Sunday 29^th September  2013, Lauban Bajo,  Flores  South Indonesia   8 29.0S  119 51.7E  

Today's Blog by David (Time zone BST +7.00; UTC +8.0)

We had an uneventful passage from Kupang, Java through the Komodo Islands and round to Lauban Bajo, Flores. Our purpose in visiting was to arrange a dive trip in waters which are reputed to be excellent.

There was not really a Port at Kupang – or if there was it was not where we landed to meet customs, immigration etc..  However, Lauban Bajo very definitely is a port and is has dockside, a Harbour Master  a fishing fleet and a large number of boats directed toward tourism.   It was full of strange ships:

As far as I can determine, these are aimed largely at the tourist trade. Fishing is conducted from vessels such as these:

We anchored and headed into the Port for our first  unchaperoned interaction with officialdom, seeking out the Harbour Master to report our arrival.  Again we went armed with several copies of every document that we could imagine might of  interest to him – and with some trepidation since we had been briefed in Darwin to expect much hassle.  To be fair, once I had, eventually, communicated, that:

i)                    I was the master of a pleasure yacht

ii)                   We had anchored off the town, away from shipping etc.

iii)                 We planned to stay two or three days in a journey in which we were sailing around the world

the Harbour Master seemed close to astonished that I had sought him out.  We shook hands, a ‘high five’ or two’ all smiles and encouragement. “Have the free run of the port, old boy!” kind of thing.

We then  walked down the harbour front which had recently been “prettied up” with plants recently planted everywhere but which hadn’t been watered and had died.  A cynic would surmise that there was some grant money or other involved, probably to enhance tourism, spent and wasted.    One street back from the harbour front we found the main street.  To our dismay this comprised primarily, dive shops, tour operators, restaurants and accommodation with a few ‘normal’ shops thrown in. This is a full on tourist town.

Having booked our dive,  we need to seek out  Onions. We established that there is a vegetable market  next to the Fish Market. We surveyed it carefully:

If you think I look a little pinched up here, it had nothing to with the survey of vegetables.  It was a reaction to the olfactory onslaught from the fish market next door. …with the concomitant pervasive swarm of flies!

It was very windy. We had been soaked trying to get to the Harbour so, as we returned to the boat, we agreed we had no interest in repeating the experience by going ashore for dinner. Once on board, we upped anchor and moved to a far more sheltered spot for dinner and to stay overnight.

Yesterday, we were picked up from the boat and ferried to join the dive boat for a two + hour trip to the dive site. Terry came along for the ride and also to do some snorkelling.   

The visibility was excellent – among the best conditions we have dived in -  and we found some new species:  A Bat fish of some kind and something I can’t quite put a finger on hanging on to a reef with a hook:

Lots of fish,  including a Frog Fish - which the Dive Master was really impressed with seeing – and which I didn’t photograph mainly because when he pointed it out – about two feet from my nose - I couldn’t see it!!  The odd shark and turtle – no manta rays – Chiz Chiz.

All Good here….!