Four Days and Four Nights: Komodo Boat Trip

Journal Excerpt - Day2

October 7th, 2008

-Beautiful starfish surrounded by myrids of tropical fish.
An uninhabited island off of Sambawa.-

Considering we slept on a rocking boat last night, on thin little bug-ridden mats, we slept well. The boat started up again at 4am and we'd already made good distance by the time we rolled out off our mats. The next time that we stopped was for breakfast and to trek through the jungle. The falls were beautiful but the mucking through the mud, which was devouring people's flip-flops, was not as appealing as swimming to the beach among hundreds of wretched jellyfish.

-Our eating arrangements. Menu: Rice, noodles, and some fruit.-

Off again, this time sailing to a small island with a salt lake in the middle of a small mountain range.

As always we swam to shore, some walked to the lake and the rest remained in the bay examining the untouched coral and marveling at the myriads of fish. The colour and vast variety of sea life was astounding. Nothing broken, nothing touched by man. The fish swam in circles around us inspecting us as we inspected them. Trev and I saw a small brown snake swimming in the reeds. I hate snakes.

-The fish were not afraid of us but swam in circles around us.-

Getting back on the boat we began a foreboding 18 hour journey to Komodo Island. The water was smooth in the afternoon as well as in the evening, but as night approached and we settled down to sleep the open water had become rough again. The boat was tossed to and fro and every so often as we would hit a wave straight on the spray would cover us, all tucked into our beds. We'll drive straight through until morning and see if we survive.

-The bay was filled with extravagant coral.-