Sunday
1st September
We have reached Labuan Bajo, a small cheery
town on beautiful Flores Island.
We appear to have internet connection so here
goes with quite a long blogthingy…
Friday
30th August
I have written about the very pretty pink
beaches we have visited but now I have photographic evidence:
Pete is still regularly producing loaves of
sourdough bread.
Some of them are excellent.
Others…well, maybe he has perfected a
biodegradable Frisbee…
Two days ago we had a visit to Komodo
Kampung, a small village on stilts, not far away. We can’t anchor there – too many
obstacles. So we went there by water
taxi, one for Marieke III, one for 2XS.
Our little wooden boat had a strong puttputt diesel engine, and a nice
driver called Ari.
The village was like nothing we have seen
thus far on our Indonesian islands.
The houses are well designed for the
heat. Family groups gather underneath,
in the breezy shade. They cook, play,
doze, sort tamarind pods.
But they are very rickety…
The stilts
balance on very wobbly foundations of sticks and stones and we very much hope
that the darling children playing underneath don’t get crushed on a regular
basis…
The children were very friendly, and called
to us to have their photos taken, and to practise some English.
Some of the houses were actually very
pretty
Others not so much, but the village was orderly
and calm, with everybody working from an early age.
And many MANY goats…
Apparently the dragons do venture into the
village at times, to carry off a kid or two…and maybe a child or two if the
parents aren’t vigilant…
We were in search of fresh vegetables, and
this turned out to be an almost impossible task. They don’t seem to grow any veg at all…not
sure what they eat – goat, fish, eggs…tamarind pods?? Eventually we were offered a basket with some
slightly droopy beans, some rudimentary tomatoes and a small brown-ish
cauliflower. We have been eating these
very happily thank you.
(No photo of these limp veggies...just one of Pete strolling down the main street in search of same...)
Near the jetty we found this cheery young
girl, happily breast feeding a crawling-age baby. Not a hint of modesty or shyness – very
surprising; this is a predominantly Muslim village and most of the women were
carefully covered. She didn’t speak
English but was a very good communicator.
She could see I was taken with her and this cute baby, and she asked me,
very directly, for some money. This baby, she indicated, has no mummy/no daddy!! I laughed and said, in my VERY LIMITED Bahasa
Indonesian, But you are the mother! and mimed the breastfeeding scenario. She looked at me scathingly and indicated
that the baby was hungry, needed susu,
and of course she gave it susu! And could I please give this orphan child a
bit of money, thank you very much!
And of course I did, to the great
indignation of the many children who had been following us hoping for money
themselves…
I
will see if Computer Says Yes re posting this much…Who knows??
Ah
and alas…Computer said NO!!
So I will continue with my saga…
This lovely bay on Komodo Island provided
me with many happy hours of snorkeling.
Pete enjoyed it as well but he was very keen for us to go for a walk in
the forest. No tracks…we just followed deer and pig tracks, under the shady
trees, over soft dry grass.
Just beautiful, with deer peering at us
slightly anxiously between the trees before cantering off, shouting a belated
warning to their herd family. Beautiful,
idyllic countryside, but very dry – we couldn’t see any water anywhere; not
sure what the deer and the pigs get in the way of a drink but they certainly
are thriving. We probably saw more than
fifty deer, and there are always lots of pigs wandering along the beach,
snuffling in the sand for yummy fishy crabby morsels.
Deer are prettier...
And yes I was just a bit worried about
dragons… We hadn’t seen any at all – still haven’t on Komodo Island, only on
Rinca. But with so many dragony food
sources – pigs and deer – surely there must be an equally thriving community of
dragons.
VERY fortunately we didn’t see any reptiles
at all, just our lovely graceful deer.
Pete is an intrepid hiker. It was not enough for us to wander through
the pretty forest; there were hills to climb!
Steep, dry hills…and it was very hot. I was happy enough ploughing up up UP our
chosen hill. So pretty, at the top – a
lovely view of 2XS and Marieke III.
What I was ignoring, resolutely, was the
knowledge that…when you go UP a hill you also have to come d-o-w-n… I have just
a few phobias…
(1) large and hairy spiders of the tarantula style
(2) saltwater crocodiles – snappety SNAP!
(3) Going down steep hills…
I have very clear visions of myself
tumbling headlong down steep slopes, causing varying amounts of grievous bodily
harm to myself. I huffed and puffed and
whinged gently to the clear blue sky and eventually, slowly, made my way
down…mostly by sliding on my bottom. The
grass was mercifully benign – no cutting edges, no thorns, no insects, even, so
it was all OK.
Tidak
apa apa…no worries
After this David Attenborough adventure, we
had a day of leisure and swimming in the bay before upping anchor and making
our way back to Rinca Island, to the ranger station.
The station is at the end of a long, narrow
sheltering bay and is a VERY popular tourist destination. Wooden Indonesian boats of varying sizes and
levels of luxury come in all day, maybe a dozen of them, carrying both local
and international tourists intent on seeing…DRAGONS!!
And monkeys! (Seija with a new friend, both of them cautious.)
There are also lots of birds here – blue
herons, sea eagles, Brahminy kites, a glorious little kingfisher or two.
And another Rally boat – a beautiful big
ketch, Kealba, with very nice people aboard.
Kym and Simon- nine year old Joelan missed
out on this photo opportunity but he has been madly popular with the paparazzi,
as we could well imagine, poor boy…
On Saturday morning we got up early to go
for a guided walk through the national park.
Seven seemed like a good time, not too hot. But…it was VERY hot! And no you are not allowed to wander around
this area all alone; far too many dragons, and they really are dangerous. Unpredictable. Mostly they are sleepy and not in the least
interested in the humans around them.
But…sometimes they are way TOO interested…
Our guide told us hair-raising stories,
back in the breezy café area. So far
this year three guides have been bitten, and two local villagers. They ere all rushed off to hospital in Den Pasar,
and they all survived. But not of this
was pretty or pleasant… He pointed out a middle sized dragon wandering past the
café area – which, thank goodness, is at least a metre off the ground – and
said, “That is the one who bit my friend very recently.” We remarked that it wasn’t all that big and
he said, darkly, “Not so big but VERY fast!”
We had imagined that the dragons would be
too slow and lumbering to catch a monkey, but not so… They are good at lying patiently
in ambush, and can give even the most speedy monkey a run for its money…
And that is why we needed a guide, one at
the front and one at the back of our small group of seven…
We went along the track to look at a dragon
nest
And then up a steep hill to look at the
view.
So pretty!
And
today is…Lynne Headlam’s birthday!
It seems like very recently that we were at
her resplendent 70th birthday party, in her beautiful beach house,
Stella Maris. But no, it was a year
ago…and Lynne is still working in her very demanding accommodation business,
rushing around the countryside, being SuperGrandmother to her five Tasmanian
grandchildren and as often as possible making her way (and it is a LONG) way to
Mt Tom Price to see the non-Tasmanian ones.
Happy birthday Lynne, you are a shining
example to all of us!
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