08:26.7S 119:34.3E Kupang - Komodo
Babe!
Paul & Trish Ducker
Mon 30 Sep 2013 05:34
We left Kupang with slightly sore heads and sailed with Spent and Wolfhound
for the night to stop in a bay at the North of Adunara Island to the west of
flores, called Sagu Bay. As soon as we got there we were greeted by local
kids in dug-outs asking for stuff. Fortunately we’d picked up a load of
animal stickers in Darwin, so thought we have satisfied them, only to
realise next day that one of the cheeky buggers had reached in through the
forward heads port window and lifted Nelius’s toiletry bag, by which time no
kids around!
Had a great evening celebrating Sue’s 60th birthday on the back of Babe with
Wolfhound and of course a couple of bottles of bubbly and so another sore
head morning, for which we set sail flipping early along the top of Flores
in pursuit of Proteus, Sulana and Serendipity, who had stayed the night on a
reef a little further to the West. As it got to the afternoon decided to
join Sulana and Serendipity who had anchored in a bay for the afternoon so
we joined them for a few hours and early evening drinks – not good as when
we left was starting to get dark and surrounded by fishing boats with little
regard for the international rules at sea with one of them apparently
determined to cut us up - 100m is too close!
Eventually we got to Labuan Bajo at the Eastern end of Flores, which [Kady]
‘was a little town with the worst smelling fish market in the world!’
...busy commercial port with many local boats in the tight anchorage area
and shallow water when approaching from the South - Purusia had a touch on
a reef, although we thought they were just changing direction to get into a
anchoring spot, so speeded up to get past to loud shouts of STOP – which we
did just in time!
Good evening though – according to lonely planet guide a great Italian, so
circa 8 of us headed on land to track it down. After a good walk up the high
street (in the loosest sense of the word), eventually came across an Italian
restaurant, went in but nothing special – next day walking around the
restaurant we were actually after was only another 50m up the road and
looked SOOO much better, ar well.
After the meal asked if there was a club around – “yep, about 2-3km away” –
how do we get a taxi” – “there aren’t any taxi’s you have to flag down a
scooter going up the road and ask them to take you there” so we declined and
back to the boat. Had a good walk around the town the following day and
again impressed with Indonesia and the locals who always greet with a smile.
So got some fresh veg from the local market (next to the fish market, hence
no Kady) and discovered an open air internet café (photo) and a much better
chill out café a little further up the road with bean bags and a great view
of the sea - cool. After that back to the boat for the next port of call
down to Rinca to see the Komodo Dragons.
Only a few hours sail in beautiful waters around a number of equally
beautiful islands to a narrow bay on the North of Rinca, joining a number of
other Oysters there. We decided to do Rinca instead of the Komodo Island as
apparently with limited time you can see more Komodo dragons than on Komodo
and also see deer, monkeys and buffalo. Only issue was that the tour was a
6:30am start, so a quiet (er relatively, well almost) night. So on the
Island decided to do the long (2-3hr) walk and after paying our fee’s 2
guides took the circa 20 of us on a good walk around the island – only 50m
into the walk and we came across our first couple of Komodo dragons, about
2-3m long and built like they were on steroids – apparently the last person
killed by one of these was only a few years back, hence guides carry a
forked stick, but apparently they can still run fast. During the walk we
came across a buffalo drinking in a pond which had been bitten by one a
couple of days back on its hind leg - the ranger was saying he would be dead
within a day or two as he could no longer run away! A great way to spend the
morning, with super views over the bay.
So after lunch we decided to set sail again for what was reputed as an
amazing anchorage on a small Island (Gili Lawa Laut) to the North of Komodo.
Decided to try to get through the small gap between the island rather than
going the extra 2-3 miles round the East side – took a bit of eyeballing
with Nelius on the foredeck picking out the shallows and reefs, but
eventually made it safe and sound and was already looking spectacular.
20mins later and arrived at the anchorage, which was like was told, amazing,
clear turquoise water, coral reefs and white sand. Crazy Daisy crew jumped
in and swam & paddle boarded over to us for a beer, before we all did a swim
crawl (1 beer per yacht) around a couple of the other Oysters – and the
amazing thing we even managed to get Kady into the sea for a swim, and even
snorkelling for about 2 minutes until she saw a fish! Originally only
planned a short visit, but decided to stay for the night and another social
evening.
Again blown away by Indonesia, just gets better…..
Only a few photo’s as up-loading from yacht:
a) Cheeky kids in Sagu bay
b) Busy anchorage in Lubuan Bajo
c) Not quite the Italian job
d) Open ait Internet
e) Buffalo don't live long on Rinca
f) Komodo dragons - these are about 2-3m long
g) View from high on Rinca
h) beautiful bay on north of Komodo Island
