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Sat 26 Sep 2009 Pedal Ubin - ride's over after 12 years!Category : heritage
The Raffles Museum Toddycats' Pedal Ubin programme has come to a close after a 12-year run. Offered quarterly, it originated in a 1998 series of four rides were offered annually for five years. New cohorts of guides were trained in 2002 after observation of the large number of unexposed public who came to visit Chek Jawa a year earlier. At at its peak, monthly rides were offered to members of the public! The three cohorts of dedicated guides in the history of this programme underwent considerable training in classroom and field exercises. They turned up reliably and early on Saturday or Sunday mornings to guide the Singapore public who had signed up mainly after notification by friends who read Habitatnews or WildSingapore. These guides emphasised bicycle safety and through slow rides, introduced members of the public to the natural and cultural heritage of the island in a unique place in Singapore. Besides a couple of scrapes, no other injury was experienced by hundreds who rode on this programme. Pulau Ubin has changed considerably since the series began. The island is now very heavily visited on weekends, especially Chek Jawa, roads and huts are well sign-posted and a lot of information has been made available online by the community. The public is urged to explore the island for themselves and suggestions and links are offered at http://rideubin.rafflesmuseum.net/ . If you are new to cycling, remember how we avoided injuries amongst novice cyclists for 12 years while other crashed - we rode slowly!
Sat 06 Jun 2009 Nature/heritage on a bicycle: Pedal Ubin on Sat 13 June 2009Category : events The Raffles Museum Toddycats are conducting their quarterly Pedal Ubin ride once again on Saturday, 13th June 2009. Offered to the public since 1998, the relaxing four hour ride is suitable for novice cyclists and introduces the heritage and natural history of Pulau Ubin to participants. We will get off our saddles to take a close look at the island's flora, fauna and heritage sights.
Registration - there are 35 places left this time. To sign up for the public ride, please see the Participant's Page!.
Note that you have to be at Changi Point Ferry Terminal by 8am latest - we will ride rain or shine (e. g. see "Puddle Ubin" ride in September).
Fri 05 Dec 2008 Pedal Ubin and Sungei Buloh Anniversary Walk - registration closedCategory : events Registration has for the Raffles Musem Toddycats' events for December — Sungei Buloh Anniversary Walk and Pedal Ubin. To receive notification of Raffles Museum Toddycats events in future, sign up for Habitatnews. There are two ways to do so and both are on the sidebar on the left. You can sign up for this webpage's content by email which you will receive the next day. Or you can sign up for the newsletter which comes out about once a month. Alternatively if you are information junkie or want to keep your pulse on nature events in Singapore, there is Ria Tan's WildSingapore Happenings it is so updated that she has events listed even before event managers send out notices! And there is categorisation by types, places and everything for the days, weeks and months ahead. Wed 19 Nov 2008 Nature/heritage on a bicycle: Pedal Ubin registration open (Sat 13 Dec 2008)Category : events The Raffles Museum Toddycats have just opened up their quarterly Pedal Ubin ride once again. Offered to the public since 1998, the relaxing four hour ride is suitable for novice cyclists and introduces the heritage and natural history of Pulau Ubin to participants. We will get off our saddles to take a close look at the island's flora, fauna and heritage sights.
Registration - 60 places are available this time. To sign up for the public ride on Saturday 13th December 2008, please see the Participant's Page!
Please note that you have to be at Changi Point Ferry Terminal by 8am, latest and we will ride rain or shine (see "Puddle Ubin" ride in September). The monsoon is upon us so bring rain gear you can cycle in and a change of clothes.
Sat 09 Aug 2008 Nature/heritage on a bicycle: Pedal Ubin open for registration (Sat 06 Sep 2008)Category : events The Raffles Museum Toddycats have just opened up their quarterly Pedal Ubin ride once again. Offered to the public since 1998, the relaxing four hour ride is suitable for novice cyclists and introduces the heritage and natural history of Pulau Ubin to participants. We will get off our saddles to take a close look at the island's flora, fauna and heritage sights.
Registration - 60 places are available this time. To sign up for the public ride on Saturday 6th September 2008, please see the Participant's Page! - please note that you have to be at Changi Point Ferry Terminal by 8am, latest!
