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!

Reasons Why I Hate The Monsoon...

Hey people,

Firstly, I have to apologise for the long absence from this blog. Really needed the time to catch up on my studies and I did not visit the beach within that one month! So sorry.

Secondly, We have been having really crappy weather for the past one week or so. The monsoon has arrived so every day if it's not drizzling its pouring so yea... really bad weather for shelling. The tides have also risen due to the high amounts of rain deposited on our island... :( Although I did manage to visit the beach today, with relatively good weather, I would have to leave that to my next post. Why, because this post has been dedicated to informing everyone why they should check the tides and weather before visiting the beach..

 So here am I, on a Thursday afternoon. Just finished some activities in school and managed to convince my papa and mama to drive me to the beach. As you can see, the ripples in the pond are not caused by tiny fishes but instead, rain droplets...

 In any case, I decided to continue with the visit, making my way to the shore...

 And lo and behold, the SEA HAS SUCCESSFULLY MANAGED TO COVER THE WHOLE SAND BAR!!! So much so for not listening to the tidal predictions... (Btw, 3.2m)

 Even a section of grass along the upper shore was submerged! And worse still, NO SHELLS OR ANYTHING INTERESTING...

 Since I had no choice, I decided to check out the coastal vegetation at Punggol Point. Did manage to spot some COASTAL MORNING GLORIES in full bloom.

And of course, the high tides again.

Tragically, The rain got havier and I was soaked to the skin... (Ok, maybe not that wet) but still, it was a wasted trip to the Punggol Point... Moral of the story, Check the weather and tides before visiting the beach...