Down Under! Fremantle, Perth, AUSTRALIA!

Hello!

So sorry for the sudden absence of blog post recently... But today, just to make up for what I've done wrong... Here's a post on my recent trip to PERTH, AUSTRALIA!!! Yes, all the Kangaroos and Koalas!Well, it begins like this: The Track team decided that training in Singapore was too boring and thus, to break the monotony of this, we went to PERTH! It was thoroughly enjoyable! However, since it was a training/Track and Field Trip, Shelling time was cut to only 35 MINUTES...

But in any case, I still managed to taste the sea and get sand in my shoes so here it goes!

 So... the weather was not too perfect upon arrival at Fremantle. Apparently, it began to rain as we were walking to the famous Fish and Chips Shop so yea... was a little disappointed about that... This is the harbour by the way. I guess this is where Fremantle gets its daily shipping of fresh seafood!

 But... HEY HEY! The weather did not fail to surprise us!(Thats right! For the first time, one of my BEST TRACK BUDDY was with me shelling!)  So this is the sea! had to squeeze through the tiny space between the fencing... But it was sorta worth it. :P

 So here it is... Thought he skies seemed threathening, it did not rain for the rest of the day!

 Loads and loads of algae/ SEA GRASS. There were heaps of them all over the small stretch of shore so we had to slowly sift through all these just to find one. :(

 Strong currents! ~ Beware!

 And KELP (If i'm not wrong) Couldn't bring those back though...

 The lovely Fremantle... had to immediately run off after this photo or risk getting my running shoes soaked!

 and there were loads of these ALGAE BALLS. Kinda like MARIMO from Japan to me. :)

 FINALLY!!! A SHELL! had to yank this off from a piece of algae. It was a perfect, double shelled specimen (well, it was until the other half FELL THROUGH THE GAP BETWEEN THE WOODEN BOARDS AND WAS GONE FOREVER!!! DX) Similar to those locally, the BARBATUS MUSSEL (Modiolus barbatus) is one of the numerous australian counterparts that they have!

 More algae... Looks like those I ate in the Philippines! Crunchy!

 Sadly this was a live specimen so yea... had to leave it alone but on the bright side, A PERIWINKLE! These little friends have an extremely high tolerance to heat and can stay out of water for WEEKS until the super tides manage to relieve them of their agony! Amazing eh? :)

 But sadly, 35 minutes is barely enough to look thorugh all that seaweed and we had to leave...

  For FREMANTLE MARKET! And my hopes were not dashed when I saw this Seashell Shop! Time to rumble!

 Look st those HUGE Bailer Shells!

 So... We were outta luck and could only shell for this INCRASSATE CARDITA (Megacardita incrassata)... My buddy managed to find 2 of these! Double happiness!!!

And of course... after a slight negotiation with the shopkeeper, I managed to obtain this SOWERBY'S VOLUTE (Ericusa sowerbyi) for a hefty price of SGD$18... Nvm, it's once in a lifetime right? :)

So that brings me to a close for this post... Yep, I know, it isn't as glamourous as the rest but Iassure you the NEXT POST will be spectacular and worth waiting as i'm going for another MAJOR SHELLING HOLIDAY! Not going to mention where the place is but till then...

Akan Datang ;P (Here's the clue! :D)

Catching the weather window.

Hello everyone,

Well, we have had the best of the weather and tides today. A 0.1 tide with perfect weather, not too sunny nor cloudy, and best of all, at 5p.m. :) As such, this unplanned trip eventually turned out to be an exciting and amazing visit. Granted, only a few shells were collected but still, it it was wonderful as we managed (or at least I managed) to catch the best of Punggol Point... :D

 Well, the first sight after stepping out of the car... lovely weather and a cooling breeze... :)

 Well, I did not photograph some of the creatures prior to this PEACOCK ANEMONE because my camera decided to fail me due to the lack of battery. However, it finally "revived", how it did it, I have no idea... In any case, it was great news! :D This was the only PEACOCK ANEMONE I spotted.

And there were numerous CARPET ANEMONIES!!! A mental calculation would bring the total number of CARPET ANEMONIES spotted to close to a dozen! They were lovely and a rare sight, considering the fact that the only other place I've seen them would be at Check Jawa.

All these animals were hidden beneath the huge patch of ULVA GRASS.

Surprisingly, I actually managed to spot this! A SPONGE CRAB! Yep, it was seen moving  and is only the size of a marble! Haha! Cute guy!

The internal view...

And we managed to see hundreds of these CARINATE ROCK SHELLS. Apparently, they were amongst the ULVA WEEDS... Not so "Rocky" as comapred to its cousins... :)

Another CARPET ANEMONE! I just can't get over these things!

And a cute BALL SEA CUCUMBER! This is the second one.

CARINATE ROCK SHELL in its original habitat.

So... as I continued my journey down the coast, I met a remarkable man! (Not so sure about his name...) But HE MANAGED TO CAPTURE THIS OCTOPUS!!! (ba chat) Lovely! And best still, it was caught and later released! :D Nice way to practice catch and release eh?

