Another fabulous day out on the Chek Jawa boardwalk

It was a sunny but breezy day and the Naked Hermit Crabs were delighted to share it with some 30 new friends! Even before we began, Ivan saw several wild boars near the trails!
It's a bit of a climb up the wobbly Jejawi Tower but we are rewarded with a great view of the surrounding mangroves and forest. And on the blue horizon, Pulau Tekong. We could barely make out the hills of Johor through the hazy day.

Guestbook drawings - 26 September 09

Here are the wonderful art pieces from our September guided walk. It was lovely to be able to showcase their interest, appreciation and reflection about Chek Jawa.

Chek Jawa Boardwalk - 26-September-09 Saturday

Hello everyone! We are back for our usual last-Saturday-of-the-month guided tour, and we’d like you to join us!

Here are the details:

Dates: 26 September 2009, Saturday
Time: 3 pm
Meeting place: Chek Jawa Information Kiosk
Your group size: not more than 5

Write to nakedhermitcrabs at gmail.com with the title “Sign up for Chek Jawa Boardwalk Tour September” and we will confirm your places for you. We accept walk-ins too! As always, we ask that you come in small family and friend groups of not more than 5. Please don't organise an extended family group or a company outing. The Naked Hermit Crabs are, er.... small and vulnerable. We confess.... we will get overwhelmed by large groups.

International Coastal Cleanup at Chek Jawa (12-Sep)

One of our Crabs, Anuj, led a team of 35 volunteers to clean up a section of Chek Jawa (South) on 12 Sep 2009 (Saturday). These volunteers come from all walks of life and they have independently signed up with ICCS to volunteer their services for the day. Many of them have volunteered for a few years already. Admirable! There must be something special about coastal cleanups that make them come back year after year.

Besides the 'independents', there were many other organisations involved in the cleanup of the entire Chek Jawa stretch, including AVA, LTA, St Nicholas Sec. School, Pei Hwa Sec. School, Advantest and Gemalto.

According to the data collected at Chek Jawa on 12 Sep 2009, there were 325 people involved in the event and they collected 2.786 tonnes of trash. That is about 8.5 kilogram of trash collected by each person!

The International Coastal Cleanup, Singapore, is now in its 18th year of battling marine trash in Singapore. A big part of the cleanup is actually about the collection of data about the trash itself. By collating data, scientists, government agencies, corporations and NGOs gain a better idea of what constitute our trash and what harm the coastal environment, and hopefully formulate better laws and strategies to fight marine pollution.

Chek Jawa - peaceful, untouched, a retreat from the daily stresses of life

The Crabs were out in full force yesterday. We shifted our monthly nature walk to the last Saturday of the month and it looks like we made the right decision.

We had about 45 visitors in total; 20 who registered for the walk, 5 walk-in visitors and about 20 teachers-in-training from the NIE Green Club who came to observe us in action. The weather was just what we wished for - sunny and with a lovely breeze to keep everyone happy.

Chek Jawa Boardwalk - 29-Aug-09 Saturday

Hi friends,

In case you miss our earlier announcement, we're holding our monthly Chek Jawa (Pulau Ubin) nature walk on Saturday instead of Sunday. And it is this coming Saturday, 29th August.

Date: 29 August 2009
Meeting Place : Chek Jawa Information Kiosk
Meeting Time : 3 pm
Duration : 1.5 to 2 hours
Cost : still free for now
Group Size : not more than 6

Chek Jawa - Last Saturday of every month

The Naked Hermit Crabs are making a BIG change to their Chek Jawa Boardwalk nature trips. Instead of holding our walks on the last Sunday of each month, we have decided to change them to the Last Saturday of the Month!

So the first Saturday walk happens this month on 29 August.

Nothing else has changed:

Meeting Place : Chek Jawa Information Kiosk

Meeting Time : 9 am (updated since 25 November 2009)

Duration : 1.5 hours

Cost : still free for now (amazing!)

Group Size : not more than 6.

Confirmed trips:

29-Aug-09

26-Sep-09

31-Oct-09

28-Nov-09 (9 am)

26-Dec-09 (9 am)

Come and join us to explore the different coastal habitats on Chek Jawa. 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.

What to bring: camera, binoculars, drinking water, a hat, sunblock

For additional information about Chek Jawa Boardwalk, click here .... http://www.wildsingapore.com/places/cj.htm

And how to get to Ubin and Chek Jawa .... http://www.wildsingapore.com/ubin/going.htm

1) From Changi Village, take a bumboat ride to Pulau Ubin

2) At the Ubin jetty, hop into a taxi van and tell the taxi driver to take you to Chek Jawa. Give yourself about 1 hour to get from Changi Village to Chek Jawa.

Finally, drop us a line at our email address, nakedhermitcrabs at gmail.com, to let us know us know that you're coming. We will give you a reply to confirm your place. However, if you have not registered with us but feel like showing up on the day itself, do come along anyway. If yours is a small group, we should be able to take you in as well.

We want to live a more spontaneous life!

Meanwhile, enjoy the rest of the photos taken at Chek Jawa....

(how rubber tapping works)

(a stick insect)

(a beautiful moth, unidentified)

(a young visitor to Chek Jawa)