So tired. Today the Orienteering Team, which is me, went to Pulau Ubin for our practical practice. So i brought along snack bars and sweets that was quickly finished on Ubin.
Part 1.
We took a bumboat down to Ubin. The trip there was pretty smooth, no choppy waters. Once we arrived on shore, we went along down to the information kiosk to get schematic maps and the guide showed us our current location and off we went. We found a little pavilion with a table and benches to start our little briefing. Our instructor Mr Tan then briefed that we will all get a chance to be navigator and pacer during the practice. There will also be a solo practice where u navigate around yourself. After the brief, he passed us our first envelope. The navigator, Joel, pacer, ME... We quickly planned our route to another pavilion down to around the Chek Jawa area, we were supposed to find something that was important to villagers near that Pavilion.
Part 2.
We set off, walking down the route Joel set for us, it was a long walk and we stopped frequently every 300-400m which was kept tracked with my pacing. When we finally reached the pavilion, we still could not find the feature, so we walked on. we also saw a few spitter bugs' 'houses' on the path. We finally spotted a well, however that was not a correct one. So we decided to continue walking down the route as there will be a loop back to the pavilion. Back at the pavilion, we saw a boy on a bike that has been cycling pass us a few times already, it seems that he lost his way, a packet of 旺旺 from Joel calmed him down quite enough. and we continued worrying about why we could not find the feature, after very long thinking, the instructor decided to just reveal the feature to us, it was a well that was super near the pavilion and it was so well hidden we could not spot it. Our mistake, was not confident in ourselves and not stopping at that point to look about than to carry on walking on.
Part 3.
So now off to checkpoint 2. Our next navigator is Yong Hwee and our conscientious pacer, Benedict. The destination they planned, MAMAS. nice name. So we walked down a very long trail and there was Benedict counting aloud, we crossed a few bridges, walked through a few wrong trails, after all the trials and tribulations, we finally arrived at MAMAS. And there we had our little break, we started eating our snacks. First was a boy, now it was a dog. It looked at us with its huge eyes, it looked so pitiful, we were so tempted to feed it our snack bars and chips and other snacks, however our instructor warned us not to, so...sorry doggy. But still, Our dear Yong Hwee kept dropping crumbs of potato chips on the ground, he must have a hole in his cheek or something... SO the dog came along and we ran away from it, and it ..PEE-ed marking the territory around the chips...After this we received our new clue and our Navigator is yours truly and the pacer is Hui Yang, destination? A feature to be found on the summit of Sam Heng Estate.
Part 4.
So we marked our route, we were supposed to bash off the proper road and for the top of the mountain in the middle of some road but i think Hui Yang kinda screwed up his pacing and we stopped at Murai hut. So in the end, we decided to bash up from there, it proved to be useful to go up form there, we'll come to that later. It was a long way up, dangerous too, my blisters on my feet came from the climb, bashing thru branches more or less, we reached our destination, we veered a bit off bearing so we ended at some rocks. Our feature was supposed to be a rock too, but there was supposed to be a picture of a lion spray painted on it, we spotted another rock and we charged there. You know why that place is the summit? The tip of the rock is the highest point of Sam Heng Estate... After that we had a short break again, and our solos were starting real soon.
Part 5.
We all chose our envelopes, opened it and followed the bearings and distances given. Min led me thru those rocks i mentioned above, bashed thru a lot of bushes and branches, and ended up in the middle of this patch mangled branches. Near by was a huge moss covered rock and an unmissable wrinkled old tree. So i decided to mark these down as the features, and from there i proceeded to my second checkpoint. On the way down, i was harrassed by mozzies and all the types of bugs u can name... i had my fair share of wild boar encounters too. totally stoned when i heard them and they just ran past me. Proceeded with my walk and found my self back on the route where i used previously to locate Murai hut. Unable to spot any trees with spray paint or some very prominent feature, i continued downhill, soon i figured i was walking aimlessly and decided to call Benedict and ask how he was going, he had found a few checkpoints but wasn't sure abt it. i felt pretty hopeless by then. suddenly i heard the ruffling of leaves and the breaking of branches, i stoned again cause i thought it was wild boars, but i figured it was too slow, so i sounded a high pitched sound with my throat, and in response was Hui Yang's voice. He was pretty lost too, so we followed our instructor's instruction earlier on to get back ot the summit if u are lost. In the end we met Benedict and Yong Hwee too and we all went back up together and we all figured out that the checkpoints we found were wrong and the more we walked, the more lost we got.
Part 6.
We finally arrived at the summit., only joel was still exploring. we started getting worried so we shouted out his name, soon we decided to go downhill to scout for him. On the way down we finally heard a respond, Joel is coming uphill...what a RELIEF. The instructor then decided to find the checkpoints with us using Yong Hwee's clues (each guy got diff clues). In the end our instructor could not find the features either. After a very long walk, our instructor finally decided to conclude that the pain must have been washed off...
Part 7.
We resume our group practice. Our Navigator was Hui Yang and our pacer was Joel. We were to locate the highest point in Ubin. with the help of the schematic map we found out that it was at Ubin Quarry and we began our trek there. WE found a pretty well paved dirt path there and decided to bash up the hill from there. Once we were up there, it was purely good scenery, the quarry was beautiful, no words can describe the vibrant colours present in the quarry, the water was of the darker tint of turquoise, it had the natural yet unnatural feeling, it was just pure beauty. Up there we took 2 grp photos. After a short time enjoying the scenery up there, we made our downhill climb (reminds me of initial D). When we were down, it was down to the last checkpoint.
Part 8.
Navigator, Benedict, Pacer, Yong Hwee. After the calculations and planning, we found out that the last checkpoint was the starting point, so heading back was easy, just that it was LONG. we walked till our legs hurt, when we smelled the seafood, we knew we were there. Den, we took a bumboat back to mainland, short debrief, boarded our minibus back to school.
This orienteering trip has been a really enjoyable one, the solos really made me realise how important teamwork is, without them, i might have already gotten lost on Ubin.
Pictures:
Ubin Map
Orange Envelopes of CLUES
Ubin Schematic Map
Handy Dandy Compass
Handy Dandy Compass again.
Quarry
Quarry
Quarry
Nice pics eh... but it is a little too dark but i am getting really tired and lazy so brighten them up yourself if you really wanna see it well. It will be worth the time.
