8th - 10th February 2012
Arriving late afternoon we decided to leave the much needed wash until later and have a little look around the little town. We made our way through to the small harbour, past boys playing football near the road and along a road flanked either side by towering coconut palms, impossibly beautiful.
We passed by wooden houses on stilts owned by the local Muslim community whose primary income is from fishing, small children, washed and in their pyjamas played in the street while the mums sat and chatted to each other or on the phone. We found a couple of boatmen and arranged ourselves a well priced boat ride for the following day and then settled down to wait for an hour and a half to watch the flying foxes come further inland for dinner. While we sat and waited the kids slowly gathered round and started chatting, they loved having their photos taken and one asked me to take a photo of 'Kamping' after quite a while a guy translated this request as a photo of goats, I obliged and it made her very happy. We left the cute kids behind, by now quite over excited and not at all ready for bed, and went for a good fish dinner.
We were up super early the next day and after some sweet bread and a coffee for breakfast we walked back down to the jetty, past the houses on stilts which were bathed in the morning light and down to our boat for the day. The morning was amazing, nothing but blue skies and the deserted twenty one islands of the 17 Island National Marine Park to explore.
We stopped off shore at the first island and jumped straight into the water for some early morning snorkelling, at 7.30am the sun was just beginning to illuminate the coral and the rays of light hit the surface of the sand and corals making rainbows underwater. It was beautiful but too dark to take any photos, there were also a few tiny jellyfish in the water and they gave us little electric shocks, not pleasant but not unbearable. Back on the boat we slowly, and loudly, made our way to the next island, Pulau Tiga (Island Three) for more snorkelling.
The sun was a little higher up and the visibility was much better. The corals were beautiful, spread out with patches of brilliant white sand between, further in huge swathes of blue, orange and green corals formed a road which we followed. It was easily the best snorkelling we'd ever done, the amount of coral, all of it in pristine condition and close to the surface, was slightly overwhelming. We came up several times to reconfirm just how awesome it was and then continued along the coral road. Just before we got out of the water we saw a group of five fish, shaped like stretched out triangles moving languidly in the water, it was very exciting; beautiful fish we'd never seen before. We followed them for a while and took lots of photos before they got annoyed and swam off.
We swam to shore and sat in the shade of a tree on the beach and ate several packets of the stale snacks we'd bought the day before, some of them were pretty rancid actually but we were hungry and that's what we ate, in-between mouthfuls of chilli flavoured corn snacks, marvelling at the beauty of the sea and how we were the only ones there.
I had a little walk up the beach making it quick to keep out of the sun as much as possible but not quite believing my luck at being in the centre of such gorgeousness at the same time. We only saw one side of Pulau Tiga but it was enough; the light reflected off the water and the shallow sand underneath, Flores was in the background and blue skies with white puffy clouds overhead. After our snacks and some more photos of us in the water we made our way back to the boat which was moored just off shore, climbed aboard and in a few minuted we were pulling up at the next island for more snorkelling. Just for a change you know.
The coral wasn't quite as good and we swam along in the direction our skipper pointed us in wondering when we'd get to the good stuff, either it wasn't there or we missed it. Actually it was still really beautiful, lots of little black and white coral fish never straying too far from home, floating like a zebra inspired cloud above heads of coral and disappearing like a flash whenever we swam overhead. It also seemed to be home to all the sea urchins in the water, there were small field of them waving their pointy poisoned black spikes in the water, one set was shaped almost like a question so while I hovered overhead Djalma dived down to complete the symbol. There were plenty of the annoying little jellyfish floating about and after twenty minutes of so we headed to shore and walked back along the beach.
Feeling a bit cold from all the time in the water we decided to walk along the beach a little to dry out. The beach curved round and ended in stones and a small mangrove we stopped and enjoyed the view before heading back, less than half an hour in total but we were already hot and sweating underneath all the repeatedly applied sun cream. We jumped in the water to cool off and then got back on the boat to head to the second to last stop.
I can't remember the name but there was a small hill people could climb and enjoy a view out over some of the islands. Our skipper dropped us off and waited for us in the little bay while we walked round the beach and climbed up. I cannot begin to describe the heat, we were soooo hot and we had plenty of beach to walk along before we could climb up. There were lots of small sea biscuits (a direct translation from Portuguese, I don't know what they're called in English) and the empty cases of sea urchins, I gather the better ones and made a smiley face, quicker than a sandcastle.
We finally found a point to head up but it was overgrown with thorny bushes, despite getting caught up in the plants several times we made it up and stood under a tree trying to make the most of the breeze and stay out of the sun. The views were lovely, the water was a beautiful sapphire blue with strips of clear turquoise where there was white sand underneath. After a breather we climbed back down a much shorter and easier route getting back on the boat to go to the mangroves and see the flying foxes in their home.
The previous day we had decided against this because all the islands we visited were next to each and one one side of the harbour and the headland where the bats slept during the day was on the other side and a good forty minute boat ride away. We negotiated a trip to bats for an extra 50,000 and set off, feeling more and more tired the further we went. Fortunately for us we didn't have to do anything, no more climbing out and walking along beaches, no more swimming – it was only 2pm and already we were ready for bed – we just sat in the boat until we got there.
So, three quarters of an hour later, we pulled up at the edge of a huge long mangrove and stood at the front edge of the boat and took photos of the bats that were roused from their sleep from the all the noise the Captain was making. He stood at the edge of the boat smacking an oar onto the water and making a loud high pitched noise that had plenty of the hundreds if not thousands of bats that lines the bare branches of the Mangrove trees. The sight was impressive, the big furry bodies soared through the air making their own noise while they found a new place to rest.
It was only a few minutes back to the pier and we paid the rest of the money, staggered back to our room to wash off the salt and then had another fish dinner at the same restaurant. Djalma lasted until 7.30 until he slept and I hung on for another hour, working on our many photos from the day out. We slept all through the night like babies and were up again at 5am feeling refreshed and raring to go. We had a rushed breakfast of coffee and cowboy biscuits while we waited for the bus to come and collect us and then we were on the road, another beautiful day unfolding.
The bus ride was only four hours long and was incredibly beautiful, Flores is a rugged mountainous island and is utterly gorgeous. The road we followed wound up and down and round and round, each corner revealed deep valleys covered with palms, ferns and trees of every imaginable variety (or so it seemed) we sat and watched the view through the open door of our bus while it slowly made it's way to Bajawa. We pulled up in town and in the scorching mid morning sun set out to find a room for the night. After much debate we settled on a place and with Djalma feeling little poorly we stayed in our room, drinking tea and watching Dexter. After four episodes we went out for dinner and then headed back for another four episodes of Dexter. Yes, we were slightly addicted.
After a little wait our bus to Labuanbajo picked us up from our hotel and then went and sat on the edge of town for almost an hour, I think it's fair to say I was royally pissed off and couldn't wait to hit the road, especially because we'd had to get up so early for the bus in the first place. We stopped midday for lunch and in the evening we pulled up in town. A mere eleven hour bus ride and we were finally at our end destination in Flores. Tired and grumpy we looked round, got ourselves a mosquito haven with a bed and went out for dinner.
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