Waecicu Beach Inn Labuan Bago, Flores day 2

Spent a relaxing day at Waecicu bird watching, snorkelling, reading and playing cards and jumping off the very rickety pier! We are the only guests staying at this hotel which is a little out of town and very chilled. 

The male sunbird

Silver eyes

Male sun birds fighting

I haven't yet identified this similar but more colourful bird

The staff have limited English which causes some confusion at times. One of the women seems to have things under control and keeps the male staff in check, yelling orders to them but if she's not around some of the male staff have a look of absolute panic as they attempt to understand our attempts at communication. Even our limited Bahasia Indonesia does not seem to help a great deal as in Flores there are many languages and dialects. Breakfast seems to be a bit of a lottery what you get bearing little correlation to what was ordered. 

The Dave's snorkelled across to the monkey island with Will and Jasper. Not a scratch on the National Park snorkelling but enough variety of fish to make it interesting. 

Like father, like son, bombing off the jetty!

The ladies who worked at the 'resort' were thoroughly enjoying our repeated attempts at getting this shot right. In the end I jumped into a moored dinghy to get the shot.

Waecicu beach Inn, Labuan Bajo, Flores

Whilst this place has a nice undeveloped and relaxed vibe and is trying hard it with a few changes it could be really great.  Like mossie nets over the beds; doors that open and close properly; clean up the rat droppings from the shelving in my room; hammocks (which the photo on Agoda showed); kayaks (also on Agoda) and free transits into town. They kind of have you over a barrel as its too far to walk into town and they wanted to charge us 250.000 (approximately $25) for the 15min drive into town - Yikes! Aussie taxi prices!  

Sera and I managed to negotiate a price of 150.000Rp still steep) and made the most of it, getting the driver to wait whilst we hit the Bintang Supermarket to stock up on lunch and snack supplies and water. I've managed to find cans of made up milo ( Hamish thinks it's a strange sensation to shake up a can and crack it open without risking a fizz explosion); he's also decided peanut butter is ok after all (thankfully as its a fall back when he rejects the pancakes, noodles, fried rice, burgers, juice and pretty much everything else except French fries, toast and soft drink!) We then enjoyed two frappes which were sensational and allowed us to use wifi which is severely restricted at Waecicu, I changed some more Aussie $ and bought Will some 'Oakley' sunglasses after some bargaining for 45,000Rp which had already lost one of their brand tags before I got them back to Will. We also found a bakery frequented by Europeans that sold chocolate muffins and some fantastic wholemeal bread that actually tasted like bread rather than the sweet local stuff (one of the few things Hamish likes of local food). 

Did some washing in the bathroom sink with our local laundry soap

Komodo National Park Day 3

A manta ray swims under our boat as I take a quick photo before gearing up in my snorkel, mask and fins to swim with the Mantas. Manta point is a Manta Ray feeding station where the Mantas come to have cleaning fish give them the once over and remove any parasites or bacteria. We saw three Mantas, gliding gracefully through the deep water but none got particularly close and they were small by Manta standards that can grow to up to 7 metres from wing to wing and 1.3 tonnes! That's about the weight of 3 bulls!

The boys relaxing at the front of the boat after snorkelling with the Mantas

The Komodos lounging near the Ranger station on Rinca Island. The Rangers said they don't feed them but that they smell the food. David has his doubts that these particular Komodos ever need to hunt for themselves! The Komodos on Rinca are smaller than the ones on Komodo. They still looked pretty big to me! 

Don't step in the buffalo poo Dave!

Buffaloes are very important to the Rinca people and so they display the skulls on their houses (and everywhere else it seems)

Like Komodo, Rinca Island was really hot,dry and dusty and the Coke we bought at the end as David remarked "never tasted better!"

Long tailed Macaques also habit the island and this one went for a quick swim to recover some watermelon skin dropped from one of the boats. There are crocodiles in the water so they don't stay in the water too long

Sunset shots whilst waiting for the bats to leave Kalong Island 

Locals collecting crabs 

Ours wasn't the only boat waiting for to see the bats 

Fandhi said we were lucky as he had never seen the bats on a full moon night

The boys listening to music and watching photos of the trip on the iPad on the journey back to Flores

When we arrived back in Flores the night market was in full swing with lots of fish vendors and food stalls. Our driver had already been waiting for over an hour for us so I only had time to take this shot of the colourful carousel at the end of the peer before getting in our bus.

