Coral Gardens and Beach Bonfires

The next couple of days we spent snorkelling, relaxing and eating. The coral reef was reached by wading through the muddy mangrove water then swimming about 100 feet. From there the coral dropped down a huge steep slope like a rock garden, so many colours and varieties, probably the best we’ve come across ever. The fish were amazing too, large ones, tiny ones and every colour you can imagine, all around you everywhere we looked.

The one downside were the two trigger fish that were especially aggressive, both Sue and Stan copped a bite and I only just avoided one as I noticed it heading towards me with a nasty look in it’s eye, I kicked out furiously with my coral shoes and it backed off! We will always be wary of that area on future snorkels.

On the second day we charted a boat over to the neighbouring island of Saladen with Sue and Malcolm, they were desperate to find a place of their own and let Ali have his bed back, they found a vacant bungalow and decided to stay. We all went for a snorkel together before lunch then we said goodbye and returned to Lorenzo’s on Bunaken.

Back at Lorenzo’s many people were checking out so we were able to move out of the reception area and get a bungalow of our own.

On Tuesday evening there was no cold beer in the fridge and the atmosphere was fairly quiet so we went in search of some nightlife. We called in at a couple of dive resorts but the atmosphere seemed cold, then we came across KusKus Resort, as we hovered around at the entrance weighing it up we were asked “hello?” We enquired if they had cold beer and were invited in to join the party. A couple of guys from Puerto Rico were leaving the next day so this was their farewell party. We secured a cold beer but they also insisted plying us with their local alcohol, which tasted a bit like brandy. After much ‘saluting’, ‘cheers’ and so on the party took off with a vengeance with much guitar playing and singing. Rafael, the Puerto Rican, showed us photos of the Mandarin fish they’d seen earlier that day. He then proceeded to build a bonfire on the beach, the ‘Captain’ threw a can of petrol over it (not recommended!) and the fire blazed. More people joined the party and things really heated up. One of the Indonesian guys said he needed the heat as he was still cold from diving! The temperature before the bonfire had been very hot, now it must have been 40 degrees C.
The ‘Captain’ got up dancing followed by a mockbull fight. A good time was had by all. When time came to leave we were offered a lift back to Lorenzo’s on motor bikes. We declined and walked back along the beach through the mangroves. It was a little spooky as we kept coming across fallen trees and piles of driftwood. As you’d expect the sky was a mass of twinkling stars between the dark silhouettes of the mangrove trees, on second glance we noticed that as well as stars we could also see fire flies twinkling in the tree tops. Another first for me!

For some reason the comments box has come in between the photos so please scroll past it as there are loads more.

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Part of trip: Island Hopping in S.E. Asia

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