Tekong Days...some hilarious moments!

On many occasions while I was out on Orienteering sessions with the IE or NIE trainee teachers in the heartland of Tekong, I would come across our young NS men every now and then. Mostly, I would leave them alone as they went about their business much similar to ours...map, compass, bearings, checkpoint locations...the works. I noticed they were always in a smaller party or group.
Then invariably, a few would take courage to approach me to strike up a conversation while my party was either having a short rest or doing map-setting on the ground. We never talk about the weather if you want to know.
They wasted no time in going straight to the point. And the conversations went along these lines:-

NS man: "Hello sir! Can I ask you something? "
They knew I was probably someone who could help them out by having observed me. They also knew about our presence on the island for camp training ..as we worked closely to update the SAF CO's of Tekong Camp and vice-versa as when there was"Live Firing" or "Live Grenade Throwing" activity for certain days and time, the locations were known to me prior to activity.
Me: " Certainly! Go ahead and ask. "

He and his buddies look closely at their maps and pointing at a spot there, he asked,

NS man: " Sir, this place we are now at...are we here?"

He pointed to his map and showed me the point they thought they were at. It was usually either a cross junction, a "Y" junction or "T" junction or at times just a path to right or left...but with no identifiable or clear landmarks around. As soon as he pointed, I knew they were "lost"...for that spot they were looking for was more 200 m away over hills and vales. Tekong's interior is not flat land. There are numerous rocky hills all covered with jungle or other growth, much "berlukar"
and rivers and streams. Over the northern side, there are hot springs and swamps. Here and there, as you hike around, you will come across cemeteries or graves, both Muslims and Chinese, simple Chinese temples that look quite eerie within. Some had coffins placed there! Whether there were bodies inside we never knew.

Me: " No, no...you are quite a distance from here !"
The shock registered and they asked me to show them just exactly where we were then.
Then I asked them: " Do you know how to get there from here?"
They: " Not too sure, sir. What's the best way to get there sir?" ( their next checkpoint which was their objective).

They came from previous checkpoint "A" and was supposed to be headed for "B". But poor orienteering skills led them to "C", where we were.
From C, it was now slightly nearer to their objective "B".

However, since they had asked me and most were younger than even our trainees, I advised them to go back to their last known position "A" ( what we call Backtracking )...and from there start again carefully, being mindful of distance travelled, using "pacing technique".
If they had gone from C to B they would probably end up lost again.

The skill of Backtracking is never to be taken lightly!
Many travellers and hikers lost their lives in countless incidents all over the world when they got themselves lost in hiking trials, forests, mountain paths. Even with map and compass in hand, they forgot the GOLDEN RULE of Orienteering...the first moment you realise you are not headed in the right path or direction....STOP, SET YOUR MAP, DON'T GUESS. THE COMPASS IS NEVER WRONG. Your map may be off a little. GO BACK TO YOUR LAST KNOWN POINT
which you are familiar with . Then you can make a decision whether to proceed again or curtail the hike, walk, whatever and return to your starting point.

As I said, not following this simple rule have resulted in many deaths for many lost adventurers, hikers, tourists etc..

I once led a small party to climb Gunong Ledang (Mt Ophir) in 1974. Because of a misplaced signboard along the Y junction of the main trail, we were led in the wrong direction for nearly 2 hours! I led the climbing party. We had no map and compass (no use in deep jungle ) and all jungle trails look similar.

I had blogged about this "never to be forgotten" Ophir trip in this blog. Check it out.
Backtracking all the way ...enabled me to locate the main trail and continued on a most successful climb. So certain disaster was averted. Had we chosen NOT TO backtrack and simply bashed forward into unknown territory in this primitive Malayan jungle...I may not be here telling this story.



