Saturday, March 26, 2011

a discovery at lorong halus

on my second visit to the ponggol promenade and the lorong halus wetland reserve, i discovered something. i found out that coney island, also known as serangoon island, is now connected to the mainland by a road. we walked along the road behind the serangoon east dam to its end. a notice at the gate informed visitors that coney island was out of bounds as construction work was still in progress.

during our canoeing days, coney island was a popular stopover site for us. we would usually paddle from changi point to coney island, have a picnic there and paddle back. those days the channel between the island and the mainland was a popular site with water skiers. camping on the island was also possible but it was a bit inconvenient because you had to carry your own fresh water. i also remember swimming across the channel, from coney island to the mainland.

i had been checking out coney island from the western end, which is nearer to ponggol point, so i missed out on the reclamation work that had been done on the eastern end, which is nearer to lorong halus.

this is the serangoon east dam, one of the two which blocks the mouth of the serangoon river. lorong halus is on the right side of the river. a former landfill, it used to be a popular spot with weekend fishermen. according to my friend who had fished at this place, there were three ponds near the sea and at high tide, fish could be seen leaping out of the water.

i have seen similar tidal gates when i explored pulau ponggol barat last year. pulau punggol barat and pulau punggol timor are two other islands that are now linked to the mainland.



this is the new bridge across the river which is now part of the serangoon reservoir. crossing the river from lorong halus will lead you to the ponggol promenade. the riverside walk is popular with cyclists, joggers and walkers. on weekend evenings, the car-park at tebing lane can get quite crowded because of the many diners who patronise the eateries, two of which overlook the waters of the reservoir.

9 comments:

nah said...

Damn it! I still miss my fishing days at Lorong Halus.
Damming Sungei Serangoon to create a reservoir, destroyed the native flora and fauna of that saltwater marshland. That place was a fishing paradise for giant herrings. This fish strikes artificial lures readily, and could be caught from the few huge man-made ponds there. It is an excellent fighting fish with excellent swimming speed. When it is hooked, it does an acrobatic jump out of the water.

yg said...

nah, my first visit to lorong halus was three years ago, when it was no longer a landfill. yes, i have heard, in the past, you and huat cheong mentioned the place and the fantastic fishing experiences.

Andrew said...

Interesting, never been there!

Roger said...

With the completion of the bridge over Sungei Serangoon, I can now bike all the way to Pasir Ris Park and Changi from Yio Chu Kang via the park connector. However, the connector from Punggol Point is still under construction but still usable if somewhat muddy on rainy days as I discovered today. Even AMK residents will benefit.

yg said...

andrew, on weekend evenings, the place can get quite crowded, especially the ponggol promenade side. we had difficulty finding a parking space one sunday recently. on lorong halus side, there are not enough parking lots but you can park by the roadside.

yg said...

roger, that saturday when i walked there with nah and our balestier group, we came across many cyclists. had wondered if they were all from ponggol/tampines area. so, they could have come from as far as changi and pasir ris.

Unknown said...

You can go on the other side of the reservoir as we did in this run

yg said...

tekko, looks like the trails in that area are getting popular with runners. on the saturday when we visited the place, we came across a big group of runners - maybe as many as 50 - at the tidal gates.

Anonymous said...

I saw a women and her friends illegally feed the stray dog on 7PM at Lorong Halus.
One problem feeds the other—the growing demand for these stray dog leads to more breeding, and more unwanted stray dog.
This stray dogs are here which are becoming a severe threat to public especially in nights. And it attack people passing by for fishing trips after 7pm.

I just saved about three 16 year old kids attacked by stray dogs on that day from fishing trips and my hand get scratch.
Please send your AVA officer down to find those people that illegal feed the dog.
Kindly send your team to catch these dogs or shoot down the stray dogs.

I know one of this day the stray dogs will kill somebody !