Now, make a guess... what's this brownish lump?

A DOG CONCH! Better still, A LIVE DOG CONCH!

MY "collection" of weird and unique creatures! Just to calm you readers down, the overturned fish is actually, firstly, ALIVE. Secondly, I actually managed to capture 7 of these SINGAPORE TOADFISHES (Allenbatrachus reticulatus). Thirdly, the BLUE FLOWER CRAB isn't living, but instead, a moulted shell. No worries, I released them back once I was done with the photo-taking. :D

Sponges... As always, our local coast are strewn with rubbish. I APPEAL TO ALL READERS, while shelling, beach combing, fishing or simply strolling along the beach, please please keep our beaches clean. Everyone has a part to play alright? :)

And a WEIRD LOOKING ANEMONE. :)

And look!

A MELONGENA SNAIL! From the top, it actually looked extremely inconspicuous, not for the untrained eye.

And a LONG BLACK SEA CUCUMBER (Holothuria leucospilota) and look at the beautiful RED SPONGES at the side!

The BLACK SEA URCHINS (Temnopleurus toreumaticus)
 were showing up in thousands!

And tragically, this is the carcass of a SMOOTH OTTER. Occasionally, we do see families of them visit this shore. They are listed as critically endagered in Singapore. This wasn't what I would like to see but it's a clear reminder that we do not own the straits, but instead, share it with other innocent animals as well...

My catch before releasing them, BYE!

How low the tide went...

I returned to clean up my shells at the toilet and while leaving, spotted a SILVER AROWANA in the freshwater pond. :)

The offshore rocks, reachable only at negative tides..

The sun sets in the west, in the direction of Jurong. :P Throughout the trip, I did managed to spot other interesting creatures such as an OVUM COWRIE, SNAPPING SHRIMPS, THUNDER CRABS the size of two fist put together (!) and thousands of FIRE WORMS.

Till then, remember, the beach is part of mother nature. Protect it. (BTW, IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, THE TIDES TODAY ARE SIMILARLY LOW!!! HURRY DOWN NOW IF YOU WANNA EXPERIENCE WHAT I DID! :D :D :D )

Punggol Point, Aftermath of the Monsoon

Hello Everyone,

Upon seeing the short non-rainy window on sunday, and after convincing my father that the weather was great, and after consulting the weather and tide guru, which showed an approximate 1.0m low tide, we managed to reach Punggol Point...

 So here, it's obvious that the the skies are really really cloudy... a foreshadow of a rain maybe? :P

 The usual scene: the black boulders and sand. The tide was receeding at this time... Was on the verge of rejoicing when I noticed a number of people, bending over and picking up "something"... Wanted to approach them but they didn't seem friendly so I scrapped the idea...

 The monsoons seemed to have washed up tons of mangrove seeds! The beach was littered with them! Took a rooted seed home to try my luck at growing a mangrove at home. :P

 Now, this is an interesting one. Remember fighting over that white, oval-shaped thing in your Ice Kachang? Yup, its the ATTAP CHEE or NIPAH PALM. The ATTAP CHEE (CHEE = Seed on Hokkien) actually comes from this fruit that you are looking at. The white thingy is actually embedded within this woody seed pod. So, if you ever see any of these do try to grow them! :D

 There were also lots of BEAD ANEMONIES. The squirt water when you touch them!

 A badly eroded cowrie that was possibly a OVUM COWRIE. Would have been a beauty if it wasn't eroded...

 These few men were actually collecting VENUS CLAMS and GREEN TUA TOWS... They actually collected a huge plastic bag of them... tragically, they were not the only ones searching for the animals...

 Look! some of the common residents did not fail to disappoint!The GUAM FALSE LIMPET was the most common of the 3 (or 4) shells in the photograph.

 A BURNT MUREX! What a rare visitor! We usually do not see these shells along this coast... The last time i saw one was in BINTAN (do refer to my previous few post on Bintan... :) ) Tragically, he's really eroded... (Sorry, addressed it as a "he" for fun's sake! )

Another unusual visitor, the SURF CLAM. They are usually found in high densities along East Coast Park or Changi Bay...

 And our local representative shell!!! The SINGAPORE KEYHOLE LIMPET (Diodora singaporensis... :) )

 Oyster-farmers harvesting oysters along the rocks... This is good if you actually look at the density of oysters along this coast... totally freaky

 The sun sets... Dark arrives...

 And a DOG CONCH! Another injured (I mean, eroded) citizen of our shores... Btw, they are edible. :)

 Johore Industrial Region... There"s also Serangoon Island in the background...

 Punggol Point jetty... Usually the setting off and returning point for those going to OBS (Outward Bounds Singapore) ... I've been there! ;P

 

Well, although it did not seem like a really good trip, at least I managed to obtain some specimens... :) Hope that the next trip will be fruitful!