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Sunday, December 23, 2007

A day out at Ubin

Many nature kakis are out here in Ubin today, Luan Keng and the Semakau guides, kok sheng and his team of garang warriors and also Chay hoon at her CJ guide. For me I was invited by Angie to join her church people at an outing at Ubin.


I had first seen the massive grey heron's nesting at Manta's blog. Finally at the chance to see it myself! The majority of the nests are built on the few dead trees in the quarry. What a magnificient sight. There must be at least 50 nests there. (Click on the picture to see the nests!)


At the drinks stall where we stopped by for a sip in the damn hot afternoon, the uncle was drying out theres roots in the sun.


He told us that its some this small herb called "七叶一枝花" which means that the flower comes out after the seventh leaf. The roots apparently has some medicinal value for diabetes and other ailments.

Update from shun deng, the scientific name is "Paris polyphylla". It is a high altitude plant native to China and the Himalayas. The roots has many healing properties: "treatment of poisonous snake bites, boils and ulcers, diphtheria and epidemic Japanese B encephalitis". It also have anti-bacteria and anti-cancerous properties. More in this webby.

It is even an ingredient in the Bo Ying Compound of the 余仁生 stall.


The next stop is at the Chek Jawa boardwalk. At the coral rubble area, look what they found, many adult catfishes! All catfishes have a sharp spine on the dorsal and pectoral fins. Besides giving a painful sting, they may contain venom too. So don't ever handle them with ur hands!


The only coral we can see from the boardwalk, the soft coral Dendronephthya sp. We also saw tons of snapping shrimps, swimming crabs and some carpet anemones and sponges.


At the floating pontoon, we saw two groups of people out there in the intertidals, the Semakau guides and in the picture above, KS and his team.


A magical panoramic view of Chek Jawa from the 7 storey high Jejawi tower.


Just before leaving Ubin, dark clouds looming, signaling a coming storm. Due to massive freshwater input due to Johor flooding, Chek Jawa experienced a mass death last year. How will it fare in this monsoon season? Watchout for KS's Chek Jawa monitoring blog.

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