Happy Hour @ BB Bar

Beting Bronok ('beting' - Malay for sandbar) is exposed only during super low tides, and I was one of the lucky few who managed to visit this marvellous patch of mud for my first & the last time this year. This of course meant having to stay up all night as I was afraid I might oversleep and miss the 3.00am bumboat ride out. It was a cloudy morning, and after something like 40 or 50 minutes, I heard Ria say, there! That's it! It should be right there! I looked real hard in the direction she was pointing at and saw this:

Ok, I'm exaggerating... all we saw was this:


But on Beting Bronok itself, there was so much more to see. Apart from the highlight of the morning, Melo Melo, we also saw a newly born shark, with yolk still attached (!!), discovered by Dr Chua.

There were small sea cucumbers scattered all over the sandbank, and more than the cukes were brittle stars, all over the place! The gobies & snapping shrimps here came in junior size, and there were also many small anemones of various shapes & colours. Oh, and did I forget to mention the many sea pens with porcelain crabs? Tom counted about NINE porcelain crabs in just one sea pen!

Being one of the new crew members, I'm not sure if this could be classified as a case of the Stupoks.... But here's something funny that happened. We were documenting this stranded jellyfish for a REALLY long time, hoping it would do something cool like grab the tiny goby nearby with one of its many tentacles. So we waited, and waited... Zoom in on the jellyfish's tentacles. Zoom in on its mouth. Zoom in on the fearless goby flirting with death. Hmmm... jellyfish doesn't seem to be hungry. Time to flip him over to see what he looks like from the top. Oops! Where'd he go?!!

Turns out jellyfish was an anemome. Duh....

After exploring BB a while more, it was soon time to leave all our newfound friends behind. Most of us found this quite difficult, cos this place is just teeming with life! Walking on BB is like walking on a minefield of colonial anemones, ascidians and the many other creatures that lay hidden under the mud and rocks.

Some of the crew were visiting BB again on Sunday, but for the rest of us, it would be the last time for the rest of the year. BB was soon out of sight again as the tide rose and the bumboat drifted further and further away. But never out of mind. Bye BB...We'll see you again next year!