Rocky Shore Tour - Merambong Island, Johor

Two years ago, we signed up with SOS (Save Our Seahorses) for their Seahorse tagging trip.  It was an absolutely unforgettable trip in every way, one of our most memorable.

Recently Jo expressed interest in studying marine biology. We read up several books and came across seahorses. That sparked off memories of our trip, and we decided to join SOS again on a trip, this time to the Merambong island for their Rocky Shore tour.

2nd May2014- We gathered at the SOS meeting point at 6am for a short briefing before departing from the jetty. Reason for going early, I read, is to go during the low spring tide that makes the place accessible for just a few hours. We got to see really beautiful sunrise, and the island was certainly breathtaking in every way.


Pulau Merambong is a pretty small island, yet we took a few hours to explore because we stopped very often to study the amazing variety of marine life there. Otherwise, I think a half hour run would do it. What we found fascinating about the island was the island's mangroves, sandy beaches, and rocky beaches with terraced edges, covered with moss. You have to be there to see the beauty of it all!

About the island, quote from Wikipedia "The area Pulau Merambong is located within the single largest seagrass bed in the country. The bed extents from the island right up to the estuary of Pulai River in Johor.^[1] Dugongs and seahorses which feed on seagrass made their home in the nearby coral reefs."  Well, sadly, there have not been recent sightings of dugong there, and sightings of seahorses around this island is now rare. There's a major development/land reclamation project going on nearby, right ON the seagrass bed, in the middle of the ocean, which would further destroy marine life in that area.  :( (Uncontrolled Development (Lim Kit Siang)

Thus, before further destruction happens, I'd highly recommend a trip to the island to marvel at its diverse marine life. Furthermore, all proceeds will help fund SOS in their fight to preserve marine life and the ecosystem there. Their main, urgent project currently is to  relocate seahorses to a nearby bed, in hope for their survival and protection from the land reclamation project.

Sunrise at the jetty.

We went out on a speedboat, and as we glanced towards Singapore, we saw the sun slowly peeking out, in bright streaks of red and orange. Above, the black clouds threatened to rain, but held back because of us. ;)

Arrival at Merambong island. Kids were first to jump off the boat. Lots of seagrass (different species too!), seaweed and marine life already where the boat was parked.

First thing, my kiddo found was a peanut worm. Well, I never knew about it, now I do. :)

Beautiful peacock anemones everywhere, in different shades of colours.

A little one came along with us this time, and here she is hand in hand with Nel, while Jo and friend have found something interesting.

This flower crab went into protective mode when it saw us. Not only did it put up its claws, it also tried jumping to pinch at us.

How lovely that despite the black clouds, there was no rain, but instead a rainbow!

Zoanthids everwhere in shades of brown, green and black. Touch them and they squirt or close. However, they are a kind of anemone, so I wouldn't recommend touching them, as anemones can cause allergic reaction in some people.

Zoanthids again.

We were fascinated by the iridescent colours of shells. We had to adhere to one rule though, "Take NOTHING back from the island" as shells will slowly dissolve, releasing calcium carbonate back into the ocean, so we were told by Adam Lim, who's taken over the leadership role at SOS.  (Also found this article about why we shouldn't collect shells.)

Sand-sifting starfish. Found this interesting info online "Sand-sifting Stars have a rather interesting reproduction behaviour - males re often found stacked on top of the females, and the pairing may last for up to 2 months before the eggs and sperm are released into the water. The reproductive organs do not meet, and hence this behaviour is termed "pseudocopulation" - in other words, "fake sex". This behaviour apparently increases the chance of fertilisation though."

Approaching the rocky shore, covered in soft moss.

Beautiful terraced ridges with bright green moss. Kids tried avoiding stepping on moss and aimed for the rocky bits. Can be slippery so take caution.

Close up of carpet anemone, seen here out of water because of low tide.

A tube worm.Children found these beautiful and fascinating. They pop back in when touched, or when a shadow is cast over it.

