Wanci and Flores 4 August –
27th August 2016
From Banda Neira we sailed directly to Wanci on Wangi-Wangi missing
out Namrole which should have been our next stop. The three day sail was again
a little rough but at least we had no more rain after we had just managed to
dry out the boat from the last deluge. We arrived at 10am in the morning.
Wanci 7 August -10
August
Wanci can be a difficult anchorage to get into and we were
met by the harbourmaster Gino who guided us in. In the evening was our first
welcome ceremony, with speeches in Indonesian without an English translation. They
provided some traditional food and some dancing but it seemed to be a
celebration for something else (not sure what) which we had been tagged on to.
We were still tired after our sail and broken sleep for three days but I did
catch up on some sleep at the ceremony despite my best efforts to keep awake
(and Catherine nudging me every two minutes).
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| Girls awaiting their suitors |
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| Parading round before the start |
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| The Mothers |
While the festival carries on to this day, it has become
more of a day out than a serious attempt at match making since boys and girls
do now mix at schools. Nonetheless, there were about 2000 people attending the
festival with the mothers enjoying the event as much as the girls and boys who
still acted out the ritual. I managed to get engaged five times during the
event, as the girls were very keen to come and offer drinks to me (for a fee it
has to be said) and we were all treated like celebrities with everyone keen to
have their picture taken with us.
The following day I went shopping while Catherine was still
incapacitated on the boat and I took one of the young guides with me. Her
English was very good and she acted as my interpreter, selecting the fruit and
vegetables and agreeing the price. All I had to do was hand over the cash -
easier than shopping with Catherine.
In the evening we had Mike and Sue from Lusi over for drinks
before we all headed to the night market to find something to eat. There was only
café open and only one item on the menu - a chicken broth with an option of
rice wrapped in palm leaves and a hard-boiled egg. We sat with the locals eating
the delicious soup. £2 well spent.
The next day we set off for Hoga, one of the top diving
sites in the world.
Hoga 11 August – 14
August
Hoga was not on the itinerary but is supposed to be one of
the best dive sites in Indonesia if not the world and only 30 miles away from
Wanci. So like many of the other boats we sailed there just to spend one night
and do some snorkelling. We arrived too late to swim that night but the next
morning we took the dinghy round to the main reef. It was probably the best
place we had snorkelled for the variety of fish and coral anywhere we have
been. Huge schools of fish and many that we had never seen before including a large
Lion fish. The water was very warm and clear and there was no way that we could
leave the next day so missed out the next official stop on the rally and spend
the time there.
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| Part of the Scientific Centre |
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| Jetty overlooking the Scientific Centre |
We walked around the scientific centre on the island where
mainly British scientists and marine biologists spend 3 months each year
studying the reef. I can see the attraction for the scientists, an idyllic
island in Indonesia, fantastic diving but not quite why it should be a British
site - when we left England we did not seem to have many coral reefs.
In the evening we had drinks on Soul, one of the large
catamarans in the fleet, and all the 10 boats in the anchorage enjoyed a night
together. This is where Cats are ideal and 20 people on the boat did not seem
crowded. As is customary, each boat takes some food to
share and their own drinks which makes for a good variety. To cap it all, as
the sun set we saw the green flash just as the sun set and it drew a large
cheer from all those on board. A rare event which very few people had seen before
including us.
The next day we arranged for the three remaining boats to go
snorkelling and then to the resort on the island for lunch. With no
guests in the resort we took the kitchen staff by surprise with eight people
for lunch but they turned out a great lunch with noodles and fresh fish. We did
however drink them out of all their beer but then they only had six bottles in
stock.
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| Backdrop to Kroko Island |
We set off the next day to go to Kroko island, another non-official stop but one the pilot guide suggests as a must do. We arrived the
next morning at a very scenic anchorage with towering volcanos providing a
backdrop with isolated sand spit just in front of us.
Kroko Island 15
August – 18 August
The first day it was just us and Max, a 54 foot Amel, and we
joined Herve and Corinne for a coffee in the afternoon after an abortive
attempt to find some good snorkelling. Herve is a born story teller with a
common theme – bru A very
entertaining afternoon.
shes with Customs Officials in various countries. The French
seem to be targeted by Customs since it is assumed they must have lots of wine
on board – which is true of course. |
| Playing Finska |
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| Arriving at the sandspit for the BBQ |
The next day, we were invaded by another 10 rally boats in
the anchorage which the pilot guide suggested had a limit of four boats. All
anchored without any problem and that evening we had a BBQ on the sand spit
together with a game of Finska (a sort of skittles) which by co-incidence we
had played in Belgium with our children a few months earlier. We lined up a
girls vs boys team which has to be said was won by the boys by a wide margin,
mainly by a few lucky throws rather than any skill. After being treated to raft
of songs accompanied by the ukulele and guitar and salad with sausages cooked
on the fire we finally left at midnight to go back to our boats under the full moon. What a great
night.
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| Dacing the night away |
Once we found the right spot for snorkelling it was very
good although you had to put our experiences of Hoga out of mind to appreciate
it. It was such a lovely spot we stayed another night and were invited over to
Wishful Thinking the next day both to celebrate Mike’s birthday and play some
competitive Crib. After Ginny and I had been beaten by Mike and Catherine we
were treated to home-made bread and fried squid for lunch bought from the local
fishermen.
