This will be my first video clip posting on my blog. It is a short video clip taken during the boat trip stated below for your viewing. Hope you will enjoy it.
Friday, November 27, 2009
A scenic boat trip
We decided to call it a day after our visit to the waterfall area. Our ojeks drove us to a jetty along a river where many small wooden boats were docked. We decided to take a boat ride down the river to another town in Lingga Island.
We reached the end of the river and out into the open sea and could see the Pancur town which we were heading towards. It was close to sun set already. Pancur is a town along the edge of the island with many houses on stilts fronting the sea.
We end day 2 of field trip and rested in the hotel.
I enjoyed the ride thoroughly, travelling along the meandering river which varied in width ranging possibly from 30m to over 100m. At times, you might be travelling along a narrow section of the river with vegetation along the banks overhanging your boat. After a sharp turning, the scene might totally change when you suddenly enters the wider section of the river, which felt as if you had entered a lake.
We were lucky that that day was a rather windless day and the water was calm. We were able to see the beautiful reflections of the mountains, vegetation and clouds on the river water surface. Note also the change in vegetation along the way from inland forest to mangrove swamp.
Unfortunately, the boat was travelling rather fast and was making sharp turns which required the boat to rotate at times about 30 degrees to one side, I was not able to take clearer photographs using my canon A480 P&S camera. Below are some of the "better ones" which I took for you viewing.
We reached the end of the river and out into the open sea and could see the Pancur town which we were heading towards. It was close to sun set already. Pancur is a town along the edge of the island with many houses on stilts fronting the sea.
We settled for a hotel which we could dock our boat against the entrance courtyard and had our dinner there. The courtyard had a small side hut with 2 food stalls, one operated by a Chinese cook which we order fried rice and stir-fried mix vegetable, the other by a Malay (not sure if this race reference is correct) couple with 2 very beautiful daughters which we ordered BBQ fish and sting-ray.
The BBQ fishes were quite tasty marinated with spices, herbs and coconut milk (a little similar to Otah type of taste), different from the ones we had in Singapore which usually would be coated with sambal chilli.
We end day 2 of field trip and rested in the hotel.Wednesday, November 25, 2009
A visit to the waterfall area
We visited the lower stream of one of the waterfalls found on Lingga Island in the late afternoon. Although no cryptocoryne was found, I saw many pretty plants growing on the surfaces of the rocks along the stream. Below are some photographs of these plants.
If you can identify the species of these plants, do share with me. Thanks.
If you can identify the species of these plants, do share with me. Thanks.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Cryptocoryne sp. 'Lingga 18'
We reached Lingga Island after about half an hour of boat ride from Singkep Island.
It has been close to 1 year since I first visited the island in January 2009 when we found 6 different locations with cryptocorynes. Since then, my explorer friend had re-visited the island a few more times and had discovered many more locations of natural habitats with cryptocorynes. Some of the cryptocorynes found in the various locations might be of similar species but some are probably different.
After settling our ojeks (motorcycle taxi), my explorer friend brought me to visit the natural habitat of C. sp. 'Lingga 18'. Below are a few photographs of the views along the way. Take note of the mountain in the background with its top covered by clouds, Lingga island actually has a mountain which is more than 1000m high.
The location was a stream in the middle of what I viewed as a grass field at the edge of a forest. The cryptocorynes were submersed due to the high water level. The leaves of the cryptocoryne were greenish both on the upper and under sides. Some of the leaves had dark green markings on them.
My friend found the spathe of this cryptocoryne before during his previous trips, see his blog for the photographs. The limb was reddish in colour and had irregular outgrowths (protuberances), quite typical of cryptocorynes found on Lingga Island. The substrate was made of fine sand and the pH of the water was quite low, less than 5.0.
It has been close to 1 year since I first visited the island in January 2009 when we found 6 different locations with cryptocorynes. Since then, my explorer friend had re-visited the island a few more times and had discovered many more locations of natural habitats with cryptocorynes. Some of the cryptocorynes found in the various locations might be of similar species but some are probably different.
