Thursday 3rd July
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| Ginger lilies...I think... |
Our mystery rally
trip was a great success. (Why
mystery? Well none of us knew where we
were going; the time had changed, mysteriously, from early morning to mid
afternoon to late afternoon…)
SV Camomile arrived
just in time. Bill and Sue, from the UK,
had been in this rally from the beginning.
But in Danga Bay (Johor) their trip came to an abrupt end – Camomile was
struck by lightning. The electronics on
board have now all been fixed, and they have been speeding along to catch up to
the rally. Sue loves rally events; Bill
not so much… He stayed aboard to get properly anchored and settled, while Sue
put on her party clothes and was very happy to be picked up by Dave (Jackster)
in his dinghy.
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| Sue, between Jacqui and Maureen |
As we were getting
onto our slightly dodgy bus (no frilly-curtain ones, in Kudat,) I was delighted
to see…a kingfisher!
This is my first
bit of authentic wildlife in Sabah …
We had quite a
long trip – maybe an hour – mostly through our least favourite vegetation – oil
palms. We were, we discovered, heading
for a longhouse homestay (Misompuru), run by a quiet and efficient young bloke called Datuk Jeffrey Ayah, aka... Cobra!
Inside the
longhouse big was very beautiful and peaceful, like the inside of a solid
basket.
We were on a very
beautiful beach, with rocks and wild pounding waves. All of he sailors recognized the rocks and
the wild sea, from our trip up the coast recently, in the storms, and the big
swell.
There are small
boats for visitors to go out onto the little lake.
NO I was not
tempted to swim there…
Pete was very
happy to be reunited with our charming friend James Khoo, from Pangkor
Marina. I gather he is doing a bit of
consulting work here in Sabah…the marinas are all just a bit dodgy…
There was dancing
and music on the beach at sunset
Some of the more
energetic of the rally members danced very joyfully.
Pete chatted to
James; I sat slumped on a sandstone outcrop, which proved a nice hollowed out space
for my bum, very peacefully. I have lost
my energy, just for the moment…
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| The sandstone was SO beautiful when the waves broke |
As I sat I watched
and waited my moment for the waves to crash and…WOW!
There were dear
little girls frolicking on the sand, behind the dancers. I took a few photos and sobbed a bit, missing
my own little Tasmanian girls…
We had dinner in a
large woven building next to the lake, and Jacqui make friends with a very
dignified and very pregnant tortoishell cat.
This morning we
all had to get up early – it was the official opening of the Kudat Jetty
marina, and, they told us, The Sultan was coming! (In he end we think he wasn’t a sultan; he
was a tunku, from Perlis, one of the oher staets of Malaysia.) They really wanted a large number of yachties
to create a lineup after the ceremony. Be there at 6.45, please! said Johnny,
the owner of the marina. So, like good
little bunnies, we did just that, and the VIP guest arrived…at 8.15…
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| Tunku and Mrs Tunku |
The marina workers
had put in a massive effort, decorating and painting, rolling out a red carpet.
There were random gorgeous
dancing girls
and it was all over
in about ten minutes, bar the shouting…
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