We all met on the sand spit for drinks that evening and with
a certain reluctance left the next morning.
Maumere 20 August –
24 August
On the way to Maumere we stopped at two anchorages -Tanjung
Gedong and Pulau Besar. As is usual we attract a lot of attention from the
locals. As soon as you anchor, or even before, wooden canoes will be paddling
out to your boat to see what you have on offer. They are mainly children and
some will have something to barter even if it is only shells but others just looking
for a gift. At Tanjung Gedong there was a lot of this and our supply of pens
and notebooks (highly prized gifts here) was severely depleted.
We had stopped at Palau Besar, a small island, expecting to
see a small stilted fishing village as is fairly common along the coast.
However a few years ago they had been struck by a tidal wave and most of the
village had been damaged. A new village had been built further inland by the
government and we could see it in the distance. It was a ghost town they had
not taken into account that these people were poor fishermen and it was too far
from the sea. Most villagers had moved back along the coastleaving a ghost town behind them.
Maumere 20 August –
24 August
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| Provisioning in the market |
We arrived at Sea World, a resort 5 miles from the town of Maumere
which hosted the rally for three days. With rumours of a supermarket in the
town, the next day a group of us took taxis to the supermarket and then onto
the local market. It was the best stocked shop we have seen since we arrived in
Indonesia and managed to stock up on a few things but our expectations did not
match the reality – long time since we had seen anything resembling a proper
shop. The market however was better and we managed to buy all the fresh fruit
and vegetables we needed for the next week.
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| Dining on the beach |
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| Local dancers |
The gala dinner and welcome ceremony was very well done with tables laid out on the beach and a buffet of delicious local food. This was
accompanied by traditional music and dancing where once again we were
encouraged to join in. I have never let a lack of rhythm stop me and that night
was no exception but Catherine did well. There was also a parade of traditional
costumes from the different areas around that regency. Stunningly beautiful as
were the girls although I was later told that they were lady boys. Not sure if
I believe that.
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| Cruisers joining in with the dancing |
No idea what day of the week it was but the next day we decided it would be a Sunday – no boat jobs,
no provisioning, cleaning or sorting out the boat. We spent the day on the
boat, relaxing and reading until the evening when Peter and Kim joined us for a
drink - we had last seen them in Port Douglas in Australia awaiting parts for their autopilot and had only just caught up with the rally again. They are great company and it would be the last time we would see them as they are staying in
Flores and leaving their boat there. They will be sailing in Indonesia six
months each year over the next 4 years, spending the rest of their time back in
New Zealand. What a great idea and it set us thinking about how we
could do that – leave the boat in Thailand and spend six months in the UK and
six months back on the boat, maybe completing our circumnavigation in six month
chunks. It has given us something to think about.
Maurole 24 August –
27 August
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| Quite a smart shop |
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| Main street in Maurole |
Maurole is a large village but interesting, mainly small
shops and a traditional market. The following day we took a trip to Kelimutu
National Park where three coloured lakes are formed in the cauldron of a
volcano starting at 6:30am for the three hour drive. We declined the offer to
go with the first group leaving at 4am which was just as well since we had to
re-anchor the boat before we left as the wind had changed.
We drove along roads that were good in places but with big
pot holes and unmade sections which made it slow and very bumpy at times. It
was good to be able to explore the interior of the island and as we got higher
so the rain started. We arrived at entrance to the National Park at 9am and it looked like the rain had set in
for the day and we could not walk the final 800m up to see the lakes. However
the group of 20 of us decided we had come this far and we would take the risk
that it might clear and by the time we set off on the walk, the cloud had lifted
and we had sunshine.
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| Two of the lakes |
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| One of the more inquisitive monkeys |
The lakes are supposed to change colour, depending on the
amount of oxygen in the water but all we saw was two lakes with green water
with some steam rising out from the heat of the volcano and the other darker
blue lake. Unfortunately not the red lake that was in all the literature. Pretty
enough and we also saw our first close up monkeys who showed little interest in
us as we walked past. Just before we started back down along the track, the
clouds once again descended, obliterating the view and it rained all the way
down. We were in high spirits since the
journey had not been wasted and we stopped on the route back for lunch in a
restaurant nestled among the hills.
We arrived back at 5:30, exhausted after our day of travels
and I had to change the gas bottle to the one I had bought in Australia to make
some tea– in theory all I had to do was changed the connecting lead since the
new bottle had a different fitting - a two minute job. Two hours later we still
did not have any gas after I had fixed two of the three gas leaks in the new
hose accompanied by a lot of bad language. It was late by this time and I gave up, too
tired to do anymore or go to the final gala dinner. So with no gas we had
cheese and biscuits for dinner.
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| Final provisoning in the market |
Refreshed in the morning I remade the final connection with
the aid of a jubilee clip and it sealed. By this time the anchorage was
becoming a little rolly, just like its name, and the next morning many boats
upped anchor at dawn as it definitely had become “Maurole”.
All that was left for us was to go ashore to the market for
a small amount of provisioning and we were off to Riung
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