simpang kiri @ low & high tides

was at simpang kiri park connector on two consecutive days - on thursday morning and friday evening. was able to observe the different types of human activities during the two different stages in the movement of the tide. even the fauna was not the same: saw herons at high tide and egrets and mynahs at low tide.

not many people - even those living in the north of singapore - are familiar with this place. the connector runs alongside a canal which drains into the straits of johor. the entrance of the track is near yishun industrial park a. the marked 2.8km track ends near tanjong irau beach, next to the former sembawang sea sports centre (now, the bottle tree village).

yesterday morning, at high tide, there were a few anglers at the jalan mempurong end of the connector. over at the yishun end, somewhere near the 200m mark, someone had strung a fishing net right across the canal. he or they were trying to trap the bigger fish in the canal.

this evening, at low tide, it was a different scene altogether. first saw three persons squating in the shallow water, picking shellfish in the nutrient-rich mud. one of the men was heard complaining that he would not be able to gather one kilogram of the shellfish that day. each had a plastic bag to hold the shellfish, a spade to dig the shellfish out of the mud and a glove to protect the hand picking the shellfish.

these three were joined later by others, who came similiarly equipped, to dig for mussels in the mud. one woman even came with a stool to sit on while she picked the mussels. on the beach, there was another group of people foraging for a different organism - worms.

then, right in the channel, which was about knee-deep at low tide, one man was scrapping for living things that had attached themselves to the sides of the channel. i learnt from one of the shellfish gatherers that this man - a vietnamese - was catching crabs. she had bought ten small crabs for $2 from him the day before.

the national park board people have made this connector more accessible by constructing a wide path to join the track somewhere in the middle, near the 1400m mark, so that you can access the track from sembawang road.