Kayak to Sungai Puaka

We kayaked to Sungai Puaka on Sunday morning.

Sugai Puaka is a river on Pulau Ubin, with its mouth facing Ketam Island. It is very close to Sungai Jelutong, where we kayaked on November 21, 2021, our first kayaking trip to Pulau Ubin. This is our 3rd adventure into rivers on Pulau Ubin. The second river we kayaked on was Sungai Mamam.

Instead of kayak straight to Sungai Puaka across the Johor Strait, we paddled along Pasir Ris Beach on the main island side for over 2km. It was cloudy with light northern breeze, we paddled at a leisure pace, enjoying the view of the beach from the water, floating flowers in the strait, small white birds (Gull-billed Tern) diving for tiny fishes and a glimpse of Coney island and Saragoon East Dam.

We turned northeast when there is an opening of the sea barrier formed by chained blue marker buoys and paddled straight to Ketam Island. Due to rising tide at the time (high tide was 11:09am), ~ 10:10am, we actually paddled through the island via a submersed low land (4km marker in the paddling trail map).

paddle trail map

red flowers blown from Pulau Ubin

Sarangoon East Dam (the white structure) and Coney Island to its right

High tide formed pathway through Ketam Island

Zoom-In of the paddling trail map at Sungai Puaka

Sungai Puaka has two branches separated by a dyke with trees on it. As we paddled into the left hand side of Sungai Puaka, the clouds started to break up, the Sun shone through. Since the tide was near its maximum, there was not much flow, except the ripples from the wind. Birds were chirping and flying - we spotted common kingfisher, pied kingfisher (with black and white plumage) and collared kingfisher which we heard frequently as well. We also spotted pacific swallows, and white bellied seal eagle. It might be worth noting that we saw a white bellied sea eagle carrying a small bird was chased by a screaming black bird right before we launch our kayak Emma into Johor Strait.

Hugging the east side of the river, we tried to get as much shade as possible. Once we did, we stopped paddling, and let the inertia carrying us forward,  and immersed ourselves in the nature - the sound, the sight, and the light. We paddled all the way to the end of the branch of the river - taking the advantage of high tide, we paddled into mangroves a little. The end of the river is next to a biking trail on Pulau Ubin, which we biked a few times before. 

Sungai Puaka 

a white bellied sea eagle over the mouth of Sungai Puaka

A pacific swallow resting at a tree branch at the mouth of Sungai Puaka 

We turned around and paddled into the next branch of the river. In addition to see or hear birds, we met a group of kayakers from the outfitter KayakAsia, we noticed Mangrove Propagules - which look like long beans. We turned around when reached the bridge over the river since there was people fishing from it. In hindsight, we missed an opportunity to paddle across Pulau Ubin through Sungai Puaka and Sungai Batu Kekek - since these two rivers could connect at high tide! 

We paddled more than 10km in 3 hour 40 minutes. 

Another nice kayak outing.

mangrove propagule

a kayaking group from KayakAsia

The pine tree in the photo is actually a cell tower

A bridge over the river, with people fishing from it

The river was more like a lake here 

red and yellow flowers in one tree