This group was led by David Tay ( squatting, extreme front left ) as watch Leader.
I have accompanied many different groups on Orienteering, Land and Sea exercise over many years. But I always have fond memories of this particular group because of something hilarious that happened. ( Nothing bad...just hilarious, remember ).
Here they were before setting off with me for their Orienteering 2 activity covering only 4
checkpoints. Trainees had undergone basic precamp skills training with us before the Camp.
In my lively Orienteering sessions back at the IE campus, I always ended my session with a summary of about 10 main Golden Nuggets, all starting with the word, "DON"T".
Eg, DON"T be a....Confucius !
DON"T be a smart aleck !
I then defined each of these Don'ts. Much laughter will be the result.
The incident:
The group had covered 3 checkpoints well. Now, they were at Checkpoint 3 and next working out the bearing and route to Checkpoint 4, which was to the north of Tekong Camp 2. At each new checkpoint, a pair from the group will takeover as i/c of map and compass direction. The others have other important tasks too. On Orienteering 1, as it was more a teaching exercise, I would stop the group if they were headed in the wrong direction...and point out the mistakes.
But this was O2, and O2 was to prepare them for the Land Expedition...with no hints or any help from instructors.
Thus as soon as they came to a Y junction, they stopped wondering which to take...left or right. They discussed for a while ( good, team effort ) and my fellow instructors and I stood by taking all in. We were glad they made the right decision but then from among themselves "Confucius" suddenly appeared. Confucius unwittingly created doubts about the decision made...and after a reconsideration, they opted to pick the other route. We kept quiet and simply followed. About 20 minutes later on the route...the map and the ground seemed not to match! They stopped again to double check their position. All hell broke loose. Some said "I think we are here."
Another said, " No, we are not there but here." And so Confucius had succeded! They looked to me for some hopes of some hints. Haha. No way!
Then David Tay took charge. He said, " Ok, not to worry. The surroundings seem familiar to me. I have been here before for my BMT. I think I roughly know where we are. "
So no more discussion necessary. All followed David who was a most likeable chap. Of course, I knew they were completely off course and actually straying into a SAF training area.
My younger instructors with me whispered , " Dicko..you are not going to stop them?"
I replied no.
" They are about to stray into the Grenade Throwing Range!"
Me: " Haha...I've Checked lah. Today there's no Live Firing anywhere. Relax. "
When David led his group into the Grenade Range...he stopped and then blurted out, " Now I know this place! It's the Grenade Range ."
This wasn't Checkpoint 4. They had missed the final checkpoint...but had learnt valuable lessons when I did the evaluation with them.


In my news archives, I have this newsclip of David Tay dated 11 Feb 2007.
He has been quite a successful swimming coach since those days.
I have met David on countless occasions in time past. I never brought up this incident.
But I know he'll still remember it as I do today.

Those of you wanting to read, see and know a little more about TEKONG can visit
this blog of Xinli. Blog has a nice name called THE MOOSE. He has some incredibly
good drawings of army life, plus detailed descriptions of Tekong geography, history
and recollections of the time he spent there with his army buddies.
He has also mentioned my Tekong photos and posts.

TEKONG Days...the 80's camping scene

Photo:
The jetty and beach area at Tg Ladang. This was around early 80's. Those red canoes were of the
old kind we normally refer to as sea Tourers. They have flat bottoms and can weigh between 30 to 40 kgs for a double canoe. Singles were about 18 - 20 kg each. It was high tide when this picture was captured. When the tide ebbed the area was a flatland of sea mud.


Photo: That's Unk Dicko with his two ever loyal, guardian mermaids...Poh Kheng and Lee Foon.
Our camp instructors were generally quite versatile in both land and sea activities.
Where did the canoes come from?
It will be the job of IE or NIE PE Faculty to "borrow" them from the JCs and from
the MOE's Junior Sailing Club (JSC) at Changi.

Photo:
During the camp period, there was usually a "visitors day". The visitors were the Academic staff members of IE or NIE and their family members. They would be brought around the Campsite and encouraged to try out some of the challenges we have set up.
In this memorable snapshot, guess who was this person on the "Rope Transfer"?
It was the late Ms Ong Siong Ngo who became Head of the PE Faculty IE.
I ( in red striped shirt ) was then just walking over to the group at the "High Rope".

Photo:
In my previous post, I mentioned that as a Chief of Orienteering or Chief Instructor etc,..I would lead a small party of new or junior instructors who will be serving with me in that camp to do some weekend precamp work at Tekong.
This was one of many such precamp trips to the island. We would set off early from Changi Point and would be there the entire day, sometimes overnight too.

