Geocaching – February 10th, 2010
For those unfamiliar with Geocaching, its a treasure hide and seek game using GPS. The treasure can be tokens in a little box with a log book to write your message. You can sign up free with http://www.geocaching.com to participate.
I put up my first cache in Ubin in 2006. The response was encouraging. but soon there were complaints about wild pigs, mozzies and being near ancient gravestones. Being new to the game, the treasure was put in an obvious spot and was soon gone.
I stopped soon after, plotting my next biggest and most convuluted cache for Ubin which this blog was originally created for. I never got round to it. But I am glad to meet a real life geocacher.
Picture of Albert
If you like to find Albert’s caches in Ubin, make sure you have insect repellents as mosquitoes hiding in the jungle will soon be all over you. Bring at least a mini-button compass with you. Its easy to get lost and wander in circles while the gps is vainly trying to lock your location under jungle canopy.
Fishing – February 7th, 2010
Update: 7 Feb 2010. Extremely lucky guy caught a large sea-bass at Marman beach.
The best chance to catch fish is to paddle some distance away from shore.
Unfortunately Ubin marine life is slowly choked by pollution. The water cannot renew itself by tidal directions due to the causeway cutting off the straits. Water run-offs from ship repairs contribute to the pollution also. Sea-horses have long since disappeared. Flower crabs have not returned when it was abundant more than 2 years ago. During heavy rains, salinity levels dropped so much that fish farms lost their livestock. They can’t sell their fish anyway as the water is declared unclean by the authorities.
Below picture: Serene beach at Outward Bound School (No trespassing). Pasir Gudang Port can be seen in the background.
Prawn farming used to be thriving in Pulau ubin. Inland swamps are parceled out with dykes. Sluice gates are constructed to control the flow of water.
Water pollution contributed to its demise. Lease are given up back to the Government and building structures demolished.
From GoogleEarth, one can see its scale by its tell tale remnants.
With GoogleEarth, we manage to plot our course by connecting dots of white roofs peeking through dense trees canopy seen under satellite. The course or path is then downloaded into our handheld GPS.
It led us first to a swing.
Then a lovely house
Finally a sweeping view from the remaining sluice gate, also a prime spot for bird watching.
Natural swamps are an important spawning grounds for fishes and with young fishes finding easy refuge. The sluice gates continues today as barriers. At low tide, the remaining fish are easily caught by fishermen casting their fine nets.
The government should consider demolishing them to bring life back to our natural swamps.