The hubs, searching for interesting life,

Lots of sponges here.

There were many tide pools, and we found one of this. Sadly I didn't hear what this beautiful "cup" is called.

A fluorescent brain coral. We were told that this would look spectacular at night with the right light.

The younger grabbed a sea cucumber too tightly and it of course vomited its sticky guts out onto the kiddo's palm. (Note---we all borrowed shoes from SOS, if your team is huge you'd have to bring your own, as they have a limited number of pairs. Wearing the right pair of shoes is important to avoid getting cut by sharp shells and oysters, and also so that your shoes won't go floating away or get stucked in mud!)

Crossing the terraced rocks with Adam as our guide.

This is where I thought was the most beautiful spot on the island.A very beautiful view indeed!

We were told that with a really sharp eye, one might spot an octopus between the rocks. I don't know how the kids did it, but they spotted a teeny weeny one, amongst the hundreds of tide pools. This one clung on and refused to swim off.

Biscuit Sea Star

Yeah....so... if you're in the area, visiting Lego Land, or on way to Singapore, sign up with Save our Seahorses  to go on one of their trips. They are just 10 minutes from Lego Land. We did go to the seagrass bed again to look for seahorses, that will be a different post. But seeing how fast the land reclamation is going on, I'd say, GO quickly, before it's all destroyed.  :(   

Quote Adam Lim, Project leader of SOS "Merambong island is still there and untouched (*for now). The one that got destroyed is Merambong seagrass shoal (almost everyone mixed them up) As for the status of Merambong, SOS is currently considering its position and we may have to cease all activities beyond September (*unconfirmed)."

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

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Jerangkang Falls

This year has been busy. I started out thinking, I want this to be a "slow" year, with lotsa rest. Yet here we are, already coming to the end of April, and things have been/ are busy. Still we managed a little break in March, when we took a short getaway to Jerangkang Falls.

We drove to Sri Jaya, where we stopped to have breakfast and met up with rest of the gang.
From there, we hopped into a friend's 4 wheel drive (parked our car outside the police station for safety) and began our journey in.
The journey in took about an hour through palm oil estate. It was mostly dirt road with lots of forks. For the first part of the journey, we mainly kept to the right road everytime it forked. Also the driver of our 4WD said, "When in doubt, head towards the mountain/hill where the falls is." Eventually we came to a tunnel under the highway. From there, red markers (strips) marked the path everytime the road forked. Watch out carefully for them.

I saw these directions on someone else's blog here.    

How to get there. 

1. Exit Sri Jaya

2. At the junction, turn left (If you want to go to the breakfast place, you take a right turn here and the shops are on the right)
3. After driving for about 10 minutes you will see a signboard "Hutan Lipur Jerangkang" - turn left in
4. From this junction basically you follow the main path. Drive for about 5km you will come to a tunnel. Go past the tunnel and turn left
5. At km 6.3 (from the junction) there is a fork, keep left
6. At km 8.7 keep right at the fork
7. At km 10.6 there is a pondok, keep right
8. At km 11 turn right into a bridge
This road will take you right up to the campsite

1)This was the first campsite we came to. It's huge, with lots of huts and public toilets. But we found it too far from the river, so we decided to move on to the next campsite which was a mere 20 min walk away (well, less if we didn't have to carry all our stuff.)

2) When I arrived huffing and puffing with my load of luggage, the kiddoes were already in the falls, and my lil one had found a "home" already, where she would spend lots of time building a bed of straw, kitchen etc.

3) Our campground which was really lovely. The falls is just a slope down from our tent.

4) I read that Jerangkang is actually a series of 40 something falls. Amazing isn't it. If you're fit, there are camping sites on higher ground. Well, we decided to explore some of the falls further up, and so here we were on a trail.

5) On our way we came across these pretty butterflies -Chocolate Grass Yellow puddling on the ground for minerals. There were so many of them, beautiful indeed, especially when they all went fluttering together!

