Thursday 14th August
 |
| Another fabulous Borneo storm on the horizon |
Now we are back in
Semporna…
No not nestled
happily against the café… Our days of privilege are over. We are anchored out in the bay, gazing across
at the Seafest Hotel. But at least there
will be NO RATS able to stroll aboard.
Our last purchases
in Tawau involved…nifty plastic covers for fruit and veg (Emma’s inspired
idea.) I love them!
Janice (SV Zoa,)
who is very crafty and creative, was totally smitten with this whisk, cunningly
made from a bit of dowel and some fishing line.
We had a Last
Supper (well a Last Lunch…) with a table of our rally friends… Janice and Mick,
Tunku Adlin (the powerhouse behind tourism in Sabah,) Sazli (Sail Malaysia
rally organiser) another very nice Borneo tourism man whose name escapes me
and… our lovely James Khoo from Pangkor Marina.
We travelled to the restaurant in a government car (posherama!)
Well actually we
had thought we were taking James and Sazli out to lunch but…it was a fabulous
feast for which we had to pay nothing at all…
And guess what
this is??
We had seen
jellyfishers in Thailand and had been totally mystified but here was solid
evidence that it was really quite (not very…edible.)
I hated saying
goodbye to (most of) our rally friends.
So I am only putting up a photo of Polly, a new crewmember on Jackster,
and much loved already.
Tomorrow we will
go to gorgeous Pulau Gaya…but we can only stay there briefly. .SO many
restrictions on what we can and can’t do…We hope to get Lindsay and Emma to
Pulau Lankayan, where there is a beautiful resort, beaches, glorious coral, so
they can have an actual tropical holiday of LEISURE. On the way…many adventures!
Sunday 17th August
Lindsay has taken
over from John as the 2XS Hunter-Gatherer.
He was VERY pleased with the fish he caught on a trolling line behind
the boat and yes – it was delicious, cooked in a special marinara sauce with
some prawns and a lot of care and attention.
We had a brief stop
at beautiful glorious Pulau Gaya.
Just enough time
for a reasonable swim over the reef with our snorkels. But…we weren’t allowed to stay long in this
area; our instructions from the armed force escort team was to get out as soon
as possible.
We tore ourselves away
and continued until late afternoon, anchoring at Dent Haven.
Lindsay went
straight into the water, with a big splash. We left there very
early in the morning and…now we are back in the Kinabatangan…
So far our
Attenborough Moments have been plentiful and very rewarding. As we came into the mouth of the river, we
saw two shy little dolphins, barely breaking the surface. They are very rare, these river dolphins, so
we were lucky even to get a glimpse.
The proboscis monkeys
were out in full strength, to my great relief – I do not like to disappoint my
guests… We saw at least three big
families, swinging enthusiastically through the branches, and then preparing to
roost for the night.
Om board Pete has
been very happy…Lindsay has downloaded thousands of songs onto his iPad and now
he can use the headphones I gave him for his birthday… When I presented them to
him he looked very polite but not very happy at all… But now…he LOVES his
headphones!
In fact I think
Pete is having a lovely time altogether…
Happy birthday (yesterday)
to Fleur- still a very important part of all of our lives in the Harmsen Mafia,
and a particularly important part of mine for the past sixty years (give or
take a few months…)
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