After settling our ojeks (motorcycle taxi), my explorer friend brought me to visit the natural habitat of C. sp. 'Lingga 18'. Below are a few photographs of the views along the way. Take note of the mountain in the background with its top covered by clouds, Lingga island actually has a mountain which is more than 1000m high.
The location was a stream in the middle of what I viewed as a grass field at the edge of a forest. The cryptocorynes were submersed due to the high water level. The leaves of the cryptocoryne were greenish both on the upper and under sides. Some of the leaves had dark green markings on them.
My friend found the spathe of this cryptocoryne before during his previous trips, see his blog for the photographs. The limb was reddish in colour and had irregular outgrowths (protuberances), quite typical of cryptocorynes found on Lingga Island. The substrate was made of fine sand and the pH of the water was quite low, less than 5.0.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Cryptocoryne sp. 'Singkep 4'
The next morning, we woke up and went to the town centre for breakfast. We had fried Chinese noodles with sweet black sauce, quite delicious. We discussed and agreed that our plan was to try to locate back C. sp. 'Singkep 1', C. sp. 'Singkep 3' and C. sp. 'Singkep 4' within the first half of the day, and then travel to Lingga Island for the next half of the day.
However, luck was not at our side. The previous night rained quite heavily and therefore, the stream where C. sp. 'Singkep 1' could be found was heavily flooded and the cryptocorynes could not be easily reached or seen.
After repairing the flat tire, we finally reached the 1st cryptocoryne location for our 2nd day of our field trip, the natural habitat of C. sp. 'Singkep 4'. It was a small stream filled with cryptocorynes. Utricularia sp. could be found growing in abundance in the stream too.
The cryptocoryne leaves had greenish upper sides with red main vein and reddish under sides.
The second spathe was a fully opened spathe with creamy coloured limb. The throat had some tiny specks of purple.
The third spathe had a section within the throat along the collar coloured in purple.
As we did not had much time, we waited until night time in Lingga Island hotel to cut the spathe to photograph the male and female portion of the flower. We had to use LED torchlight to enhance the brightness, which was why the photographs looked as if they were unnaturally tinted in blue.
The substrate of the stream was sandy mud and the pH of the water was quite low at about 5.0.
We ended our field trip on Singkep Island at about 1330hrs and went to the jetty at Jagor, waited for a few other passengers to arrive (to share the cost) before making our way to Lingga Island via a small motorised boat.
However, luck was not at our side. The previous night rained quite heavily and therefore, the stream where C. sp. 'Singkep 1' could be found was heavily flooded and the cryptocorynes could not be easily reached or seen.
We spent the next hour riding along mountainous dirt track trying to locate the natural habitat of C. sp. 'Singkep 3' but as my friend did not remember the GPS location and the way to the stream where he found the cryptocorynes. We gave up after one of our ojeks suffered a flat tire due to the rocky path which we were travelling along.
After repairing the flat tire, we finally reached the 1st cryptocoryne location for our 2nd day of our field trip, the natural habitat of C. sp. 'Singkep 4'. It was a small stream filled with cryptocorynes. Utricularia sp. could be found growing in abundance in the stream too.
The cryptocoryne leaves had greenish upper sides with red main vein and reddish under sides.
We were lucky to find a few spathes to better aid in the identification of the species of the cryptocoryne here. The first was an un-bloomed spathe.
The second spathe was a fully opened spathe with creamy coloured limb. The throat had some tiny specks of purple.
The third spathe had a section within the throat along the collar coloured in purple.
As we did not had much time, we waited until night time in Lingga Island hotel to cut the spathe to photograph the male and female portion of the flower. We had to use LED torchlight to enhance the brightness, which was why the photographs looked as if they were unnaturally tinted in blue. From the photographs of the various spathes, which species did you felt C. sp. 'Singkep 4' could be comparable to? C. schulzei?
The substrate of the stream was sandy mud and the pH of the water was quite low at about 5.0.
We ended our field trip on Singkep Island at about 1330hrs and went to the jetty at Jagor, waited for a few other passengers to arrive (to share the cost) before making our way to Lingga Island via a small motorised boat.
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