Friday 25^th January

A quick few days at Tobelo on the island of Halmahera has been fruitful and colourful. We are refuelled and stocked with food. I always love going to the market for its colour and interesting produce even if the girls aren’t so keen. They get lots of cheek pinching and face rubbing which they find a little overwhelming. My requests to smile and wave are wearing a little thin! Today Willow was rushed at by a man offering her two live chooks hanging upside down! On her way past again, she preferred taking on an oncoming truck rather than get too close again!! The market is fun choosing from all the fresh produce like extra-long beans, lots of mysterious green leaves, yellow succulent papaya, glossy eggplant, crunchy prized apples, tart limes and trays of much loved eggs. Always interesting working out the exchange rate of 10 cents, being 1000 rupee. Gets rather difficult when it gets in the thousands and wondering if you are being ripped off!

I never knew the amazing qualities of the humble egg until we ran out. Pancakes, cakes, bacon and eggs, in fried rice and noodles! How lost we are without them!! We have all enjoyed having fresh produce again after ‘creative cooking’ from tins, lentil concoctions and plenty of surprise peas for a week or so. We have liked having fresh fruit salad and stir fry vegetables on the menu again! Our Australian supplies are finally getting lower so we will be pleased to resupply again in Malaysia when we get to Borneo in a few weeks.

The buzz of took tooks and motorbikes compete with the loud music blaring from shops and the Muslim call for prayer numerous times a day. The building site where buckets of cement were passed up steps by a line of men to the second floor and then thrown down again on a string was a little different from Australian building standards. Sheds like shops sell clothes, repair motor bikes, fill water bottles and hardware all next to each other. Bakeries bake all sorts of unidentified treats. Clothes are put to dry on every available fence or rail. Everyone is smiling and happy to see the ‘Orangs’ as we are know! A ride in a took took, with the motor bike behind, gave us a good look around the streets, relatively clean compared to those we have seen in other cities!

Tuesday 29th January

Australia Day was spent by a small island called Zum Zum Island 02:07.633N 128:13.833E), where the American general, Mac Arthur had his headquarters during World War Two for some time. They obviously held him in high regard after the Allies chased the Japanese out, as there was a huge monument, globe, picnic shelters and welcoming sign. Otherwise, it was unfinished paths and overgrown greenery. We were unsure whether it had been let go or unfinished!! Lovely shells and interesting trees with flowers and seed pods on the beach kept the girls happy as we had a browse around.

 Teddy bears picnic afternoon tea and drinks with Gary and Bev from Muscat, while the girls sang ‘Advance Australia Fair’, got us into the patriotic spirit. Bev kindly brought her teddies with her and the girls feasted on everything they had cooked earlier with their soft toys.

The islands around Morotai, where we have spent the last few days, have been a delightful surprise. It was amazing snorkelling with a real diversity of coral and other species. Coral clams snapped shut with the water pressure of us snorkelling by, brittle stars wound around the branch coral waving their legs to feed on plankton, giant clams’ lips were in an astounding range of colours from iridescent blue to browns and greens and a lobster was hiding under a ledge of hard coral. The girls and I enjoyed looking at all the patterns of the soft corals tentacles and looking for shells on the sandy floor. Masses of little fish, but nothing very big as the locals net the area, jumping in to scare the fish into the net. We were offered Butterflyfish and Angelfish when they came up to Nalukai. Very sad to see the food chain abruptly halted by humans.

Lovely sandy beaches were lined by huge Sea Almond trees losing their large, red leaves, spiky Pandanus, coconut and banana palms and other lovely glossy leafed, shady trees. Collecting shells and periwinkles and playing mermaids kept the girls happy while I loved a good walk and Jeremy chatted to some locals who were very keen to practise their English. They climbed a coconut tree to collect us some and the boys helped the girls dig the sand for the periwinkles. It was pleasant to talk to some locals as we haven’t had much contact with them in Indonesia, maybe due to being less needy than the Papua New Guineans or the language barrier. Not many learn English and our Indonesian only extends to a few words of greetings! A pearl farm employed locals and there was a huge infrastructure of aquaculture sheds which used to be a Grouper farm for the Asian market. Unfortunately the local government wanted a cut of profits which the owners didn’t want to provide, so the Police came and set fire to generators, shot the place up and closed to down. Very sad to see an example of corruption in the government and a society quite used to bribery.

For school, I particularly, have been enjoying learning about marine life classification, the food chain and making a game called ‘Reef Exploration’ to further increase our knowledge of oceanography. Making cards with coral patterns and writing explanations about symbiotic relationships on the reef, is putting all our snorkelling to good use. Watching the phosphoresce gleam in the calm water, fireflies flash their tails in the darkness and gazing at the stars before the nearly full moon rose, is one of the delights of being away from town lights and a good extra-curricula activity!