ubin) unless stated otherwise.

25 Feb (Saturday)
18 Mar (Saturday) - school holidays
22 Apr (Saturday) changed to 15 Apr (Saturday) - Pasir Ris Mangroves
20 May (Saturday) we plan to train new guides in May for the Jun Balik Chek Jawa
3 Jun (Saturday) - Balik Chek Jawa. No registration needed. Simply show up at Chek Jawa and we will have guides to show you around.
1 Jul (Saturday) changed to Pasir Ris Mangroves instead of Chek Jawa
19 Aug (Saturday) new date
3 Sep (Sunday) - school holidays - Pasir Ris Mangroves
15 Oct (Sunday)
25 Nov (Saturday) - school holidays
16 Dec (Saturday) - school holidays

Registration for our walks are done online through Google Forms. We open registration one month at a time, as soon as we finish the previous one.

Click here to access the Online Registration Form for Chek Jawa Boardwalk.

This is the normal schedule at each Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip:

Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Meeting time: 9:30 am
Duration of walk: 2 hours
Fees: No charge for now, but small donations are accepted

If you have any questions, feel free to write to us at nakedhermitcrabs at gmail dot com.

Happy nature exploring!

Chek Jawa outing with the Naked Hermit Crabs

We have concluded the final two walks for 2016. There were 60 visitors in November and a bumper crop of 80 visitors in December. We are so happy to see the wonderful turnout of parents with their kids in tow! The school holidays are perfect for families to spend time together exploring the wild side of Singapore. With the Crabs as guides, it's a great way to explore Chek Jawa Boardwalk!

Visitors in December

The walk begins with a briefing from the guides. There were 4 guides altogether, and visitors were split roughly 20 to a group.

Briefing before the walk

We found lots of ripened fruit on the ground - fruit from the seashore nutmeg tree. In fact we found at least 3 areas in Chek Jawa littered with the bright red fruits. Chek Jawa remains one of the last strongholds for the critically endangered species of the seashore nutmeg in Singapore.

Seashore nutmegs

FREE Nature Walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk - November and December

Gold-spotted mudskipper seen at high tide at Chek Jawa (October 2016)

It's the year-end school holidays! We are opening registration for our FREE nature walks at Chek Jawa for the months of November and December. Register at this link!

The Naked Hermit Crabs have been running these nature outing for small family and friend groups since 2007. Run by a small group of nature volunteers, we want to raise awareness of rich and fragile coastal ecosystems such as Chek Jawa. It is common to hear people dismiss mangroves as "useless swamp land", or talk about "draining the swamp" as a metaphor for getting rid of something useless or harmful. We want to dispel that kind of thinking that mangroves and inter-tidal coastlines are useless land.

When you visit Chek Jawa, you will see just how rich it is with plant and animal biodiversity, and why we should protect it for future generations. Chek Jawa is a gem among the nature places in Singapore.  Even though we are not going down to the shore (yes, the nature walk is conducted on the boardwalk), there is still much to see and enjoy. There are monitor lizards, fiddler crabs, spiders, rare plants, wild boar, mudskippers and lots of fruit trees. If we are lucky, we might even spot the Oriental Pied Hornbill, White-bellied Sea Eagle and the giant Atlas Moth.

Let the volunteer guides show you the amazing biodiversity that is in our own "backyard"! Sign up here.

Date: 19 November and 17 December (Saturday)

Meeting time: 9.30am

Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Duration of walk: Around 2 hours

Cost: Free (small donations are accepted)

a typical scene during our walks

Read on for more information...