The Elephant, Frog and Pig...

Hey peeps,

Alright, I did promise some out-of-the-usual shelling posts, and so I will. Exams ended like 3 weeks ago so I managed to squeeze in two trips to Pulau Ubin during the marking days... :D Legend has it that 3 animals, a pig, an elephant and a frog, once challenged each other to swim across the Johor Straits. To cut the story short, they all failed terribly... and drowned. eventually, the pig and elephant formed the two main islands of what we now call Pulau Ubin. The frog, despite being a water-borne creature, eventually also died and formed Pulau Sekudu, or Frog Island. (Fyi, Pulau is the Malay term for "Island") So yea... Anyway, Sekudu is out of reach by the public and hence, we only toured the Eastern and Western Island. :) A ride around the entire island, on a bicycle, would take about 6 to 7 hours, which is of course dependent on how many breaks you choose to take. Shelling wise, I would have to apologise. I INTENDED to shell on the first trip, but tragically it rained when we finally reached the Jetty... :( And on the second trip, we had almost no time to shell... :( But anyway, the short 5-minute shelling experience was an eye opener for me... so stay tuned to find out why!

 We proceeded westwards... Which is usually unexplored. Here's a little stream to enjoy... You rarely find these on mainland Singapore. No shells here though. :/

 And the first river... Lined with numerous mangroves. Did I ever mention that despite being that little red dot on the map, Singapore hosts half of the 51 recognised, true mangrove species in the world! So protect your mangroves S'poreans!!!

 Right in the middle of the tidal river... This ecological formation is unique, in the sense that the river is filled only during high tide...

 On the top of Ubin Hill... Almost NO ONE was there, as no one was interested in climbing up 100+m... But the view is breath-taking... How often do you see this in Singapore? :D

 And to end off the day... a break by this lovely pond... :) Anyway, these photos are just snippets of where we went. We also visited the Bike Park at the far west, facing Punggol and Yio Chu Kang. We TRIED to visit Mamam Beach but it was CLOSED due to coastal erosion... Real sad eh? And to top things off, I had a great fall that left me with 12 scratches on my right leg and 1 week of humiliation from my friends (They gladly assumed that I was engaged in a cat fight... -.-" )

 And the Jetty... Low tides like these make me sooooo happy... :3

 And if you look closely, you'd find SHRIMPS in this tidal pool! (The spoon probably came from one of the restaurants nearby...)

 And a MELONGENA SHELL!!!

 Ok, so quickly, these are some of our finds: CHAMELEON NERITE

 WAVED NERITE

 BUTTERFLY/SURF CLAMS

 ONE-TOOTHED TROCHUS

 TIGER MOON SHELL

BLACK MUSSEL and DUA TOW

SO there you have it! Have an enjoyable weekend! :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 )

I'm Back! Bintan Shelling Expedition 1

OMG people!

    I have just returned from a major shelling trip in... Bintan! Thats right, if you do not know where is Bintan, do check out my previous post on Bintan Shells. So, what did I do? Ok, every major holiday, we would usually go somewhere for a major shelling trip and I have had a HUGE haul from the whole trip. One luggage full so we really had to be careful not to smash the fragile ones. So, if you are planning a shelling trip in Southeast Asia, just a word for you, Never expect anything from an Indo-Pacific beach... what do I mean? It means that you will never be able to get the "ideal" shell haul from the beach. It may be much better (in my case) or worse so don't prepare anything or thinkn you will collect this or that shell because it may not even appear. For example, I found only one pathetic Spider Conch for the whole entire trip but I found many other shells like a Enlongate Janthina, Strawberry Cockle... and many others (ok, they may be common but its a first time for me! :) ) So in total, I have made 4 major shelling trips and 4 minor ones (major = more than an hour) and I guess all the sandfly bites were pretty worth it and the shelling trips helped me to get a nice tan. :P
So here is the first 2 trips. These were held on the beautiful beaches of Eastern Bintan, Trikora region. The sea is lovely and crystal clear and best of all, the low tide stretches like hundreds of metres offshore! Sadly, the haul from this section wasn't too good but when I went over to the other side, it was a whole new experience...

 So here it is, Bintan Cabana Resort... a 50 minute ride away from the ferry terminal. Along the way we went past beautiful shorelines and coast.

 And as a welcome gift, we had a rainbow! The best part is it was not and did not rain even though we got the rainbow!

 My sister and I shelling... the sun now isn't that hot :) we did not find many shails, just some bivalves and certain cerith shells that are usually occupied by hermit crabs. The sea was pretty calm so not many shells were washed onshore. :(

All of a sudden, Dad tells me that there is a better beach at the Eastern Wing of the beach! I did not take this photo and regretfully, did not take any photos of the shells there either but the mostly were Ark shells and Black Lipped Conches. I also did find many One-toothed Turban Shells. :)

 7a.m., I wake up in the morning... But it's not Friday. :) The shoreline is filled with thousands of Mud Cerith Shells!

 The first find of the day! A Whelk!

 Ceriths again... the white one is a Common Vertagus.

 And Woo Hoo! A Giant Clam! this guys a juvenile, about the size of a fist. A Giant Clam (This is its name! )

 And we have hundreds of Soldier crabs!

 A pair here...

 This is what I found on the rocks, a Melongena Shell and a Bituberculate Rock Shell!

 The resort...I am now easily 80 metres away from the shore.

 Haiz... What a relaxing place...

 And In the afternoon, thr tide rises and this is what you get. Crystal clear water for hundreds of metres out!

 My resort room.

 This is the western end of the coast. Apparently, it is filled with mangroves for a section so we decided to explore it. There weren't many shells in the mangroves though...

And relaxation for the sore back at last... I did visit the Eastern end of the coast but again, did not photograph anything there but I did find a Spider Conch! I also found a Straberry Cockle and over two dozens of Black Lipped Conches. The same few (Ark, One-toothed) were there coupled on with a few Cardita Clams! I will be showing you the photos of what I have collected very soon! Also, this blog will be updated on the other few shelling trips soon so stay close! The next few will not be in Trikora but Lagoi and I have lots to tell! With that, good night! :)