30th April - Rebak Island day - Pantai Cenang - storm

Wednesday 30^th April

Misty* sent me an email saying she was enjoying the Wakefield/2XS adventures but asking whether maybe I had been drinking a bit of wine* while writing my blog… Maybe yes maybe no…but I checked back and changed things swiftly.  So in case anyone other than Misty read that particular blogbit before I changed it…no we did NOT explore the waterways of the Hole in the Wall on a motorbike...

How many steps is it up to the Seven Wells Waterfall?  Angus counted all the way and then recorded it in water, and on Canon camera…

Today has been mainly R & R on Rebak Island.  The boys were

t-i-r-e-d early on but they soon galvanised into activity with their new friends – Johannes,*** at school in Shanghai at the biggest German school outside Germany, and Kayden,**** from South Africa, home schooled (boat schooled??) by his beautiful mother, Sharon.  Much pooltime, rushing-around time, games of squash, games of table tennis, general exploration.

Nicky and I had another shopping session at Pantai Cenang - oh so nice to stroll around in the hot HOT heat, gently looking in shops, chatting, buying this and that.

A soothing scenic sea photo

On Tuesday night in our northern  anchorage there was a ferocious and violent thunderstorm.  Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightening!  There are no photos of this… People rushed from their bunks, battened down hatches, secured tarps, rescued towels and underwear from the railings.    But two people on 2XS slept peacefully through most of it… Sleepyboboland calling… Angus didn’t wake at all… The ever-vigilant grandmother – well, hardly a stir until it was nearly all over… I did get up from my SleepybobolandBunk to ask if there was anything I could do but it was all over bar the shouting.

Pete is very protective of the downpipe he has installed to gather water, should it ever rain for long enough to…well, to gather water.  He often roars, Don’t touch my downpipe, as one or other guest on board 2XS happens, unwarily, to touch his precious pipe.  So EvilAngus organised a photoshoot…

* Thank you Misty – I do need a proofreader…keep it up!  I hate appearing in cyberspace with inaccurate words…

** The Scottish word for this is…blootered.  And what an excellent word it is!   I am adopting it immediately.

*** staying at the resort till Friday

**** Living on a big catamaran, Micah

29th April - Hole in the Wall (Langkawi circumnavigation)

Tuesday 29^th April

Back in the marina.  Ah, say the boys,  Rebak!  as they race towards the pool on the patiently waiting bikes.

We did have a wonderful time on our circumnavigation of Langkawi.  Yesterday we hired a motorboat plus driver and went right through the backwaters of the Hole in the Wall, through the mangroves.  Spectacular and fabulous!  ($60 for all six of us for about two hours…)

I had been very much hoping that the boys would see at least one or two monkeys during their stay on Langkawi… They have now seen hundreds!  Mostly macaques, but also many of the lovely fluffy back ones (dusky leaf monkeys) swinging high in the branches above us.

The babies are red!

Our speedboat trip was full of Attenborough moments.  Monkeys swam out to the boat, or leapt on board from nearby mangroves.

They swarmed around us, looking for treats – yes of course our driver had a small bag of dry food for them…they don’t love people that much all of their own accord…

It was wonderful, going through the mangroves, speedily and efficiently.  Had we tried to go through these waterways in the dinghy…well Pete says we would have had to take a tent and string it up high in the branches…and maybe it would have taken us a week…

Today we left our lovely anchorage near the Andaman resort and went to Telaga Harbour, to get a taxi to the Seven Wells Waterfall.  Nicky hadn’t been and the boys were desperately keen to go back and wrestle on the waterslide between the pools.

Pete went swimming, VERY happy in the cool fresh water.

I spent the whole time as cold and wet as possible.

Hamish found, and photographed, a glorious frog.

We had a very late lunch at Telaga (3pm…) at The Best Restaurant – Maharaja’s.  The boys were totally blissed out with their plates piled high with butter chicken, aloo gobi, dhal, garlic naan… Ahh food, such a reliable pleasure…

And now we are back here in Rebak, with electricity (FANS!!) and a shop which sells mosquito coils…we had nearly run out.

competition!

Life is good!

28th April - Captain Pete's birthday - Hole in the Wall (Langkawi) - Attenborough moments

Monday 28^th April

Wakefields under 2XS

Langkawi has continued to provide dozens of very thrilling Attenborough moments. 

Hamish and Angus have become very competent with the dinghy.  They chauffeur us around the waterways, and go off by themselves to look at monkeys, or just to pootle along the shore.

They were particularly amused by a baby monkey clinging to a branch while his mother pulled at his legs to get him down…

And who knew monitors had long blue tongues??

We had dinner last night at one of the little floating restaurants in the Hole in the Wall.  Pete and I had eaten there before, with James, Bron and Jabba, and while it is a fascinating setting, we hadn’t been very impressed with the food.  Last night – yummo!  Pete had an enormous bowl of curry, full of prawns and bits of fresh seafood, while the rest of us had fish & chips with mango salad, all just perfect.

We are now anchored off Tanjung Ruh resort*, on the northern coast, and we have had lunch – a miscellany of leftover bits and pieces.

The evenings have become a bit primal – competition is fierce!  The boys have learned the rudiments of playing trumps, getting tricks.  Oh Hell is all go!  So far Nicky and I have not shone on the leader board…but our time will come!

* Oh no we’re not…Captain Pete is casting off and we are about to move to another anchorage… Fortunately we noticed that at least two of our boys were splashing around in the water under the boat BEFORE we took off…

Today is a very special day – Captain Pete’s birthday!  I have ben trying to find a photo to mark this day and it is very difficult to choose.  I have hundreds of photos of Pete on my computer.  In 90% of them he is smiling radiantly, emanating that special Pete charm and joie de vivre.  In just a few others he is scowling, concentrating deeply on some bit of equipment which needs fixing, or on that bugger of a computer which has lost a very important bit of documentation.  And in one or two he is actually relaxing…so I chose one of those.

27th April - Lake of the Pregnant Maiden - Fjord - on our way to Hole in the Wall

Sunday 27^th April

Days don’t get much better than this, says Angus.

Angus mastered the art of MonsoonFloating

And he is right!

We left Rebak at 9am and went straight to the Lake of the Pregnant Maiden.  TouristWorld!!  Jetskis, powerboats, crowds.  And…2XS.  We loved it!  A beautiful walk across from the shore to the lake.

Monkeys!

People!

Leaping!

Floating!

Nicky made friends with some local ladies who wanted to do a Tomato Oh What A Feeling jump for her.  A bit of a problem getting off the ground but…what the hey!

The Wakefields had no problem getting off the ground…and into the lake

We spent the night in what they call The Fjord, in a deep gorge surrounded by cliffs, forest, monkeys, monitors, birds…

A very large (2m) monitor - photo by Hamish

We swam in the heavy monsoon rain - bliss!

Now we are on our way past Kuah to the Hole in the Wall.  It is JUST possible I might get an internet signal so I am taking the opportunity right now.