Thursday, May 24, 2007

Ubin Volunteers Get Together.....

Finally found the time to process the photos taken on last Saturday “Ubin Volunteers Get Together” session.

First of all, thanks to Adelle from Nparks for her efforts of organizing this “Get Together” session for the volunteers!

The “Get Together” session consisted of a BBQ dinner, slideshows, night-walk and a pre-dawn trip to Chek Jawa.

We have the BBQ dinner at the Volunteer Hub and paiseh to say that I didn’t take any pics except this one using my mobile phone cause I was stuffing myself with the foods. :OP

That’s some of us in the Volunteer's lounge eating and chatting away (L-R : Robin, Robert, Ron and Lay Kun).

After dinner, we have some slideshows showcasing the natural and cultural beauty of Singapore and Ubin. Ron did a presentation on intertidals, Lay Kun on the Wayang show on Ubin and moi did one on our underwater world. Hee…..some of the audiences were particularly very interested in this pic of flatworms mating. Sex sells, no doubt. :OP

The night’s still young when the slideshows ended and a group of us decided to go for a slow night-walk. We headed towards the West side of the island and walked mostly in the dark without using torchlight (we simply let our eyes adjust to the darkness).

Along the way, we tried to scare each other with things of all sorts from spirits to snakes. This somehow changed our slow walk into a fast one.

We dropped by Ubin Quarry too because some of us wanted to see the recently discover rock formation of Kuan Yin. Of course, the wish was not granted unless you have a super duper spot light that can be shone across the quarry. Thus, it’s best to pay a visit during daylight.

Our initial plan was to turn back after we reached Ubin Quarry but we decided to walk a bit further towards MCC Ubin Resort to see if we could find any fireflies. And we managed to catch a glimpse of ONE!

It was a fun walk. Hee…..and we managed to come back in one piece despite a scare from some dogs. And with no less or extra person. Phew!

By that time, we were all tired and proceed to dreamland. And after a 3hrs of Zzzzzz, we woke up for the pre-dawn trip to Chek Jawa.

I must say that I am very happy to see Chek Jawa on its road to recovery. Just look at these babies!



Small Carpet and Peacock Anemones littered among the Seagrasses.



Some of the stars are back! A very fast moving Sand Star on the Sandbar and two very beautiful Biscuit Sea Stars at the Coral Rubbles area. Of course, the ultimate wish would be that we could see the other two stars, Common Sea Star & Knobbly Sea Star, back again at Chek Jawa soon.

Besides that, we came across the Transparent Sea Cucumber and the Thorny Sea Cucumber too.


I was super delighted to see this!

Sponges!!! Tiny bits and pieces everywhere on the rubbles. Grow Sponges grow! And hopefully with your return, so will be my favourite Nudibranch. :O)

And highlight of the day for me would be this Allied Cowry on a Sea Fan.

As the Sun rose over the horizon, it's breakfast time.

And look like breakfast had just been served for this Carpet Anemone. It's tentacles had stung a Thunder Crab. We did not recuse the crab because firstly, it's dead and secondly, by taking away the crab, we are depriving the Carpet Anemone its food.

1 Comments:

Blogger JC said...

Cool Stuff. It has been great fun and nice meeting all the fellow volunteers. I upload some of the pix I took at my blog too.

http://solonavi.multiply.com/journal/item/82

Cheers
JC

May 24, 2007 7:17 PM  

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