TEKONG Days....1980's, IE Training Camp -Orienteering

The following photos show the IE teacher campers on various Orienteering and Land activities on our favourite Island in the Sun...Tekong! All photos are property of Unk Dicko's Archives. You have my ok to download for your own reference and purpose. But if anyone intends to publish in book form, do get in touch with me first.

This group was all ready to set out for an Orienteering Land Exercise with me accompanying them. Location: Tg Ladang . Date: Around 1983. Today, some in this group are Asst Directors, Principals and Lecturers.

Around the early 80's, Tekong was undergoing quite a lot of development and sea reclaimation. Many new tracks and some roads appeared which were previously not on the map. And very often the topo maps we were using did not carry these updates. The camp trainees used the topo maps, plus an updated map which I issued. My Master Map would usually be the most recent updated map of all...even more accurate and precise than those issued to NS recruits on their BMT in Tekong. How come? That is easy to explain.

Way before the Camp proper, I would have gone to Tekong over several weekends to recce, note, observe and map out NEW features... make important notes of the difference between what was on the land compared to what was on the map. Usually, a small party of trainee instructors would follow me...and for them, it was extremely useful to gain firsthand knowledge of the ground and a golden chance for me to help them develop their skills and talent further.
Above Photo:

The group was at a cross junction of tracks and was trying to figure out their exact location.

As you can see, in such a location without any clear, permanent, easily identifiable landmarks..they can become a little uncertain and confuse. As a matter of fact, some not only get confused but actually " lost the way" so to speak...when they made the wrong decision from that point on.

More about all this interesting stuff in next post.

After each Orienteering exercise, I get the group to have a relaxed sitdown with me for an immediate evaluation of how they performed, what they did very well, not so well and so forth.

This was learning at its very best. This is how an outdoor training/learning session ought to be conducted with everything still fresh in their minds and right at the doorstep of learning itself...the great outdoors of Tekong.

It was not all serious discussion and feedback. Normally, I will relate

some funny and interesting observations about how some individuals

contributed to certain outcomes...good or hilarious. There is nothing bad.

It was all a part of a great learning experience for them, for us, for me too.

Tekong Days.... IE Camps in 80's part 2.

The Training Camps for trainee teachers were held during the September school break. Key camp staff ( instructors ) were identified and they would receive an official letter of invitation from the IE or NIE Head of the Department of Physical Education to serve in the camp. The 1st official meeting would normally be held about 3 months before the camp at the IE grounds.But prior to that, some of the key appointment holders would have had several side meetings with the appointed Camp Commandant ( a lecturer from the PE Dept ) to prepare a shortlist of recommended instructors.

We selected the potential camp staff based on the unique strengths and talent they each had. In addition, suitable trainee instructors were identified from the previous batch of campers based on the observations and recommendations of the more senior instructors among us...at the end of the camp.


Photo: [ All photos from Unk Dicko's Archives ]
Singing is a very important part of camp life and camp training.
My ukulele and me were always a permanent feature of all the camps I was involved in.

In the photos that appear in my blogpost will be many different people. It will be too laborious to mention everyone within. So if any of you, my good old friends who happens to visit this blog, did not get a mention...do forgive me. Be assured I have not forgotten you. You all were a very important part of my collective memory of our Tekong Days.

Above photo: In foreground is Pauline Choy ( today, PE head in a JC), on my left is C Kunalan ( today Assoc Prof in NTU ), with yellow peakcap is Goh Ek Piang ( today, DD CCAB ), with red cap is Lam Siew Leng ( retired, formerly SI CCAB ), Ms Lim Ming ( former Camp Commandant ) is at top. She has retired and made a new life for herself in Canada. On her right is Ismail Taha ( retired, former CCAB ).


Photo: The camp staff of the IE Training Camp with all our gear and equipment
on the return trip from Tekong. Kunalan still looking as young as ever back then ( 1982,1983)!


Photo:
Campers and Camp staff all together on the RPL. No one had fair skin after the camp.
All had a healthy looking sun tanned disposition. It may only be about 8 days of training
at Tekong. But for many, it would be summed up as the "among the best and most unforgettable days " of their life.
That's what many told me years down the road when I met them again, here and there, in the course of my work.
Quite a few can recall interesting snippets and incidents about their own camp, some camp staff and funny happenings.
And many said
they missed my ukulele music and songs!