Last Sunday I did a paddling recce, intending to start paddling from this ulu jetty I saw just beside the causeway. But apparently there's no access to it, and I ended up starting at Sembawang park.
It is a blessing in disguise - the environment was comfortable and we have lots of space to setup the boats. We even ordered Mac breakfast and had it while we build up the boats! We attracted loads of attention from kids, adults, and some cycling groups there.
Finally, out on the water at 11am. Somehow the boat don't seem that long when I'm sitting inside it. It's great to start paddling off after some hard work on the boats!
Sembawang WaterVenture Club, supposedly an empty shell right now. Enric remarked that there's nothing happening there at the moment, but I pointed out all the anglers standing at the slipway fishing away.
He's right to point out that the green Nautiraid goes with the green shaft on the Epic. He said I'll look nicer with his hat and PFD too, but I really don't need to be colour coordinated on the water...
It's always fun to paddle in the rain! The drizzle lasted less than half an hour, but the cloudy skies made it a comfortable paddling day. Pulau Punggol Barat is on starboard, no landing there. I wonder what's on it...
We took a turn into Punggol River, and went in all the way to Fernvale. The water cleanliness wasn't as bad as I thought, and it is quite spacious out there on the river. It's always nice to paddle into the midst of urbanity. I will imagine that I am introducing surprise into the routine lives of passerbys and make them smile at seeing adventurous spirit.
And where possible, we explored small 'creeks' along the river channels, not knowing where they lead us...
It was said quite a while back that paddlers could no longer go between the mainland and Coney Island, but we decided to find out for ourselves nonetheless, after rounding Punggol Jetty. We went all the way in, and true enough, we hit the barrage. Well, no other thing to do but to go across. We cut across the construction site there wanting to go to the beachfront on the other side, but was lazy to walk the way and decided to just launch from the seawall, certainly a tricky move, and a first for me. Not before we finished a packet of Ruffles chips first!
Enric was happy that he didn't slip into the water butt-first...
We finally reached Changi at around 6pm. Took turns to pack the boats and shower, and went for nasi lemak. A nice way to spend the weekend - I really should do this more often, even if there's not much left of Singapore waterways that is left to be explored (without permissions and permits and licenses et cetera).
It is a blessing in disguise - the environment was comfortable and we have lots of space to setup the boats. We even ordered Mac breakfast and had it while we build up the boats! We attracted loads of attention from kids, adults, and some cycling groups there.
Finally, out on the water at 11am. Somehow the boat don't seem that long when I'm sitting inside it. It's great to start paddling off after some hard work on the boats!
Sembawang WaterVenture Club, supposedly an empty shell right now. Enric remarked that there's nothing happening there at the moment, but I pointed out all the anglers standing at the slipway fishing away.
He's right to point out that the green Nautiraid goes with the green shaft on the Epic. He said I'll look nicer with his hat and PFD too, but I really don't need to be colour coordinated on the water...
It's always fun to paddle in the rain! The drizzle lasted less than half an hour, but the cloudy skies made it a comfortable paddling day. Pulau Punggol Barat is on starboard, no landing there. I wonder what's on it...
We took a turn into Punggol River, and went in all the way to Fernvale. The water cleanliness wasn't as bad as I thought, and it is quite spacious out there on the river. It's always nice to paddle into the midst of urbanity. I will imagine that I am introducing surprise into the routine lives of passerbys and make them smile at seeing adventurous spirit.
And where possible, we explored small 'creeks' along the river channels, not knowing where they lead us...
It was said quite a while back that paddlers could no longer go between the mainland and Coney Island, but we decided to find out for ourselves nonetheless, after rounding Punggol Jetty. We went all the way in, and true enough, we hit the barrage. Well, no other thing to do but to go across. We cut across the construction site there wanting to go to the beachfront on the other side, but was lazy to walk the way and decided to just launch from the seawall, certainly a tricky move, and a first for me. Not before we finished a packet of Ruffles chips first!
Enric was happy that he didn't slip into the water butt-first...
We finally reached Changi at around 6pm. Took turns to pack the boats and shower, and went for nasi lemak. A nice way to spend the weekend - I really should do this more often, even if there's not much left of Singapore waterways that is left to be explored (without permissions and permits and licenses et cetera).
8 comments:
anyway, according to my chart, distance we covered is only 28km!! took us the whole day to do 28km?? thats real slow!!
That's not the whole day la bro...we set off at 11am and ended at 6pm. Anyway, don't forget our portage, and my pee break...
nice blog and write-up of the paddle!
That GREEN boat n paddle looked strangely familiar! =)
Singapore doesn't really have much places to paddle, but at least there is water...imagine living in KL or Bangkok...
Keep paddling!
Hi FM! Yes yes...that green boat is now familiar to the asia paddling community by now I guess :p
Yeah you're right...though it can seem boring to us to paddle the same stretches of coastlines, at least they are paddle-able!
Awesome man...
Kewl... I miss paddling...
Must be damn shiok to set up your boat, paddle all day to some place, beach and pack it up, and take a cab home at the end of the day. Waaah... *envious*
It's a hassle to have the wash your boat after each day trip however...you need to have the space to hang it up to dry too.
But assembly and packing is quite ok now, so I'm still quite willing to go out on day trips with it.
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