Nature Club members muck around in mangrove swamp

Jessica Lau, Nature Club president, tells what it's like on one of their many adventures and interactions with nature.

3 guides from the Nature Club, Wilfred and Kevin of 05S7C, and John Tan of 05S7B, led us on our first visit to Pasir Ris beach for a Mangrove study on 25 February 2006.

Amongst the mangroves, we saw organisms like hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, sea slugs, mudskippers and red cherry snails, similar to the ones we saw at Chek Jawa and Labrador Park, where the club had visited before.

We saw a huge crab approximately 10cm wide which had become entangled in a net. We immediately began a rescue mission. With Mr Lau and the 3 guides taking the lead we eventually cut the poor crab free!

The highlight of the day was a walk into sinking mud! Wilfred, Kevin, and I accepted the challenge to walk through sinking mud. Our initial steps already made us sink about 10cm deep into the mud. The mud created a suction force on the shoes preventing us from lifting up our feet, making walking extremely arduous. Nevertheless, we continued walking on. As the tide was rising, the mud got wetter and softer the closer we walked towards the sea. We reached a point where we sank knee deep and we had to be on all fours to continue moving! We were covered with mud by the time we reached harder ground, and Wilfred even lost a shoe in the mud!

More adventures await us as we continue to explore the seldom seen places in Singapore with the Nature Club.

By: Jessica Lau (guest correspondent)