The family transport, Flores style! They had just hopped off the carousel.

Goodbye Flores

We rose at 6.00am to try to catch the sunrise which we missed by about half an hour. We did however stumble upon a colony of rainbow bee eaters, one of my favourite birds who, I only just discovered as we were walking amongst them (oops!), tunnel nests up to s metre long into the ground. I tried in vain to get some decent shots of them but eventually accepted that I just needed to stop and admire them from afar without attempting to get any photographs. 

The view from the hill overlooking our hotel and beach on the left 

On the way to the airport we stopped at the Toko Bintang (supermarket) to grab some more water as we had run out (as had our 'resort'). Hamish eating a "banana boat" paddle pop that they had seen on local TV ads where the banana flavoured icy pole is covered in a gelatinous 'peel' that you peels away and eat! 

We arrived at Jakarta airport at about 5pm. Taxied on the runway for 15mins passing rows of planes at this massive airport. We then caught the free shuttle to our 'Pop' hotel. Jakarta is like Bali on steroids! I had imagined being such s populated city the road infrastructure may be more developed but not so, just more madness. Our hotel is 500m's from the airport but we seemed to go around in circles following the one way streets for more than 30mins before we finally arrived nearly taking out a family on a motorbike who pulled out in front of us with only the father driver wearing a helmet! 

We appear to be the tourist attractions in this city or the 'paparazzi' as Described by Will! The Indonesian women we shared the shuttle with and men and women at the hotel are taking photos of the Dads and boys both on posing for shots with them and others surupticiously. Hilarious! I took David down to accompany me to reception as the lobby is full of a convention of 50 odd Chinese businessmen who appear to be on a conference or something and who collectively stop talking and all turn and stare as we walked back to the lift. Feeling somewhat conspicuous and glad I'm dressed conservatively! 

The crazy 'pop' hotel rooms. David, Hamish and I feel s bit like we're back at RCH! Didn't take Hamish long to take up the familiar position on the bed with iPad on lap and watching TV. Hamish rates this as the best hotel yet (the more reliable wifi and 'pod-like' bathrooms being the attraction).

Off to Kalimantan, Borneo departing the 'pop' at 7am in the morning. 

It's been an interesting cultural mix today. Leaving predominantly Catholic (70%) then Muslim followed by several other religious/ethnic minorities, then transmitting through predominantly Hindu Bali with the incense and floral offerings throughout the airport and now predominantly Muslim Jakarta. 

Komodo national park day 2 of the Komodo tour

We rose at 6am to what I was sure was someone snoring only to discover it was a pair of Black Egrets the size of Brolgas in the midst of courtship just offshore from our campsite. Mikel said we were lucky to get so close as they normally flew away when you approached. 

The Salacia

After breakfast on banana and jam on toast and cup of coffee we headed out to the boat for Komodo Island approximately a 3 hour bot trip away. We were lucky enough to see a couple of dragons on the beach in the distance  as we approached the island and on our short ( 1.5 hour) guided walk around the island we saw many dragons, deer, a few forest pigs that ran away quickly and even pair of  bush turkeys who mate for life and whose nest the dragons use to incubate their eggs. The guides informed us that the hatchlings have an instinct to run and climb trees and stay for 3 years in the hollow of the female palm trees where they are protected from being eaten by adult Komodo dragons (though not necessarily the previous years hatchlings who may be sharing the same tree!)

A native orchid growing in the trees

Deer are native to the area and Komodo tucker!

Hamish cautiously about to try some fresh tamarind which grows in pods hanging from the tamarind tree and tastes much like a sour warhead! But without all the artificial flavour and colourings! 

We purchased the boys a Komodo national park t-shirt each from one of the souvenir 'stalls' and felt sorry for the many other Stawell holders desperate to sell us their wares. We weren't sure that the Komodo claw necklaces and wooden dragon carvings would make it through Aust. Quarantine. 

After a lunch of mei goreng when the captain unsuccessfully tried to fix an engine noise problem, we then headed to Pink Beach for some further snorkelling. After much complaining from Hamish about his snorkel letting in water we swapped snorkels and got to play around with the Gopro videoing the abundant variety of tropical fish. The boys spent some time on the gorgeous beach building sand castles before returning  to the boat for the ride back to camp.

