I went out kayaking with Herwin’s group again and took all possible precautions against sunburn. (GLOVES!) Also, I very much love my 4″ wide brim hat. Hahah… Although not entirely waterproof, it’s just about the next best thing =)
The day started with a storm (no thunder or lightning though) and we set off in the direction of Coney Island at around 10.44am. Weather was cool, cloudy and drizzly (VERY NICE). We were going a little against the current but since this is a neap tide, it wasn’t very strong. I was in the double kayak again but this time we went faster (very sad but I was actually paddling behind all the single kayaks two weeks ago >_< Sorry Herwin!). There were two others in Bandits and I have to salute their perseverance (the other guy was in a single slalom like us).
We crossed the channel and headed for Camp 2. Two sand barges were making their way along the channel and I think this was the closest I saw them up close before. Those piles are really huge! Since these sand barges are basically huge planks, the water trail it left behind was totally flat, hahah.
Lucky thing was that we were at Camp 2 at high tide so we could go into this little stream with mangroves. Quiet little place. Several dogs were waiting for the low tide as we exited.
After that we came out of the mangroves and followed the Pulau Ubin coastline in an anti-clockwise fashion so that we went through Ketam Channel, passing a bike trail, the Marina Country Club Ubin Resort (as deserted as ever), the Jetty and finally made it just before Frog Island where we crossed the channel over to Changi Water Venture.
There were a lot of different kinds of waves and we managed to encounter one that should be about shoulder height. Waahahahaahahahah… I love that. It was slightly foggy the whole time which gave an aura of mystery to the sea.
Felt really nice to down a warm meal. Had chicken chop and coke. Found that one of our expedition mates also wanted to do diving and will probably be doing it in December so I might join him (sorry Gerald…) since he was looking for people to go with him. Another one was also telling us about how the Singapore Adventure Club conducts their Basic Adventure Training Course 2009 (BATC09) which gives you a flavour of all kinds of outdoor sports. Looks interesting but the price is daunting. Apparently the reason why it’s so expensive is because they invite outside consultants to conduct for each activity. Ah well…
We came across a group of people standing in a circle on the beach and I said “What’s going on?” and my expedition mate said “It’s a Christian thing.” And they started singing. ^^;;; Kinda interesting encounter?
On the return back to Pasir Ris after the bumboat channel, the water was super calm. One of our expedition member commented that it was almost like kayaking on a lake (flatwater siah).
Getting back, we were met with the sight of the tractor trying to tow up the safety boat but got stuck in the sand. The whole bunch of guys came to help out but to no avail since the wheels were truly stuck. The manager for PRWV finally asked Kelvin from the Water Cross next door to borrow his jeep to tow the tractor out ^^;;; After a false start, the tractor zoomed free!
We cleaned up our gear and that was the end of a fun adventure. =) I also found out from one of the trainers that there was this pretty nice path to walk down from the park. A few boys were biking through when I got there and it kinda reminded me of my walk into Andrews Avenue to get to the Sembawang Water Venture. All kinds of wild overgrown vegetation strewn along the road. New discovery today!
Next week will be joining the Sembawang Water Venture’s expedition around Seletar Island. Hope we will have good weather again! For once I enjoy being out under the overcast skies…
The only troubling thing was that I still can’t carry the double kayak properly. >_< It’s really heavy, sigh. Herwin said that if we do okay on a round Ubin trip, it’ll be safe for me to go on a single again (as in, I can keep up). I am thinking maybe for Seletar, I should try and get a lighter boat since my main problems with the single slalom on the first trip was that it was too heavy for me to paddle and the seat was too narrow. I kinda lack strength to keep going on a heavy boat for long. Maybe I will see if there’s a Dancer for me to take on the trip next week. That’s still my favourite boat during the course (and find easiest to handle) and the Seletar thing is only for about 4 hours.
Pretty awesome today
I went out kayaking with Herwin’s group again and took all possible precautions against sunburn. (GLOVES!) Also, I very much love my 4″ wide brim hat. Hahah… Although not entirely waterproof, it’s just about the next best thing =)
The day started with a storm (no thunder or lightning though) and we set off in the direction of Coney Island at around 10.44am. Weather was cool, cloudy and drizzly (VERY NICE). We were going a little against the current but since this is a neap tide, it wasn’t very strong. I was in the double kayak again but this time we went faster (very sad but I was actually paddling behind all the single kayaks two weeks ago >_< Sorry Herwin!). There were two others in Bandits and I have to salute their perseverance (the other guy was in a single slalom like us).
Map of the route:
View Kayaking trip (30 August 2009) in a larger map
We crossed the channel and headed for Camp 2. Two sand barges were making their way along the channel and I think this was the closest I saw them up close before. Those piles are really huge! Since these sand barges are basically huge planks, the water trail it left behind was totally flat, hahah.
Lucky thing was that we were at Camp 2 at high tide so we could go into this little stream with mangroves. Quiet little place. Several dogs were waiting for the low tide as we exited.
After that we came out of the mangroves and followed the Pulau Ubin coastline in an anti-clockwise fashion so that we went through Ketam Channel, passing a bike trail, the Marina Country Club Ubin Resort (as deserted as ever), the Jetty and finally made it just before Frog Island where we crossed the channel over to Changi Water Venture.
There were a lot of different kinds of waves and we managed to encounter one that should be about shoulder height. Waahahahaahahahah… I love that. It was slightly foggy the whole time which gave an aura of mystery to the sea.
Felt really nice to down a warm meal. Had chicken chop and coke. Found that one of our expedition mates also wanted to do diving and will probably be doing it in December so I might join him (sorry Gerald…) since he was looking for people to go with him. Another one was also telling us about how the Singapore Adventure Club conducts their Basic Adventure Training Course 2009 (BATC09) which gives you a flavour of all kinds of outdoor sports. Looks interesting but the price is daunting. Apparently the reason why it’s so expensive is because they invite outside consultants to conduct for each activity. Ah well…
We came across a group of people standing in a circle on the beach and I said “What’s going on?” and my expedition mate said “It’s a Christian thing.” And they started singing. ^^;;; Kinda interesting encounter?
On the return back to Pasir Ris after the bumboat channel, the water was super calm. One of our expedition member commented that it was almost like kayaking on a lake (flatwater siah).
Getting back, we were met with the sight of the tractor trying to tow up the safety boat but got stuck in the sand. The whole bunch of guys came to help out but to no avail since the wheels were truly stuck. The manager for PRWV finally asked Kelvin from the Water Cross next door to borrow his jeep to tow the tractor out ^^;;; After a false start, the tractor zoomed free!
We cleaned up our gear and that was the end of a fun adventure. =) I also found out from one of the trainers that there was this pretty nice path to walk down from the park. A few boys were biking through when I got there and it kinda reminded me of my walk into Andrews Avenue to get to the Sembawang Water Venture. All kinds of wild overgrown vegetation strewn along the road. New discovery today!
Next week will be joining the Sembawang Water Venture’s expedition around Seletar Island. Hope we will have good weather again! For once I enjoy being out under the overcast skies…
The only troubling thing was that I still can’t carry the double kayak properly. >_< It’s really heavy, sigh. Herwin said that if we do okay on a round Ubin trip, it’ll be safe for me to go on a single again (as in, I can keep up). I am thinking maybe for Seletar, I should try and get a lighter boat since my main problems with the single slalom on the first trip was that it was too heavy for me to paddle and the seat was too narrow. I kinda lack strength to keep going on a heavy boat for long. Maybe I will see if there’s a Dancer for me to take on the trip next week. That’s still my favourite boat during the course (and find easiest to handle) and the Seletar thing is only for about 4 hours.
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