Families enjoying an outing to Chek Jawa

In a country that is so obsessed with shopping and the trappings of a city life, it is heartening to see so many of the visitors to our outings at Chek Jawa express their love for nature and wild places. And they bring their families along - the young and the young-at-heart - to enjoy a morning amongst the mangroves and coastal areas.

It is the school holidays, and we had a total of 50 visitors and 7 guides (including Alan from NParks who helped us too).

As the roving photographer today, I was able to take many photos of the groups along the trail.

Here's one of PY and her group as they set off from the meeting place.

Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip on 27-Nov-2010 (Saturday)

We are opening our registration book for visitors who wish to join us this month at our nature trip to Chek Jawa.

It is a boardwalk trip (sorry, not a shore trip), but there are plenty of animals and plants to spot. Do read about our past trips to get an idea of what to expect of a typical boardwalk trip to Chek Jawa. One of our visitors wrote in our guestbook, "The best kept secret of Singapore... Explore till you drop!! Real wildlife and ecosystem observation within secure limits".

Date: 27 November 2010, Saturday

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: still free for now

Write to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com to register for the walk.

Please keep your group small, preferably fewer than 10 people, so that we can welcome as many family and friend groups as possible. If you are organising a corporate event, we encourage you to hire the professional nature guides.

Chek Jawa intertidal walks for whole 2011 open for booking on 1-Dec (organised by NParks)

To all our visitors and friends,

If you are interested to book a Chek Jawa shore walk in 2011 with NParks, please note that the booking date is on 1-Dec-2010. Don't miss this opportunity if you have always wanted to book an intertidal trip. Chek Jawa is a magical place where you can view wonderful inter-tidal marine life.

Read Ria's wildshores blog for an excellent explanation of how the booking works - http://wildshores.blogspot.com/2010/11/chek-jawa-intertidal-walks-for-whole.html

And the NParks website for Chek Jawa is in this link - http://www.nparks.gov.sg/cms/popup/pulau-attractions.html

Through the eyes of our visitors

It's been three weeks since our monthly nature trip to Chek Jawa Boardwalk on 23rd October. One of our visitors, Jimmy, forwarded a zip file of wonderful photographs taken during the trip. So, with permission from the photographer, Tan Wei Sheng, I am sharing his photographs with you here. Enjoy!

Free Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip on 23-Oct-2010

Are the final semester exams over? If you're free, plan a trip to Chek Jawa this coming Saturday, 23rd October, 2010. Come with your family or friends. Let the Naked Hermit Crabs introduce you to Chek Jawa without getting your feet wet.

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 boars, 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: 23 October 2010, Saturday

Time: 9:30 am

Duration: 2 hours

Meeting Place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin

Cost: still free for now

Write to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com to register for the walk.

And then there were four hornbills

Looking back at our last blog post, I wrote that if we were lucky, we might spot the gregarious Oriental Pied Hornbills during our monthly guided trip to Chek Jawa Boardwalk. We must have been REALLY fortunate; we saw four Oriental Pied Hornbills on one tree during our trip on 25th September, 2010. Here is proof of the sighting!

Can't see four hornbills? Scroll down and view the next photograph.

Join us - Chek Jawa Boardwalk trip on 25-Sep-2010

Whoa! It's time for our monthly free walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk again!

It's going to be frenetic weekend in Singapore next week with the Formula-One races down at the city circuit. If you're the type who seeks to be far from the madding crowd, then Chek Jawa with its mangroves and abundant intertidal wildlife may be the perfect place to escape to. Join us at this free walk. You should be able to see fiddler crabs, mudskippers, many bird species, perhaps, if luck is on your side, you might even spot the gregarious Oriental Pied Hornbills.

Write to nakedhermitcrabs@gmail.com to indicate how many people are coming for the walk. This trip is designed for small family and friend groups.

Date: 25 September 2010, Saturday
Time: 9:30 am
Duration: 2 hours
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk, Pulau Ubin
Cost: still free for now

The coastal segment of the boardwalk at Chek Jawa