Palau Hatta

When we got to Palau Hatta, there was a lot of wind, so the sea was quite choppy, so we couldn’t snorkel from the beach as planned. We went to the lee of the island to snorkel, but the sea had a current, and we needed to be close to shore.

The coral wasn’t nearly as good as the first island we went to, and bleaching had occurred here in the past. However there were an amazing number of fish, and when we got off the boat we were immediately surrounded by enormous numbers. 

It was brilliant!

Banda Neira

When we arrived, we raced the Kora Kora canoes into port. 

They were waiting for us, singing and raising and lowering their oars.

Then they started to move.

Then they paddled desperately (the ship came awfully close to one of them).

We then went snorkelling at the lava flow. You still get sunburn if it’s raining when you start. The coral and fish were fantastic.

In the afternoon, we went to the town and were greeted with musicians 

and ceremony.

We had a town tour, which included the museum, the two forts and a nutmeg and cinnamon plantation.

The first fort is lower, Fort Nassau

and Fort Belgica overlooks it.

We had music and dancing on the top of the fort, including watching the nutmeg dance.

Kampung Taar, Tual Island

Today we had our first stop in Indonesia.

We landed at some steps in the city, and went by bus to the village. At the top of the steps, we were greeted by a band who played enthusiastically for just about the rest of the day!

At the village we were greeted by a delegation of the village head man and all the big wigs. After some greetings, some girls danced for us. I think they were secondary school students.

We then walked to the primary school 

and the students played anklung - a bamboo instrument I’d always wanted to see in action. Each student plays a different note by shaking their own instrument, so they’re sort of like bell ringers.

We then walked to the church (this is a Christian village), 

and were greeted by the secondary students playing ukuleles and singing enthusiastically.

Then we walked to a monument and had refreshments and were greeted again.

The village has done a lot of work restoring the mangroves surrounding it.

Indonesia has just had Independence Day, so all the streets in the village were decked in flags. 

The villagers had obviously put in a lot of effort for our visit, a lot of them must have followed the buses back to the city and waved us goodbye as we departed.

Leaving Australia

In the morning we woke up to our last glimpse of Australia.

And sailed all day through the Arafura Sea. At sunset, we were still there, but it was cloudy, so we were near the equator.

At Sea

Yesterday I packed, and trundled through Darwin early in the morning.

I saw sunrise as I walked to the cruise terminal.

And the sun was slightly higher when I got on board.

We left the wharf.

Our view at 10am.

Our view at sunset.

We finally left Darwin at 2am, so we’re a day late.

Today and the next day we’ll be at sea, so there won’t be any pictures, as there’s nothing to see.

I’ve got my settings wrong and I can’t transfer my pictures at the moment, so this post currently has no pictures. We’re also back to EST, which is probably called something different in Indonesia.