Blog 40. Debut. 7 July

Alcedo
David Batten
Sat 27 Jul 2019 21:53
We have now been in Debut for just over a week and it is almost impossible to describe the way we have been welcomed. We had traditional dancing to which we were invited to join. Very good for the co-ordination and gave much entertainment to the locals. The local women had cooked traditional foods for us to buy, the average dish costing 25,000rp or approx £2.00. They eat mostly rice, cassava, paw paw, fruit and flowers, fish, sweet potato and green vegetables such as long thin beans. We have seen tomatoes and of course, bananas of every description in the market and cassava comes in all sorts of shapes and disguises, mostly pretty dry and tasteless. Garlic, spices and coconut add flavour and chillies are added to most dishes.

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Typical stand in the market in Langurr. The rectangular packets are soya

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Village dancing the first evening when they just practising.

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We do our best to copy them.

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The children lining up for another practice the following day, with the anchorage at Debut in the background

We have had 3 days of informal, locally organised events and managed to hire a driver and a guide, Susan for a day for a visit to the local springs, caves, market, ATM and beaches.

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The beach at Ngurbloat, apparently the second most beautiful beach in the world. It has fine white sand for miles and is a hot spot for the locals at the weekend as well as tourists.
We did a beach clean up there as one of the organised events and managed a pretty good pile of rubbish, even though it had been cleaned 3 or 4 days before. The Ministry of Tourism has started to tackle the litter problem, but like the UK, they have a huge task on their hands.

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We are not sure if this sea eagle was tied to the bike, we think not.

So many things to photograph, too many to send in one blog, so further details and photos to come. We are exhausted! Some of the boats have left this morning to go to Banda, but we need a day to get ourselves organised as well as a trip to the market and another ATM.

Alcedo



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