Monday 2nd September
I still like a nice scenic wreck...
Here is a
blogbit I wrote, I think, a few days ago, when we were anchored at Komodo
Island. My internet rupiyah ran out…
We are anchored near a lovely beach – not pink,
like the gorgeous one on Padar Island, but white and pretty nonetheless. The sea is green and a bit opaque, not
turquoise and sparklingly clear but…oh my goodness…the coral, the fish…just
WONDERFUL!! I have been in the water
almost constantly, and in fact have been so salty that sometimes I would wake
in the middle of the night thinking, Is this really my hair??? It does not feel like hair… I was extra
clean, from all the immersion, and it seemed a wicked waste of water to have a
shower and to use shampoo when a few minutes later I would be back in the
sea. Tonight I couldn’t bear it a minute
longer – a week is a big build-up of saltiness - and I now have soft fluffy
(slightly surprised…) hair… But tomorrow morning when I see that lovely water,
those coral outcrops…splishy splash…straight back in the sea, fluffy hair
notwithstanding…
Pete is at the
is very moment negotiating a clever deal involving one of the local water taxis
(here I am,
sitting happily next to its resident dragon:
and a local
water making concern. We can buy 1000
litres of lovely fresh drinking and when water for about $25… Our watertaxi men will bring out the bottles,
we will unload them in the tanks, and they will take the bottles away! MUCH cheaper than buying a watermaker of our
own and then having to worry about it breaking down – as we know, things are
ALWAYS breaking down on a boat. Many
benefits – one of them is that I will no longer have to be so very frugal with
my showers…
Here are just some
of our 50 bottles, looking very pretty on our taxiboat:
After our early
morning walk from the ranger station on Rinca we went back to the boat, happy
but not completely satisfied with our experience. We had expected to be going on the 3 hour
walk; instead we were back in less than an hour, and had only really gone to
the top of a gentle hill, to the nest, and back.
Pete was
particularly keen to do the longer walk.
We had made friends with lots of the guides and rangers, hanging out in
the café area, and one of them, Aji, had asked if he could come and visit
2XS. We picked him up at 2.30, in the
beautiful Marieke III dinghy – our was sadly deflated and undergoing urgent
essential repair work by Captain Pete aka Macguyver…
Such a nice
man, Aji, full of laughter and chat and information. He has been working in the Komodo national
Park for twenty years and is very knowledgeable, and passionate about his subject. And VERY careful of the dragons!
At 3.00 he took
us on the longer walk, which was just fabulous.
I had been a bit reluctant and had been muttering darkly to myself, It’s TOO HOT!! I need a nap!
I want to read my book! But,
thank goodness, I followed Aji and Pete meekly into the dinghy and had a most
wonderful time.
Three quarters
of the walk was through the forest, on the flat. Quiet and cool, surrounded by beautiful
trees.
We saw this
beautiful little blue hawk:
A water buffalo
A few dragons
monkeys and
deer, a fascinating native bee hive, and it was all so beautiful…
An absolutely
memorable day.
And now we are
living in amongst the rally fleet again.
Boats are arriving daily and we are meeting up with old friends. We are next to Pedoja. Don and Tanya have loved the Komodo area as
well and are leaving vey soon to see more deer and dragons. We will stay here for a few days – battery
problems…Pete has been contriving to keep our power supply together but last
night was the first night he had slept though without waking every hour or so
to turn things ON and OFF, or to ask me to turn things ON and OFF…
I am very happy
to be here. No deer, dragons, monkeys
but it is a pleasant little town and there is a lovely Telkomsel man who loads
up my modem with extra minutes and smiles benignly as I look far too thrilled
with my extra internet time.
There seems to
be a post office, and a shop which sells postcards – amazing!
We also found a
lovely (if slightly – ummm – smelly) market close by, full of fish
(Some of them
looked very like my dear darling friends from various coral outcrops I have
been exploring…)
and lovely fruit
and veg. Pete was called to pose for a photo with a shrimp lady
One of the best
things I bought, in my technological buying frenzy before leaving Tasmania, was
a little Selphy photo printer – a Canon gadget, less than $100. It miraculously and speedily prints out
beautiful colour photos, and I have been giving lots of people photos of
themselves – there is hardly a present more pleasing to the recipient…We are
going back to the market today and I think these ladies are going to be very
happy indeed…usually they only get to see their photos, briefly, in the back of
a tourist camera…
Late in the
afternoon we went into town with Ingvar and Seija, in our lovely dragon-laden
watertaxi. Ingvar and Pete found beer; I
found a new laundry bucket. We explored
the market and then went to a fabulous bar way up a whole lot of very steep
high steps (Sky Bar) overlooking the city.
We had watermelon juice cocktails and then went next door to dinner, to a
beautiful Italian restaurant called Made in Italy. Why Italian,
I hear you cry…Well why not? We are loving
the local food, but this was a different experience, and a very ambitious enterprise
by a young Italian chef called Marco, who employs a bevy of tiny Indonesian
women, who are all learning English, learning and wine, about tortellini,
marcaroni, ravioli… Our dinner was delicious and VERY cheap (food) – very expensive
also, (wine…)
Today has been
devoted to filling the water tanks, all very interesting, with trips back and
forth on our lovely taxiboat:
(Our darling dinghy
in the foreground, Pedoja in background.)
Pete and I had
a totally delicious lunch at a small roadside café and we caught up with a few
RallyFriends. Tonight we have been
invited to dinner on Marieke III – they discovered, in the depths of their rapidly
emptying freezer, some Tasmanian Angus eye fillet steak which they very kindly want
to share with us.
I have just cleaned
out our fridge and did not discover eye fillet; all I discovered was a rather
yucky smell…
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