23rd July - Waisai - Mansuar - Arborek - Raja Ampat

Thursday 23^rd July 2015

00 degrees 25.991S

130 degrees 48.392E

Waisai duckpond marina

Going back to Waisai was a bit like coming home – we are familiar with this little town now.  I know where to go for pulsar (top-up for phone and internet) one after the other when they say they have run out.  (Which they all do…)  And we know which stalls at the market have the best tomatoes, the least mouldy potatoes, the juiciest shallots.  We needed to clamber onto motorbikes with our shopping to get back to the boat.  I had a backpack full of veggies, a coolbag with a sad and scrawny frozen chicken therein, and two and a half dozen eggs clasped to my chest.  My motorbike rider did NOT understand that I REALLY wanted to go to the marina, to a boat.  He kept slowing down at various hotels and homestays along the way – This one?  That one??  I felt like smacking him just a bit – if I were staying in a hotel would I be lugging two and a half dozen eggs with me??

Along the way to Waisai we were followed by a big black storm cloud.  It allowed us to tie up at the pontoon, go into town, do our shopping etc, very considerate, really, before it let fly with a beautiful big rainfall.

00 degrees 34.517S

130 degrees 36.904E

Masuar Island

Raja Ampat Dive Lodge Resort

Mooring no longer there…

The next morning we set off, bright and expectant, to go to Mansuar Island.  We had been on the mooring at the Raja Ampat Dive Lodge, with John, and we knew it was a safe and secure mooring.  Hmmm…well it was, and I am sure it still would be but…it wasn’t there!  Some of the resort men came out to the end of the jetty and they too gazed off into the middle distance, hoping, I suppose, that the errant mooring would suddenly bob up.  It is much too deep, and the current is much too strong, to anchor there, so…we left!

00 degrees 33.781S

130 degrees 31.114E

Pulau Arborek

16.4 metres depth

And we found ourselves back at beautiful Pulau Arborek, ready to swim with the manta rays again.  Apparently I was very lucky, a few days ago, to have such a lovely friendly one turn up so punctually, because there wasn’t a sign of one yesterday, no matter how keenly we peered into the water.

All through the night there was music – party time on the island, with their visitors from another island just outside Raja Ampat.  This morning they embarked, with much cheer, on a big wooden boat and off they went, with the band playing raggedly on the pier.

21st July - Arborek Island - village - manta ray glory

Tuesday 21^st July 2015

Thanks to Google for the images

Yesterday afternoon the clear blue water of Arborek Island redeemed itself.  We had been reliably informed that at 4pm a manta ray would come and cruise around in the bay, just near the jetty.

So, to fill in time before this appointment with a beautiful creature of the sea, we went for a walk through the village and around the tiny island from 3-4.  This village has won the Papuan equivalent of Tidy Towns, and it is indeed gorgeous.  For a start, before you even get off the jetty, there is a nice sign asking you to NOT FISHING, and to DRESS POLITELY.

There are lots of homestays.  Some, pretty enough, built in the new fashion, of concrete block.

And others, so much nicer, built in the traditional manner.

The local band was playing

getting ready for a party of fifteen people, coming from another island for a three day visit.  Women were cooking vast pots of food – HOT!!

We were mightily impressed with the picnic tables, built around trees on the foreshore.  So very pretty, and so comfortable!

But…it was nearly 4.00 and I was hoping my manta was punctual…like me…

And – YES!!!  I spent a very happy hour with this giant, gentle creature. At times we swam along together, fin to fingertip.  At other times it would swim right at me, and then at the last moment it would swoop underneath, and roll over, balletically. 

It made me very happy! 

We are now on our way to Waisai, to stock up.  We have eaten our last shallot, our last egg, our last chilli.  But on the way we will stop at Friwin Island so I can have…another swim!

19th - 20th July - Pef - jungle walk - Pulau Yangello (mangroves) - Pulau Arborek

Sunday 19^th July 2015

Pef carving

00 degrees 30.725S

130 degrees 27.220E

Pulau Yangello

8-12 metres, mangroves

It was sad to leave beautiful Pulau Pef but - time to go!  In the morning we had a boatload of visitors.

We had met these people at dinner the night before.

Such a great dinner – the Pef resort, Raja4divers, does everything so well.  There are two big long communal tables, for guests and staff.  We sat amongst Swiss and German guests, and enjoyed watching the staff playing their music instruments and singing Happy Birthday and handing out cake to appropriate recipients. 

The food was delicious and we were VERY VERY hungry!!

In the afternoon we had gone for a stroll… I was wearing my best tropical frock…NOT good for what did not turn out to be a gentle stroll.

