More Togeans S00 24 462 E122 06 389
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The
capital Wakai is a small but busy centre for the Togeans. We stopped long enough
to buy some diesel and go to the local market. There was a good choice of fresh
fruit & veg and some rather too fresh meat. Thankfully we just arrived too
late to witness the demise of a handsome cow but not too soon to see it being
roughly disembowelled and butchered...
right beside the fresh fish counter! When we went back later to buy fish
we had to avoid the stare of the mournful eyes looking at us from its
disembodied head.
We pressed on and found this idyllic anchorage beside some more waterside real estate. The whole bay was full of small islands like this one, some of which we circumnavigated. The water was so clear that one hardly needed to snorkel; the corals are gorgeous with beche de mer and exotic starfish all around.
We spent a peaceful night here and then moved on to another mini resort where we again had a meal ashore with 6 Swiss, Danish and German tourists, all divers. This resort was even simpler than the previous one we had stopped at but was better than it looks!
En route to this anchorage we managed to get inside a very tricky atoll which looked as if it might have some good reef. This was up the mast eyeball navigation, difficult as the water is so clear here the coral heads look higher than they are, good for pumping adrenalin. We tried to anchor but couldn’t get a hold in the rubbly coral sand, however, a quick snorkel from the boat still adrift made us soon realise that like so many places in Indonesia the locals have been all too efficient at catching most of the fish life above a few inches long. As well as atolls, the waters here are full of tiny coral islands which look very like features from some of the rock gardens we saw in China earlier this year.
Next day we retraced our steps to Wakai to take an interesting narrow passage between the 2 biggest islands and passed this pleasant village. The channel was more like a river except that coral reef had to be negotiated instead of muddy shallows.
Our final stop was a large remote bay on the south side of the islands with a small seemingly abandoned village near its mouth. The bay was beautiful with a reef which covered half the area creating fabulous golds, turquoise and iridescent greens and made more interesting by the few buildings. Sadly again once underwater the reef was a disappointment, here there was not only a lack of fish but also areas of damaged coral. Although we did not witness it ourselves we were told that using explosives and cyanide on the reef still takes place. It is a crying shame as tourism could be a real money spinner for such a beautiful place… but not if the underwater world becomes too damaged.
Throughout Sulawesi canoes are still used extensively often like this one, cut from a single tree trunk, sometimes with plank sides to increase their freeboard. This one was quite small but had a very nice streamlined shape to it. We wondered how old it was.
Heaped here and there are the neat piles of sand waste created by the coconut crabs when digging their holes. Unfortunately we have to push on if we are to be round to Batam just below Singapore to meet Hattie and Peter on 9th December which we are so looking forward to. There just isn’t enough time even though we would seem to have heaps of it. |
