Pedal Ubin @ 23 July

One of the new Pedal Ubin Guide on her way to the island. Photo by November, 23 Jul 2005.

A new batch of Pedal Ubin guides finally graduated from 2 months of classroom and field sessions on Saturday, 23 Jul 2005, with their inaugural and very successful attempt at guiding the public around the island.

The 3 groups of new guides consisted of about 4 guides and 1 assessor to approximately 15 participants on a tour around the west and north of the island. It was a particularly challenging weekend as the new guides deftly handled a group of non-english speaking korean school kids, saving a man who fell from a slippery mangosteen tree and the chancing upon a family of 4 hornbills on a durian tree near the rubber plantation and Malay Kampong. All in all, the verdict for the final assessment was excellent. The new guides benefitted from a better structured training program than the original batch of guides.

I was part of a 4th group which consisted of 3 "old" guides, Gurmit, Joelle and myself, which gave our group a tour around the west of the island. It was also a rather pleasant surprise to learn that one of my group is actually my literature teacher from my JC years. We might just convince her to become a guide yet!

Despite the new fences that were erected about 2 weeks ago, we still managed a rather pleasant view of the quarries. We even found that one of the new fences already suffered at the hands of some fervent quarry lovers' wirecutter.


A scenic group shot in front of the Ubin Quarry. Photo by November.

More photos from the various groups during Pedal Ubin 23 Jul 2005:
Gurmit's artistic shots and lots of cute animals!
Sam Sam's photos
Ivan's photos
Ashwin's photos (with his new Canon 350D!)

Other accounts of the ride:
Ashwin's blog
Otterman Speaks