Pete wanted to go across the island to the southernmost beach.  The path was not all that clearly defined…and it went UP and d-o-w-n… Every now and then he would ask me to wait while he scouted ahead.  I did NOT like being left alone in the jungle… It is all very benign; nothing fierce or bitey, except maybe some bigger versions of our BoatPython.  But…what would I do if he didn’t come back???  If he was along the track in the firm embrace of a giant python???  He did, of course, come back but I found it just a teensy bit stressful…

COME BACK PETE!!!  (He did…thank God…)

We found a blue thong along the way

and another one on the beach, when we FINALLY got there.

What is it with blue thongs??  My theory, keenly developed while waiting for Pete in the jungle, is that NO people do not prefer blue thongs.  They like every colour available.  But - blue thongs survive longer!  Disprove my theory if you can…

So…this morning we had our visitors, all delightful, from Switzerland and Germany

and from Papua!

They had said they would come, in a PefBoat, at 10am.  So…we were eating our scrambled eggs at 9.15 and I heard brrmbrrm outside the boat.  Our friends were here!  I darted out, swallowing my toast and eggs frantically, and said oh golly oh goodness we thought you were coming at 10 – but WELCOME.  Come aboard!  They are very nice, polite people and they realised I wasn’t quite prepared…and they said they would go away and come back. 

BUT, said dear Caroline, kindly,

did we know that Pef time is an hour different to Sorong time???  Well no…we hardly know what day it is… And that explains a lot…for example, we knew that dinner at the resort was at 7.30 and we thought we were very early, at 6.50.  We were surprised to find everyone already tucking into their soup…AHA!!

Pef chess at sunset

So…we were sad to leave beautiful Pef.  We found an anchorage, very sheltered and mangrove-y, off Yangello Isalnd.  I am a bit freaked, swimming in mangroves.  Not sure why… They are beautiful, a wonderful ecosystem, but I never feel comfortable in the dark water surrounding them.  So…I waited until I got TOO HOT, and then went for a bit of a swim along the slightly murky reef, with a small school of teenage barracuda following along brightly.  Nup.  No fun…I went back to the boat and started a new scrub of the hulls.  The boat is once again bedecked with barnacles, and also with luxuriant growth – green red, yellow!  Below the water line 2XS looks as if it is fancy dress party time – how about a catamaran disguised as – a colorful yak!!

Pulau Yangello anchorage

I went up and down each hull twice, then threw in my scrubbing utensils and did an intense one kilometre swim around and around the boat.  Very satisfying!  Surely I must be getting fitter?

Monday 20^th July

00 degrees 34.080S

130 degrees 31.1216E

Pulau Arborek - jetty

This morning we made a short trip from our mangrove anchorage to a very lively little island – Pulau Arborek.  We tied up to the jetty and Pete made some new friends – Ludwig and Gita.

I, not surprisingly, went straight into the clear blue water.  SO beautiful – the biggest giant clams I have ever seen!  Ludwig told me, when I got back to the boat, that they are 2 metres long…That is BIG!!  

(Thanks Google for the images…and the info…47 inches is the maximum size recorded for a giant clam…)

So along the reef I went, seeing a few more clams – just as big, just as impressive – some fish, some coral…Hmmm…everything was going very fast.  Including me!!  Time to stop and re-evaluate…But it was almost impossible to stop; I was caught in a very strong fierce current.  It wasn’t very deep at all; I could stand up.  But I couldn’t walk in the water, it was much too strong.  And swimming against it was just so difficult…

No panic…There are lots of little dive boats here, and one of them would have come to get me if I had waved at them in a drowning sort of manner.  But I did NOT enjoy having to struggle…I swam parallel to the current, in very shallow water, and finally made it back to a calmer area.  Exhausted!

BirthdayBoy – Chris Harmsen!

18th July - Friwin - Gam - Pef

Saturday 18^th July 2015

00 degrees 30.523S

130 degrees 33.647E

Pulau Gam

11metres depth

OK but…not as lovely as Friwin!

We spent last night at an anchorage in a big bay on Gam Island.  This had come highly recommended by two boats but…we didn’t love it as we loved Friwin, or Birie.  I went for a swim and saw lots of fish and bits of coral.  But at Friwin that morning I had seen FOUR turtles…and abundant beautiful coral…

Pete’s festery sore is much better; not long now and he will be in the water!

00 degrees 26.583S

130 degrees 26.624E

Pulau Pef

Raja4Divers resort

Mooring

And now we are back at beautiful Pulau Pef, cosily ensconced on a solid mooring in a sheltered place behind the resort.

Our first Papuan monitor lizard

There are native ducks under the restaurant jetty.  They are very beautiful but not very popular with resort staff – POO everywhere!

The sculptures look quite different at low tide.  But still – delightful!