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After an hour or so we counted ourselves amongst the cargo of a small ferry to Gili T, squashed in with the crates of Bintang, live chickens, bags of rice, locals and the odd up for it traveller we landed on the island and were promptly ambushed by the local hotel reps. A combination of down season and our by now well oiled negotiation skills we secured ourselves a cracking room just off the beaten track moments from the beach and the fairly lively party scene and numerous dive shops. Without a return flight we had plenty of time to settle in and enjoy the finer points of island life. We chose to spend the following day on the beach and enjoy a few dips in the crystal clear waters. We booked ourselves on a very reasonable snorkelling trip in and around the 3 islands and with the exception of some interesting corals and a few lone turtles we couldn't help but be disappointed with the marine life that had been billed as some of the best in the world. With a couple of dives booked we hoped for an improvement in the deeper ocean. We were lucky enough to see loads of green and hawksbill turtles at Shark Point and ironically no sharks! Dive two however provided our first shark experience with a few white and black tip reef sharks, job done! The 2 dives had us sharing the water with more turtles and sharks than you could shake a stick at but the coral was regrettably in a pretty shoddy state, a combination of previous dynamite fishing and the endless dropping of anchors by the numerous boats on the island had left the vast areas of the oceans coral dead and dying.
Constant determination to arrange a boat trip around the northern coast of Indonesia to Komodo Island was curtailed by the weather so we had to bite the bullet and arrange more internal flights to get to the hotspots. Another beach day to top of the tans and we were on the move again. Next stop Komodo Dragons!!!
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