Musings of a barefoot traveller

I spent my weekend in the mud. Saturday while taking visitors on a guided walk around Kusu Island's coral lagoon (wanna come? see more about the Reefwalk at http://www.bluewatervolunteers.org/reefwalk.html ) On Sunday, woke up early again (low tides always have to be at %@^#&@^ ungodly hours) and boarded a ferry with 70 other people to Pulau Semakau, where we did a mangrove survey. Pictures and details at the Wild Singapore website. Results and report coming soon!

After spending the morning with my hyperactive 18 month old nephew, I have duly concluded that babysitting is a much tougher job than ploughing through thigh deep mangrove mud. Whereas the latter only involved the willingness to get dirty and the ability to crawl on your hands and knees sometimes, babysitting is an exercise in multi-tasking through toilet visits every 15min, grappling with baby shorts while holding the baby so that he pees straight in to the toilet bowl and not on my hand, bouts of singing and making other funny noises, chasing after him when he seems to be able to run in 4 different directions at the same time, coming up with new and exciting games endlessly, trying to comfort him when he cries and shrieks for no apparent reason...until he finally got tired and fell asleep at 12pm. Bliss......

I was asked if there were no limitations to what is possible, what would I wish for regarding marine conservation in Singapore? (Yes there are marine nature areas including coral reefs in Singapore, go see http://coralreef.nus.edu.sg ) This is my answer: 1. I wish for organisations to work together to manage marine areas. Currently, to work in a certain Southern Island, for example, one has to go through various agencies for various permits. Would also be nice if each agency would also share information and data with one another. 2. I wish for protected MARINE nature areas. This pretty obvious, most conservationists would like to have legislation recognise the value of nature areas. We don't ask for much, if a nature reserve is just too much to ask for right now, let's start with some level of protection (like no poaching?), and work from there. 3. I wish for synergy in research efforts between various institutions. 'Nuff said. 4. I wish for greater awareness and education ...

I can't find BB, my cat. :( She's about 2.5 years old, short-haired black street cat, with a stump for a tail. She has a white patch on her chest and another on her belly. She has not been home since Sunday night (19 June 2005), last heard her in the house around midnight. Called the SPCA and AVA, but they don't have a cat fitting the description. If you see her wandering around in the Pasir Ris area, do let me know.... :~~~/

Ran 4km around Pasir Ris and Tampines, plus 30 sit-ups and 10 crunches at Sun Plaza park. Oof my almost non-existent abs... Undid all the hard work by having massive dinner at Muthu's Curry with the family! Too much MSG though, am having a headache and unstoppable thirst... One to add to my list, sigh.

Could be the theme for our weekend hike, also known as 'the quest to find the fine white sand of Sg Pelepah!' From a estimated three hour hike with three rest stops to swim and play, it expanded to a 'tour-de-Kota Tinggi' where we explored various detours and dead ends for 6 hours. We finally concluded that no hiking trip is complete if we DON'T arrive at the campsite past sunset ("7.30pm is about right.."). Well, the good news is- we now know the Kota Tinggi trails pretty well :), and we achieved our goal to get a good workout this weekend! All's well that ends well.. Plus the various waterfalls, streams and rock pools are very very pretty, so my amnesia rating for this trek is pretty low...and I look upon the swimming sessions and late late dinner with great fondness. Desmond gave us a scare halfway through the ascent when he slid down a 2m rockface after the 'jacuzzi' waterfall and bounced off a couple of logs at the bottom, where we spotted...