Sand Crab Art and Mangroves in Malaysia

Returning Home to Port Dickson

Gerad Carrier and I met in Port Dickson, Malaysia 50 years ago and have returned often. Our children have fond memories of frequent childhood visits to Port Dickson, and consider it to be their home in Malaysia.

When our daughter found out we were returning to Malaysia, she decided to arrange her schedule to fly in to spend time in Port Dickson with us.

One of her first goals when she got here was to walk on the beach looking for sand crabs just as she did when she was young.

We are always amazed at the sand art created by the sand bubbler crabs. We delight in watching them ducking in and out of their burrows. “They feed by filtering sand through their mouthparts, leaving behind balls of sand that are disintegrated by the incoming high tide.” (source)

We thought the crab construction in the photo below looked like a tiny palm tree. As they are feeding, they are also building an “igloo” by excavating pellets of sand to form a circular wall and roof to the burrow. This holds a tiny amount of air in with the crab when the tide comes in to cover the tiny sandy igloo. (source)

We also walked over the bridge to the mangrove island nearby. My daughter remembers walking over to the island when she was young. Back then, we crossed over the sand to get to the mangrove and had to pay attention to the tide coming in so we could safely get back again. Now there is a bridge to the island and a wooden walkway around it so the mangrove roots are not damaged as people walk around it.

What could be better than a walk together and sharing so many happy memories of childhood walks?

Thank you to JoAnn Ryan in Boosted Stories and Featured Gems at In Living Color for reminding me to use Live Photos here in Medium.

View How To Put Moving ‘Live’ Photos In Your Medium Articles by Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages