Re: 08.41S 115.18E
JENNY
Alan Franklin/ Lynne Gane
Sun 26 Oct 2008 08:22
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Hi everyone. Alan here.
We had an uneventful trip from Kupang
and arrived at Rindja at dawn. Rindja is a small island with this an
isolated anchorage amongst the hills where we caught up with some of
the other rally boats that had left the day before us. Rindja is
part of the Komodo national park so we were lucky to see dragons, wild
pigs, deer and monkeys running around on the foreshore - needless to say they
disappeared quite rapidly as soon as we beached our dinghy! We did
however manage to take a few photos. The scenery was wonderful and the
snorkling on unspoilt coral was quite amazing, so many colours and fish in
abundance. The sun went down too soon, and after a BBQ on Kaimin we passed
the night snug in the anchorage.
The next morning we decided to move on to the
Kimodo National Park on Kimodo Island itself. In company with Kaimin and Big
Blue we had a pretty good sail to the anchorage only a few hours sail away. The
anchorage was pretty again with a lovely view of the
mountains. The bay was a little rolly, being open to the
prevailing winds, but good holding so we passed a quiet night. We were soon
visited by the officials, made welcome (with the extraction of a few
more Rupiah) and were able to arrange a guided tour there, and a visit to the
nearby village.
It was hot, even at 0730 in the morning but the
tour was good, if tiring, and we got to see many more dragons and the same
animals as on Rindja, but a little less shy!! 3 hours later we were
on a local boat for the transfer to the village a few miles away.
The village was very poor, fishing being the main
occupation, other than the very few working for the National Park. It
is hard, the way they live, living in wooden huts, one or two rooms, no
electricity, running water or anything else! A lot of unemployment among
the men, however the women worked hard, fetching the water and washing
clothes at the well. Despite this everyone seemed happy and we were
mobbed by kids, either selling carvings or pearls, but mostly just wanting
to have their pictures taken, and almost knocking you over to see themselves
on the camera screens! We also visited the school and gave some
writing materials to them, and a donation towards their books - In Indonesia
there is a state system of education for schools but parents still have to
pay - some are so poor that their kids can't attend the school!
We left Kimodo late for an overnight passage to
Bema in Sumbawa. The passage north between the islands was difficult with
strong tides and eddies hindering you, at one time we had a boat speed of 6knots
but only 0.9knots over the ground. This went on for several hours, occasionally
the boat would veer violently off course as we hit small whirlpools, but
eventually we got through and had a lovely night sail to
Bema This is the "capital town" of Sumbawa and a working harbour -
packed with ships on the rickety wharves. It did not look particularly
inviting as we anchored, but "Johnny" came out to us, to greet us and offer his
assistance with anchoring, the authorities, and anything else we needed.
We tend to find there's always a "Johnny" in Indonesian ports!
We all ventured in and spent an hour on paperwork
(for what we don't know!) with the harbourmaster. Its scorching so we used
the "Ben Hurs", little horse drawn chariots, to take us al to the supermarket,
(and the one ATM machine!) A quick tour of the open
traditional market left our nostrils struggling, and it was much dirtier
and dilapidated than any market we've ever seen. The town itself was in a
poor state, giant holes in the pavements, rubble and rubbish in abundance
"Johnny" accompanied us everywhere - we ate lunch
in a local restaurant (with a little trepidation) but it was really quite good -
and the bill for 9 of us was about £10!!.
We felt we'd done justice to Bema, we
were glad that we made the visit to see how "the other half"
live, There was nothing more to see, or want to stay for, so left after 5
hours for Medang, having got some more diesel! We seem to use the motor a
lot - the winds in Indonesia are frustrating 20 knots one minute, nothing the
next, then back again from a different direction, - or nothing all
day!
Medang was a lovely island - uninhabited except for
visiting fishermen - mangroves, white beaches and palm trees. Not
really anything to explore but we rested, and did venture ashore for a
while. We left later that day saying goodbye to Kaimin and Big Blue, as we
had an appointment in Bali to keep.
We next stopped at Gili Air, one of 3 delightful
islands on the NW tip of Lombok. We crept in at daybreak to the moorings
50 metres off the beach avoiding the shallow reef that follows the coast.
Charts are rather poor here, and the chart plotter does not carry much
detail, so traditional methods come to the fore in Indonesia - the eyeball
and compass bearings being best. Gili Air was a delight - how Bali
used to be before the tourist hotels and other developments changed the
landscape. Gili Air was unspoilt and the people were charming, We
relaxed there and had an occasional meal on the beach platforms - big
pillows and a low table 3 feet above the hot sand. We relaxed swimming and
diving for 2 days - leaving early the third day fro the short trip to the
island of Lembongan for the night, and then on to Bali Marina.
Peter has now joined us again and we are now
exploring Bali!!
That's all from me for now!
Peter, Jenny, Alan, Ellie and Chris
Alan,
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