At the southern reaches of the Riau archipelago arriving from Belitung are the Lingga Islands. They are little visited due to limited local transportation and therefore a traditional lifestyle, mainly of fishing, persists. The equator goes through the northern tip of Lingga, the name of the main island. We stopped at Pulau Penoh, a small island off Lingga where we had heard there was a restaurant.

We met the physics teacher from the elementary school; he spoke English and enjoyed chatting so we had lunch with him whilst the skies opened and rain didn’t just fall, it lashed down until the sea was bubbling. Our companion was from Jakarta like many of the people we meet. Thousands of people have been relocated from Java to other parts of Indonesia as part of the government’s trans-migration policy, others migrate out of choice or for work.

Here children from neighbouring islands travel over to go to middle school, they wait with great patience for ferries which take them home well after school has finished. 

A peaceful night was spent after the rainstorm and when we were leaving P. Penoh next morning an interesting  phenomenon appeared behind the village. We wondered what it would be like to be at the base of one of these waterspouts but have no intention of finding out!

The Equator

As the day went on it grew appropriately hotter as we neared the equator.

A Toast to Neptune

And each other