Palau

We were still at sea until late afternoon, when we arrived at Koror Island in Palau.

After clearing quarantine (we’d had people on board from Indonesia to clear us for immigration), 

we were allowed to visit the resort where there was a large carving of dugongs, which are rapidly becoming locally extinct 

and see a large group of people dancing some of their traditional dances. 

At Sea

After visiting the Moi, we immediately left Sorong, bound for Palau. So the rest of the morning and the afternoon were at sea, as was the whole of yesterday. There was some excitement after lunch, when we saw a lot of red footed boobies flying around. We must have been close to some land, so I went out to watch them. Then everyone saw a whale. But it was only a log.

Sorong

We arrived in Sorong early enough to visit the Moi people before we left Indonesia.

They live in the forest very close to Sorong, which is a city of over 300,000 in West Papua. We boarded buses for the trip to the Moi. The city was typically Asian, with an enormous number of motor scooters and motorcycles trying to make five lanes on a two lane road and bustling surroundings. There was a lot of construction, some of it fixing large buildings that had been destroyed. The town appeared very poor, and we were accompanied by a police bike leading the way with his siren going the entire way. We passed the airport, an enormous police station and the barracks for an infantry brigade who were practising on their parade ground. Then we turned abruptly into the forest, where we were greeted by the Moi.

They danced for us.

Showed us native honey, and gave us some of their food. They also showed us where they keep birds that have been rescued from smugglers while they grow their feathers.

And released some snakes.

On our way back to the ship we encountered several enormous rallies for the council election that occurs next month, so it took forever to get back, even with a police escort.

Wayag

Overnight we moved towards Wayag, another of the islands in Raja Amput. We were still moving until mid morning, when we got there.

We snorkelled off the tender in the late morning at the edge of a coral wall, and the divers went down the wall. At one stage we were over the divers, and their bubbles were very distracting, so we moved to another area quickly!

In the afternoon we snorkelled from a beautiful beach, and some people did a difficult hike. 

The coral had been churned up, possibly by a cyclone, and there was a lot of bleaching, with poor visibility. 

We went around the entire area, and weren’t very happy with it, but after a couple of hours, we went back to get more anti fog. There was only half an hour remaining, so we went to a different spot close to shore, and found a small, very uninteresting looking place which actually had an amazing amount of interesting stuff in it and stayed there for the remaining time.

Later we had beach drinks on a beautiful beach.

Misool

When we awoke, we were in a completely different landscape.

We started the day by snorkelling 

As you can see, the water was a bit murky and the coral was somewhat disappointing for an area which is supposed to be the best place in the world for snorkelling. However, we saw a lot of fish, and after the snorkelling we cruised around the area, seeing amazing formations.

And some rock art.

We snorkelled again, at a different spot after lunch.

This was much better! When we came back, the ship was loading our other vessels.