6) Having a light snack while sitting on the edge, listening to the roaring falls and enjoying the coolness and serenity of it all.

7) We came to a large greenish pool. Water here was deep and very cold. My kiddos and the hubby swam here the second morning and said it was the best swim they've ever had! (Lots of fish though that will nibble on your body if you go shirtless.) This water is also deep enough for diving, which provided great fun for some.

8) The night sky at Jerangkang is Amazing!! We got all the kids to the nearest rocky path right by the falls. There we switched off all our torches and looked up at the amazing sky. Imagine, cool wind, soothing sound of cascading falls....shooting stars. Yes, we saw shooting stars (meteor) too. And that was the highlight of the day. In between, two of our kids screamed coz a little frog decided to jump on their faces! heh heh..

9) This is what happens when you let your kiddo try to take a pic of the sky. Art work!

10) The night was cool and lovely and the morning fresh air well..refreshing! Definitely a reason why we'd go back again to get away from city smog.

11) I haven't quite gotten the technique of catching sunrise, but here's an attempt at taking a shot of the sun peeking from between the forest trees.

12) The children didn't have to be dragged out of beds, but were up early and down by the pool to swim and play. BEWARE though, that the greenish water at the far end, IS deep and nearly pulled 2 people down and away. (Although it would bring them to a shallow end, it still it is dangerous for children.) So ALWAYS keep a lookout and children SHOULDN'T be allowed to play there unsupervised. Remember, though beautiful, waterfalls are dangerous.

13) I was making breakfast when magnificent fluttering orange caught my eye. After a time of fluttering courtship, they, Plain Lacewing (Cethosia penthesilea methypsea),  decided to make out on a shrub at the edge of the slope near my tent. So very quietly, I sneaked in as close as possible and caught a picture of these young lovers. Note on the upper left, it's the old skin of a caterpillar. 

14) I couldn't get a better picture of this beautiful butterfly Common Tree Nymph. They usually float/glide by in two's. They remind my children of fairies....fairies frolicking in the sun...in a carefree manner.

So that about summarizes our trip to Jerangkang Falls, a place we'll definitely visit again!

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

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Flame Test Science with Sam Gibbs

One of the topics under Forensic Science (what we're doing at Co-op) is Flame Test. We thought it'd be better to find a teacher to teach this rather then messing with fire ourselves. We were fortunate that Mr. Sam Gibbs was in town and he agreed to come do the class for us. Boy was it a fun, crazy, fiery class. This is the second time we've attended his class. The first was during the aerospace workshop in TUDM with him last year, kids loved it so much! Well, needless to say, they stayed tuned during his whole session, had lots of laughs, and learnt lots!!

Spectrography

Learning about atoms, photons, energy and elements.

Flame test...guess, which element in here?

Children having a go at flame testing

(@ All photos above taken by Lena Q)

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 WE've also covered topics such as Chromatography, Soil Analysis, blood typing, hair analysis, analysis of teeth and footprints,
                             

 Crime Scene analysis

 Finger prints

and DNA

Too many details, so this summary will suffice. Basically, kids love the hands on learning, especially when it involves experiments, and solving crime!

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014

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A Walk in FRIM with Prof Ille Gebeshuber

Well, we were supposed to head to the canopy, but alas, we found out that FRIM's canopy closes at 2:30pm, and we arrived at 2:30pm, too late. :(  In the end, FRIM was nice, in that they allowed us to book a nature guide on the spot. Cost was RM120.

So off we went to the jungle....oh such a lovely break to be in the cool jungle after being stuck at home  for days with no water (water rationing) and horrid haze on the outside. The best part of it all, was barely 10 minutes into our walk, it began drizzling, then pouring like crazy!!! Oh...the children gleefully jumped through puddles, collected large leaves to use as umbrellas, laugh, observe, play...twas so much fun.

I told my kids, that was the best fun I've had in ages, the rain sure melted away the grouchiness that I've accumulated from being stuck indoors.

@poundthegarlic.blogspot.com 2014