We spent the afternoon at Pasir Ris Park exploring the Kitchen Garden and Maze Garden and did some geocaching in the process. The term Pasir Ris is Malay for ‘beach bolt-rope’, implying a narrow beach. This charming and tranquil park offers modern park activities such as pony rides, water sports, cycling, inline skating and barbeque rental.
We also managed to spot some Kelongs out at sea. A Kelong is a Malay word to describe a form of offshore platform built predominantly with wood, and can be found in waters off Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia, while only a handful remains around Singapore due to rapid urbanisation. Kelongs are built by fishermen primarily for fishing purposes, although larger structures can also function as dwellings for them and their families.
On to our first cache in Pasir ris Park. This one is a short walk from the carpark and was found easily by at the base of a large raintree. Jenn did the ant dance as she found and removed the cache from it’s hiding place, we quickly signed the log and replaced it.
Signing the log. Cache contents: canada pin, kellogg’s button, some coins.
Next, we checked out the botanical display of edible plants at Kitchen Garden – home to a wide variety of plants, both practical and medicinal. They include fruits & vegetables, local herbs and European herbs and spices. You can view, smell and touch a wide array of vegetables, culinary herbs and spices commonly used in local cuisines. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) herbs are also grown in a corner of the garden.
I especially enjoyed the boat-pond in the middle of the garden, with partially submerged and floating water plants in it. As we looked around this area, we snagged our second cache in Pasir ris Park.
Scott with the cache in Kitchen Garden.
We took a quick walk around the mangrove boardwalk but couldn’t find the cache here. It was however a pleasant walk, but we didn’t stay too long since we’ve been to this part of the park before. The one that got away :|
Mangrove trees lining the water’s edge…
Moving on to our next location…
The Maze Garden offers a mini adventure for the young, the old, and the geocaching community. It is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the “walls” or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges.
We Enjoyed finding hidden 2D images of mangrove animals as we navigated our way through the maze. This is also where we found our third cache in this park. The 2D animals actually look quite real and gave me a little fright when I saw the first one. I had to get closer to make sure it’s not alive!
Another find for Scott in the Maze Garden.
Total of 7 caches today - along the way there/home, we also managed to grab the following caches: Carpark cache#2, PRD10, Return Of The UFO, and The City of Kovan – Alliance.
Geocaching is a worldwide game of hiding and seeking treasure. A geocacher can place a geocache anywhere in the world, pinpoint its location using GPS technology and then share the geocache’s existence and location online. Anyone with a GPS device can then try to locate the geocache. For more info about Geocaching, visit www.geocaching.com.
