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We arrived at the island just at lunch time.. and had to wait nearly half an hour to actually get to the island from the boat. The original jetty had been severely damaged in a storm and they were in the process of rebuilding it. Our rucksacks were piled into a dugout canoe and Joey and I were assisted onto a paddleboard for the trip to the shore! Our home for the next two nights,,a cabin built on stilts made of woven panels and bamboo. The toilet /bathroom was 2 steps down in the open air with a sea water flushed toilet ( with a bucket!) and the shower .. water flowing down a bamboo pipe.. when it was available! 50 litres per person per day and once it was gone for the day it was gone! We dumped our bags in the room and went off to explore the island.. and try out the hammock.. had to be done!
We put our snorkel stuff back on..and went into the water.. and we saw a turtle!!
Tables were set out under a huge tree with lights strung up amongst the branches and as the sun set, we had a local cocktail ( a kanawa breeze, with sope, the local booze as the main ingredient) and then had dinner.. we went for fish, of course!
The power only comes on between 6 and 11 and the lighting was quite low level, which meant the stars were amazing!! Funny to see Orion in the sky and of course the Southern Cross..
Up early and off on our snorkelling trip to Manta point! We stopped on our way at a little island that was in the path of a really strong current. We could only snorkel in the area between the swirls and eddies of the running current, but the junction between the cold and warm water was where the fishes seemed to like to hang out. They swirled around like autumn leaves caught in a whirlwind, with the sunlight flickering thru the water...just beautiful!
WE set off for Manta Point.. and on the way we spotted the Mantas!
On with the snorkel gear and we all jumped into the water..there must have been about 40 or so, a wagon trail of Mantas moving against the current, They were massive, with a span of about 3 metres, navy blue with white markings, slow and stately in the water. There was another type of manta, not as large, round with a long spike for a tail.
Back on the boat we dropped the divers off at the dive point and let them drift down towards Manta point, and we donned our snorkelling gear and went back to look for more mantas.. while the divers were getting ready to go a turtle came up and flipped over in the water
We were back at Kanawa for lunch and then went out snorkelling again.. felt like I was coming down with a cold - probably caught it off the press of people in the bus in Jakarta!
Got chatting to Lorna, a traveller, returning home after 3.5 years away and Ron an American lady, a dive master who loved diving in Indonesia and George and Anne-Marie, aussies, who'd been coming to Indonesia for years.. a very sociable evening, sitting under the tree and being able to see so many stars!
Woke early.. our last day on the island and we had lots to do!
Breakfast..and we set off on a walk around the island..not something that I should have tried wearing flipflops!! We got round after a bit of wading and scrambling.. but we did see a couple of sharks! There was a baby one near the mangrove swamp and then a bigger one, about a metre at the other end of the beach.
A freshly made banana milkshake, then back out snorkelling before our discover scuba dive,,
Trying to dive with a bunged up nose and a head full of cold is a really bad idea! I couldn't equalize the pressure and my ears were really hurting.. we did see a lion fish tho, but not really a great place to do a discovery dive... we actually saw a lot more snorkelling!
Back for lunch, settling up the bill and our charter boat back to Labuan Bajo. We were in the same room at the hotel and after running around trying to get enough cash to settle the bill for the hotel and the diving, we made our way back to treetop for a beer, calamari and a sunset! It was lovely to have a hot shower.
WE had dinner in Mediteraneo, a lovely restaurant looking out over the harbour... fantastic food.. I had roast cod - no-one has ever asked how I'd like it cooked before.. I went for medium - and joey had pasta with a mint pesto sauce and we shared a pud. Cold was really starting to kick in so I was happy to go to bed at 9.15.. and slept until 6!
A last breakfast on the terrace, then a coffee looking out to see while we waited for our taxi to the airport. Back into the little plane again and off to Bali!
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