Sungai Teris is the last of the three estuaries on the south bank of Pula Ubin we paddled into. The other two estuaries, or tidal rivers are Sungai Jelutong, Sungai Puaka.
For kayaking to Pula Ubin, we usually launch our kayak Emma from the beach near Pasir Ris Park's car park A, which is close to the shore. In fact, car park E is close to the perfect kayak launch point by Kokomo Beach club at the park. But the car park is small and usually full when we got to the park.
Last Sunday, we left home early, tries to get to Sugai Teris as early as possible due to tide timing. We tried car park E and there were plenty parking at this 14 car port car park.
It had been a while since we last kayaked on March 24th, at Sungei Khatib Bongsu at High Tide, We had to refresh our memory just a little bit. Nevertheless, we finished set up the inflatable kayak Emma in about 10 minutes.
 |
| Pasir Ris Beach |
To get to Sungai Teri, we had to paddle about 2km on open water in Johor Strait, crossing waterways for ocean freighters. About 1km through the 2km an ocean freighter was moving in our direction, we paused for it to pass. While waiting in the middle of open water, we looked around to see vistas at horizon.
 |
| Paddle along the Pasir Ris Beach |
 |
| a port near Sembawang |
 |
| the Serangoon east dam (white construction) |
The section of south bank of Pula Ubin near Sungai Teris is rustic and beautiful, without any man made buildings, and there is a tiny islet, pulau ketam, there.
 |
| Ketam Island |
 |
| south shore of Pula Ubin |
After about 4km paddling we reached the mouth of Sungai Teris. It was sunny, quiet except bird chirpings here and there. Lily put on GoPro, and started recording.
The Sungai is narrow and heavily wooded. It provided much needed shade on this beautiful sunny morning. There were quite a few birds around. We saw clovers, heard black napped orioles and loud calls from collared kingfisher. See video below to see what it was like. I also captured a stork billed kingfisher on my camera.
paddling on Sugau Teris
 |
| a stork billed kingfisher |
As we were approaching the head of the river, the water became shallower, the kayak was stuck a few times - we had to back away and paddled to the middle of the river. One more sticking kayak, we turned around, paddling back to the mouth of the river.
Lucky for us, a great heron gracefully flew to us and over our heads, and disappeared in the trees. Lily spotted the heron before me and captured the encounter on the GoPro.
Near the mouth of Sungai Teris, an Egret flew over us, and a white bellied eagle was soaring in the sky. Instead of going back to Pasir Ris beach directly, we went to Coney Island's beach - which is straight ahead on the mainland. We beached our kayak a Coney island and took a break there before heading back to out kayak put-in point.
In total we paddled 10km in 3 hour 19 minutes, our average speed was about 3km.hour.
After the kayaking, we had an ocean view lunch at Georges @cove - good food, great view!
 |
| A white Bellied Eagle over Johor Strait |
Note 1- Rudder - lost and found
As we paddled away from the Coney island beach at 7km marker, we quickly realized something was not right - we could not paddle straight- we must have lost the rudder.
We paddled to the beach, and check the kayak's bottom at stern side, the rudder was nowhere
Where did it happen?
Could it be at Sungai Teris when the kayak was stuck? not likely because we had no issue steering when paddling from 5km marker at the mouth of Sungai Teris to 7km marker on the Coney island beach.
It must be at Coney island beach ...when we relaunched our kayak, I rotated the kayak 180 degree where the stern side was still on beach.
I walked back to the location we beached the kayak. The rudder was right there under water, partially covered by sand. I reinstalled the rudder, we paddled back to the put-in point.
Note 2
Rudder is a must for flat bottom boat, kayak, canoe, for steering.
No comments:
Post a Comment