It's fun and easy to guide on Singapore shores!

Experienced guides and nature lovers gathered for a great Lepak in SG workshop held on 10-11 Feb.

After an enthusiastic classroom session earlier, participants headed out to Pasir Ris Mangrove Boardwalk to practise with real visitors. alongside volunteer guides from the Naked Hermit Crabs.

We saw an otter, a shore pit-viper, lots of birds, mudskippers, crabs, fishes and more!

But the focus was on practising ways to conduct a fun and meaningful walk. Introductions are key to a great walk. Get to know one another, find out what visitors want to see and do. Share more of what to expect.

Visitors make the walk awesome!

We are very lucky to have a great dad who is good at spotting animals,
and enthusiastic kids who ask a lot of questions.

A very experienced visitor shares with another visitor
info she found on her smart phone about what we saw.

For a walk to have lasting impact, provide opportunities for great memories to be created.

Good memories make for a good walk!

Being outdoors and immersed in nature means we should encourage visitors to listen, touch, smell and taste. The Sea holly secretes salt on its leaves. Touch and taste one!

Using all the senses.

Thank you visitors and volunteers for a great walk!

A group photo of the early bird groups.

Thank you everyone!

The highlight was a glimpse of an otter from the jetty over Sungei Tampines just before we ended the day.

The day before, we spent a Saturday afternoon in a classroom workshop. Thanks to all the participants who were really sporting! We had a great day sharing and learning from one another.

Thanks to Singapore Sustainability Academy for use of their lovely room run on solar energy! More about the Academy here.

We had lots of sharing over 6 small group discussions. To consider how to better connect with visitors, and to deal with some of our worries and concerns about doing a walk.

Then it was time to do the Big Role Play where we act out some possible ways to deal with tricky situations.

Please keep a distance from the wildlife!

Oh no. An injury!

Thanks to the Lepak in SG team for a great workshop!

Great presentations during the workshop

Taking care of all the details!

This is one of a series of monthly workshops organised by youths of Lepak In SG for International Year of the Reef 2018. This workshop was organised with the support of the Singapore Sustainability Academy, the Naked Hermit Crabs and wildsingapore.

To get updates on the next workshop, like the Lepak in SG facebook page and the Celebrating Singapore Shores facebook page.

Thanks to Liz Lim for the awesome photos and kind comments


Thanks to MJ Photography for these lovely photos of the walk.



This article first appeared on the wild shores of singapore blog.