15 April (Sat) - Free guided walk at the Pasir Ris Mangroves

Specially for kids and families, explore Pasir Ris mangroves with volunteer nature guides from the Naked Hermit Crabs on this FREE guided tour of the boardwalk!

Sign up now on our online registration form! Don't miss the opportunity to see some wildlife in action! Pasir Ris mangroves is conveniently located 10 minutes away from Pasir Ris MRT station. Bring your children down to enjoy nature during the weekend!

Giant mudskippers are a common sight in our mangroves!

There are many creatures look out for in the mangroves, such as mudskippers, tree-climbing crabs, herons and monitor lizards. Sometimes, you may even spot kingfishers and water snakes! It will certainly be an unforgettable experience with your friends and family!

Date: 15 April, 2017 (Saturday)
Time: 5 pm (We should end around 6.30pm, just before sunset.)
Meeting point: Pasir Ris Park, Carpark C.

Sign up here.

Meet near the first toilets nearest the entrance to Carpark C. The meeting point is a short stroll from the Pasir Ris MRT station. Pasir Ris Park is a very long park with many carparks (from A to D). Do look at the map to be sure you are heading for the correct carpark.

Please sign up for the walk at our Online Registration Form. We look forward to seeing you there!

Do read on for more information about our FAQs and what you can expect to see!

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.

25-Feb-17 (Sat) - Free guided walk at Chek Jawa Boardwalk

Come and join us for our Chek Jawa Boardwalk outing next Saturday, 25 Feb, 2017. We have about 20 places available. Don't miss this chance to explore Chek Jawa with the Naked Hermit Crabs!

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.

Sign up at our Online Registration Form.

Date: 25 February 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

Coastal boardwalk

Mangrove Boardwalk

Click here to find out more about preparing for a Chek Jawa outing with the Naked Hermit Crabs.

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