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Asked Questions about Chek Jawa The following responses are the personal views of volunteers who participate in the guiding and other activities on Chek Jawa. We would love to hear your feedback so that we can improve. Why are visits to Chek Jawa being managed? Chek Jawa is a fragile marine habitat. Seagrass have delicate roots and take a long time to recover when trampled on. Just imagine you have a grassy field and we play football on it every day. Eventually, it will become "botak" (bald). Many small sea creatures live in the sand and mud. These are killed when we step on them, no matter how gently we walk. These small sea creatures form the base of the entire food chain on Chek Jawa. Now that Chek Jawa will be saved for the long-term, it is important that we do not love Chek Jawa to death. At the same time, we strongly believe people should continue to have a chance to visit Chek Jawa. It has not been easy trying to achieve these two opposing objectives. Much of the guiding system currently in place aims to help people continue to visit while minimising impact. The key elements of this system are: (a) Visitors stay on a specific route. In other nature reserves in Singapore (Bukit Timah, Sungei Buloh) visitors are also required to stay on a path; for their safety and to avoid damaging the habitat and disturbing wildlife. Even in forests, we cannot go wherever we want as we might damage seedlings and chase away creatures. For the same reasons, a route has been marked out on Chek Jawa. This routes takes visitors through some of the richest parts of Chek Jawa, and yet, minimises the impact of our visit. (b) Experienced volunteer guides bring visitors along the route to explain the surroundings and to show visitors some of the creatures found in the area. Many of these creatures require experience to spot. Visitors are likely to miss these creatures, even if visitors are free to walk off the route. In this way, visitors can still have an enjoyable visit to Chek Jawa, see the common as well as rare creatures and learn something about this fabulous place. Back to top Why are public walks on Chek Jawa limited to about an hour?Time and tide waits for no man. In order to allow each visitor a relaxed and enjoyable visit, we need to keep the stream of visitors along the guiding route moving. The window of low tide during daylight is limited. This ranges from 3 hours to one and a half hours. Why are there only a limited number of places for each public walk? For the same reason as above, there is only a limited window of time for a visit to Chek Jawa. If more visitors are allowed to come, in order to ensure that everyone has a chance to complete the route, we need to rush visitors through the route. This means visitors might not have an enjoyable relaxing visit. As Chek Jawa will be around for a long time to come, we hope everyone will be patient and join the registration queue. When it is your turn to visit, you can then be sure of an enjoyable, relaxing visit. Currently, another limitation is the small number of volunteer guides available. If we have more guides, we could raise the limit a little more. Back to top There are two low tides every day right? So why are so few dates offered as public walks? Yes, indeed, there are two low tides every day. But low tides vary from 1.6m to -0.4m. And the difference between the first low tide and second one in the same day can be 1m. Spring tides are the only times when tides are low enough for viewing Chek Jawa in full glory. Spring tides usually only happen a few days after the full and new moon and does not necessarily take place during daylight. It can happen late at night and very early before sunrise. Thus, a coincidence of spring tide during daylight on a weekend is not very common! For more details on the tides and its causes and what can be seen of Chek Jawa's intertidal zone at various tide levels. How can I register for the free public walk on Chek Jawa? Please call NParks at 6542-4108 to book your place. Bookings are on a first-come-first-served basis. Please do inform NParks if you are unable to take up your pre-registered place so that others might be able to take your place. Back to top What time should I come for the visit? As tides differ with each date, do enquire with NParks on the registration time when you book your place. I would like to bring a group of 100 people to visit Chek Jawa? We've heard so much about it and are very excited. At this point in time, we do not have sufficient guides or facilities to handle large groups. It will be probably only be possible to provide a more enjoyable and effective visit for large groups after facilities such as boardwalks are completed. Back to top Can I bring young children to Chek Jawa? Children of all ages from 2 upwards can have an enjoyable trip to Chek Jawa. However, infant in arms are best left home. Chek Jawa is a very open area. It can get very hot, and if it rains, everyone gets wet. There are currently no toilet facilities at Chek Jawa, and it is some distance from the nearest medical facilities. Chek Jawa is not dangerous if children have the proper footwear and are appropriately prepared: i.e., proper clothing (light breatheable clothing, and a spare change brought along), food (eat beforehand and bring some snacks along) and most importantly water (drink beforehand and bring at least half a litre of water per child). They should go to the toilet at Ubin jetty before heading in for Chek Jawa. Can I bring old people to Chek Jawa? As with young children (see above), older people will need preparation to ensure a comfortable visit. There are places on the beach for a comfortable rest if older folks prefer not to go on the walk out to the rest of the route. The public route from the shore and back is about 1 km. Most of it is along even ground, some portions require wading through ankle-deep water (but not soft mud) and walking on a beach with small rocks. Back to top |
What's
so special
about Chek Jawa? Guided walks Why join the walks? How to register? Joining the walk How to get there? What to prepare? Courtesy & safety Special tips for photographers More FAQs About the guides of Chek Jawa |
a
companion website to the chek
jawa guidebook
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