Mar 22, 2007

Stunning Cyrene: 22 Mar 07

Early this morning, just off our container terminals, the sun rose haltingly behind gianormous clouds that served as a backdrop to a burst of lightning display...In denial, as usual, as to the possibility of rain, a bunch of sleepy seagrassers peered into the gloom to try to find the reef that lies in the middle of our shipping lanes.As the tide fell, Cyrene Reef 'grew' and we made landfall without having to swim!We christened the boat, Onchi Boat (because it's as slow as a slug).

Cyrene Reef is simply thick with seagrasses!!There were seagrasses even where we landed, and everywhere else we wandered.

Before we wandered off, we had our usual mandatory group photo......although those documenting were already hard at work.

First we tried Siti's suggested "intrepid explorers" pose.

But as usual, I prefer our standard "we are so sexy and wide awake" pose. Really hard to do early in the morning.

Cyrene Reef is ENORMOUS. And full of lovely clean, green seagrasses.Of all different kinds mixed up together!
And what a treat! The Sickle seagrasses (Thalassia hemprichii) were blooming!
Elsewhere, the Reef is thick with corals hard and soft.
Other sightings include sea stars (cushion, knobbly, common), sand dollars, sea urchins, kinky slugs, pufferfishes and the dreaded stingrays.

Cyrene Reef is very much alive! Even though it is right smack in the middle of our shipping lanes, next to massive industrial sites like Jurong Island and Pulau Bukom, and opposite our container terminals.

We can't wait to go back again on Saturday and share it with Len, Rudi and Choo!

Lots more photos and stories about the visit on Dickson's the blue heaven blog and the Annotated Budak blog

2 comments:

chloe said...

hello, the place looks lovely.

can we actually go there on our own? or special arrangement needs to be made?

cos i want to go too! :)

Ria Tan said...

Yes Chloe, it is a lovely place!

Here's more information about Cyrene Reef. http://cyrenereef.blogspot.com/