Thu 24 Jul 2008 Horseshoe crabs rescued from a ghost net in Mandai mangroveCategory : marine Horseshoe crabs have been around for at least 445 million years, predating the dinosaurs and they are facing their greatest challenges during the Anthropocene - habitat loss, pollution, over-fishing and ghost net entanglement. The latter arises when fishermen abandon or lose their strong mono-filament gill nets; these do not degrade but will instead repeatedly entangle all sorts of animals in mangroves, rocky shore, coral reefs, sea grass and sandy shores. This is happening in Singapore too. Like my fellow naturalists and field biologists, I have had to rescue horseshoe crabs, forceps crabs, birds and even snakes over the past two decades. Habitatnews has highlighted just a couple of these rescues (e. g. Lazarus Island, 2004; Mandai, 2005) and the Nature Society (Singapore) has a regular rescue team that works the Mandai mudflats. These days it seems almost every low tide trip to a mangrove reveals ghost nets - e.g. shooting for Once Upon a Tree 2, a shore visit suring the last Pedal Ubin and the recent Lim Chu Kang mangrove cleanup as well. Mandai mudflats and mangroves have such a high incidence of ghost nets that I pack a scissors and factor in time for gill net removal each time before I set out - film shoot, education trip or work trip. Unfortunately, today was no different - NUS biology honours student Theresa Su, Raffles Museum Toddycat Teo Kah Ming and myself carefully released about 20 mangrove horseshoe crabs that were still living. Kah Ming had counted 87 carapaces entangled and adacent to the net so most had died some time ago. We checked each individual to be sure and carefully removed the nylon filaments that had weaved between and around their limbs. The chelicerates (horseshoe crabs are not crabs) were not feisty but happily not too limp - so they were recent entanglements but probably not last night's. Once freed, we left them clustered in various tide pools nearby with some hope that they would survive. The net was cut into three lengths and carried out in a bag made from a large-mesh ghost net lying nearby. There are still nets out there, I know, and with research trips increasing, hopefully it will come to a time when my scissors can stay in the bag!
Sun 25 May 2008 Pedal Ubin (nature/heritage on bicycle): Register for the ride on Sat 7th June 2008Category : events The Raffles Museum Toddycats have just opened up their quarterly Pedal Ubin ride once again. Offered to the public since 1998, the relaxing four hour ride iss suitable for novice cyclists and introduces the heritage and natural history of Pulau Ubin to participants. We will get off our saddles to take a close look at the island's flora, fauna and heritage sights. Registration - To sign up for the public ride on Saturday 7th June 2008, please see the Participant's Page! - note that you have to be at Changi Point Ferry Terminal at 8am, latest!
Mon 11 Feb 2008 Pedal Ubin (nature/heritage on bicycle): Registration open for Sat 1st Mar 2008!Category : events The Raffles Museum Toddycats have just opened up their quarterly Pedal Ubin ride once again. Offered to the public since 1998, the relaxing four hour ride iss suitable for novice cyclists and introduces the heritage and natural history of Pulau Ubin to participants. We will get off our saddles to take a close look at the island's flora, fauna and heritage sights. Registration - To sign up for the public ride on Saturday 1st March 2008, please see the Participant's Page! - note that you have to be at Changi Point Ferry Terminal at 8am, latest!  Mon 19 Nov 2007 Pedal Ubin (nature/heritage on bicycle), Dec ride: Registration closedCategory : events Registration for the quarterly Pedal Ubin ride by the Raffles Museum Toddycats is now closed. Mon 05 Nov 2007 Pedal Ubin (nature/heritage on bicycle): Registration open for Sat 1st Dec 2007!Category : events Raffles Museum Toddycats have just opened up their quarterly Pedal Ubin ride once again. Offered to the public since 1998, we conduct a relaxing four hour ride suitable for novice cyclists and introduce the heritage and natural history of Pulau Ubin to riders. As long as you can balance yourself on a bike, you will survive the ride! We don't ride continuously anyway, as we get off our saddles to take a close look at the island's flora, fauna and heritage sights. Registration - If you want to sign up for the public ride on Saturday 1st December 2007, please read the Participant's Page! - but note that you have to be at Changi Point Ferry Terminal at 8am, latest! 
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