After dinner of burgers we prepare for a game of celebrity heads

Komodo Dragon Boat tour day 1

After waking about 5.30am we breakfasted on banana pancakes. Dave took the unordered chocolate pancake this am as I had it yesterday (quite nice too!) we were picked up at 7.30am and taken to the jetty ( via the airport which fortunately was not too far out of our way due to driver error). We loaded onto our boat, Salacia which was bigger than we had anticipated with 'relaxing'deck upstairs, sitting meals area downstairs with diving/snorkelling prep area at back and small combined toilet/shower area in between for quick rinse offs only. 

As we boarded the boat a local boy was using his thong to hold down a still wriggling colourful fish to reinsert the hook to carry the fish home.  Whilst they loaded up the boat with a whole fish; bags of ice and more than enough supplies for the 8 of us and 4 crew onboard the kids checked out the fish swimming around the jetty and the local kids pushed tyres with sticks along the jetty. 

The boys were quick to discover at our first snorkelling/diving spot that the toilet emptied into the water as they discovered one of the kids "turdles" floating by as they were jumping from the top deck into the water😖. That got them out of the water pretty quickly!😂

Will jumping off the top deck of the boat

We stopped at the first island, Kinawa where the 4 kids tootled off a little nervously with Edward,  one of the crew for some snorkelling with instructions not to touch anything and what to do if they came across the trigger fish, known to aggressively protect its nest and bite if threatened. Whilst we nervously received our diving instructions and signed our and our children's lives away with liability disclaimers! The kids saw a blue spotted feather tail Ray and a list of other fish including the notorious trigger fish whilst we did a staged training on dive basics and practised all the safety prerequisites. It was not a great dive but necessary to practise in the calm and safe conditions before we could do any further dives in better locations later in the day. We did however see a Hawkesbill turtle feeding and gracefully swim past, a special treat given this species of sea turtle is relatively uncommon. When we got back to the boat the kids were pretty chuffed with themselves and we enjoyed a lunch of fried chicken, veges and rice followed by some watermelon. There's plenty of tea and coffee on board and the coffee is locally grown and roasted and as Mikel, our Spanish dive master and part owner of the business explained is fantastic coffee when roasted properly and whilst I need sugar in coffee without milk, I am impressed and could take quite a liking to this coffee. 

The map of our trip. 

Day 1. Leave Labuan Bajo; lunch and snorkel/drive Kanawa Island; snorkel/dive at Mini Wall; arrive on camp island of Sebayar.

Day 2. Sebayar to 

Loh LIang on Komodo Island , lunch there whilst boat engine maintenance took place; snorkel at pink beach; back to arrive at Sebayar after dark

Day 3. Sebayar to Manta Point to snorkel with Manta rays; lunch and snorkel at Mawan then off to see more dragons at 

Loh Buaya on Rinca Island; then to Kalong to watch thousands of flying foxes head to Flores where they feed each night before returning to Kalong to roost during the day; arriving back in Labuan Bajo/Flores at 8.30ish that night where our driver was waiting to take us to our hotel (Waecicu Inn) down a rough, steep and windy road with very poor headlights!

After chilling for a while, the kids making themselves completely at home, we then headed to our next snorkelling/dive spot. David went snorkelling with the kids as he was still suffering from a painful left ear that refused to properly equalise following the last dive despite trying some suggested techniques and Sera, Dave and I heading off to the 'Mini Wall" for a fabulous dive spotting flame lion fish, lobster, lots of large schools of various sorts and amazing coral, clams and colourful fish. 

We then headed to our camping island, Berawa where our tents were already up and explored the shallows in search of sea horses (no luck) and enjoyed the sunset whilst our lovely dinner of grilled Trevalley and rice was prepared followed by yummy local bananas and tea and biscuits. Dave gave me some lessons on long exposure photography.  Whilst the kids spent all night collecting and racing hermit crabs they had named (Jaspers all being after Barcelona footy players) the adults swapped wildlife encounter stories with Mikel.

Being motored from the Salacia to our camping spot

Sunset on Sebayar 

Hermit crab collecting

A long exposure night shot of our camp

After much indecision  around the sleeping arrangements we finally settled into our tents only to find David dripping in sweat in the tent, moved out to join David under the stars leaving me hoping the tear from one end of the tent wall to the other where the floor joined the wall was not going to give too easy an access to the rat I saw after dinner or the large orange ants (that I hope aren't fire ants) that are crawling all over the tent! Could be a long night!😁