Sulawesi

Hello again

Well since our last blog last week we've had a fabulous time in Sulawesi and are all set to fly off to Java early tomorrow morning.

We survived the 14 hour boat journey to the Togean Islands which was a bit rough in the night, and even managed to get a bit of sleep in our tiny hot cabin before waking to a rainstorm at 6am as we arrived at the first port of call in the Togeans. Thankfully the rain had just about stopped by the time we arrived at our destination, Pulao Kadidiri at lunchtime. We stayed in a British-owned dive 'resort', which comprised few bungalows with no running water on a nice little beach with a restaurant and not a lot else. But what more could you want? We snorkelled the coral reef just off our beach most days and fitted a couple of dives in to our busy schedule of sitting, reading, eating a lot of fish and walking the 5 minutes to the other end of the beach - it was pretty hectic let me tell you. The diving was good and I saw my first eagle ray which was amazing!

After 3 days it was time to get back on the boat, and the journey back was thankfully much calmer. We arrived back in Gorontalo to find the whole town flooded after a big storm, but managed to find our way out in another shared jeep, which blasted out 80's power ballads for the entire 9 hour drive back to Manado.

Facing 2 days in the uninspiring city of Manado we decided to try another island for a night, this time Pulao Lembeh 2 hours south-east of Manado. The Lembeh Strait is apparently internationally renowned for its amazing 'muck diving', which basically means diving in black volcanic sand with no coral and a whole lot of weird-looking creatures that live on the bottom. It seems to be very popular with Singaporeans and Hong Kong-eans, who bring their flashy, state-of-the-art underwater cameras, laptops and lists of 'must see critters' to find. We decided muck diving wasn't for us, and just enjoyed the hotel pool which was perched on a lookout over the Strait to the Sulawesi mainland. I think we might be getting a little bit lazy!

We are now back in the not-so-lovely Manado where we have just talked ourselves out of a Pizza Hut dinner and stuck to good old noodles, rice, chicken and veg. I hear that the Christmas lights have been up for a few weeks now at home - Manado has been our first reminder of that with Christmas carols playing in the supermarket and fake Christmas trees and shiny baubles for sale! It just doesn't feel like Christmas when it's so hot and humid!

Lots of love to you all
Kirst and Tim xx

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