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Ah the Gilis. Once isolated desert islands and now a tourist hot spot like no other. They were first occupied a hundred years ago by Suluwasi fisherman and the tourists started arriving in the 1980's, Jane's sister Catherine among them. There are three Gilis ('small islands' in the Sasak language) hanging off the North West coast of Lombok: Gili T. ('Trawangan') is the party island culturally linked to Kuta in South Bali. It was for a different generation. Gili Air is the closest to Lombok and is quickly following Gili T. with resorts around all its shore. Lastly, little Gili Meno sits between the other two. It is less than 2km long and is the least developed of the three. We choose it for that reason and also because it seemed to offer the best snorkelling off its shores.
All the islands are crowded during high season when prices at least double. In April we could take the afternoon boat from Lombok and choose the accommodation best suited to us. Jane did the survey whilst I sat with the packs. We opted for Paul's Last Resort (paulhuggett1@hotmail.com, +62 87864733 514). Paul is a chatty semi-retired Australian who bought
freehold land on the island twelve years ago. He originally had raised platforms on the beach to stay on. Last year he built three twin bungalows around his long salt water pool. His big selling point is that he offers fresh water showers because he collects rain water. The rooms are small and each pair share a shower and toilet. It's quite sufficient for the beach existence one invariably has on the Gilis. We declined the air conditioning option and got the partial off season rate of 250,000INR/$20.
It would have been very easy to laze away more than two days on the island. The front of Paul's Resort was a white sandy beach with a reef and 'turtle run' beyond. This area on the North of the island still has a very laid back feel, more than I expected. They have done well to keep it that way. Ryan Cafe next door offered staple food, nice cocktails and informal acoustic reggae. The best food was round the corner down the East shore at Ya Ya Warung. For breakfasts we had the market fruit we had bought with Eddy in Central Lombok.
Jane was keen to see the turtles. We first took the wild approach and hired snorkels and masks from Ryan's (no fins fitted my large feet) next door. Off the beach it is shallow with many clumps of beautiful long spined black sea urchins with luminescent blue spots. At low tide an offshore reef is exposed creating a lagoon. Once over this the sea bed slopes away. This is 'turtle alley' easily identifiable from the plethora of dive boats bobbing over it in the morning sun. We swam out to it, maybe 100metres off shore, noting the modest current keen to sweep us South. We soon saw a single turtle making its way North along the sea bed. They are very graceful in the environment they are designed for. After that we saw no others. We did see plenty of other life. Even the shallow area by the beach was teaming with small bright coloured fish and sea fans.
Later we wandered down to the turtle sanctuary run by a local lady. She rescues eggs and grows up the hatchlings to release in to the wild. It increases their chances of adulthood which are slim at the best of times. She had four pools each with baby turtles at different stages of growth.
In the afternoon I wanted to see if we could get to the so called 'Meno Wall' between Gili Meno and Gili T. A local at a dive shop pointed out a small red buoy in the distance that marked the spot. He said there was little current, 'just the wind'. I was suspicious as I had read otherwise. Again the entry was shallow. We had to swim carefully on the surface to avoid being scraped on the coral just below. As we got close to the buoy we could see the wall disappearing into the depths and paid little attention to it because the current had suddenly increased in strength. We both grabbed on to the buoy and it required a firm grip to hold on in the current. We did not stay long. We swam up current back into the shore. The current soon abated as we got to the shallows. It was easy to see how you could get into trouble.
Later I took a walk into the island interior. The tourist density dropped off quickly. It alternated between humble villages with kids playing in the tracks between the houses and tourist bungalows, mostly unoccupied. There seems to be enough accommodation on the coastal strip at this time of year. I walked round the salt lake in the middle of the island as far as I could looking for wildlife. Egrets and herons and other birds I could not identify were easy to spot. Monitor lizards, one to two metres in length, were supposed to live by the lake shore but remained elusive. At points the trees were colonised by several massive spiders.
The next morning we took the local boat back to Bangsal, Lombok. It was pouring with rain. We had enjoyed a relaxing couple of days and now we had a boat to Flores to catch and appointments with Manta rays and Komodo dragons.
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