INDONESIA - MOROTAI - BEREBERE - 7 FEBRUARY TO 10 FEBRUARY 2019

I woke to rain, stronger winds and poor surf. Time to move on.

I paid my bill, said my farewells and was on the road again.

The road wasn't too good, the river crossings were very dubious but this time the driver I had used the raft to cross the river. It was a bit on edge getting onto the raft but all went well.

We stopped at Gorango Bay once again but this time the little warung was open so we had fresh coconuts and fried bananas. Nice. They were in the process of making a homestay.

We stopped at the end of a lane in front of a house. This was the homestay. I don't know why but they don't seem to put up signs saying we have rooms to let.

Anyway, it looked a bit dumpy at first but it quickly grew on me. The room was basic but clean. In the corridor, there was coffee making stuff. The view from the verandah was very pretty. A calm, glassy bay with an island as the back drop.

There was a restaurant  (actually only one)  'Moro Bumi'. It had really tasty deep fried fish. I ate there a lot except one day when it was closed. Not knowing where else to eat, I wandered back to the homestay and explained the situation to mumma. She got my drift and came out with a banquet on a tray for me for lunch and later for dinner. it was really tasty. When I left they told there was no charge for the food.

I did a lot of walking around town. The people were friendly and ready for a chat and photo shoot.

Some of the highlights of walking around the town were:

sitting and listening to a young girl playing guitar and singing.

watching the local girls practise their dance routine in the afternoon.

sitting at the end of the pier enjoying the view and the cool breeze.

chatting with the fishermen and random people.

sitting on the verandah at dawn and dusk

watching the kids surf on their polished surfboards.

the sea eagle with the broken wing.

On the first night there was an earthquake. It seemed mild. My phone warned me of the tremor which was  5.3 magnitude just off the north east coast. Roughly, very close to me. The power went off and it was getting dark. I was sitting next to the water's edge near the homestay. The owner called out to me 'Peter! Lari! Tsami! ' I understood. I grab my day park which had my essentials in it and we walked briskly to higher ground. I was saving the running when I heard the wave. The whole town was evacuating to the high grounds which luckily were only a short distance. We walked in the dark with my torch beaming out like a beacon. At the top of the hill, the homestay owner took me into a house where I spent the night. Later, I was to learn it was his sister's house who was married to one of the local police. No tidal came but during the night there was a massive prolong loud noise. The people in the house looked stunned at my reaction as it turned out it was just heavy rain on a tin roof. We all had a laugh!

The next day, I was thankful there was no wave. I hired a motorbike and rode around the area. It was a fun ride. I stopped at a number of villages and rode down a few tracks to check out the surf. No luck with the surf part. I had a swim at a pretty beach which had a deep pooled section between two small rock islands.

The following day, I caught a boat out to the island 'Tailenge'. The island was made of sand with thick vegetation in the centre. It took me less than an hour to walk around it. I made a little camp with my sarong as shelter on the beach. I swam and snorkel. The water had some wave movement and strong currents. The snorkelling was fun but the visibility was diluted by the sand movement with the waves.

That night, I sat with the homestay family and chatted for ages. The chat was in my broken Indonesian and fluent miming. It was very nice!

The next morning, they organised a share car to take me to my next destination. It was a bit sad to leave as there was a lot of shared experiences during my short stay.

As we were driving down the main street, a hornbill flew down and levelled itself with the drivers window. It flew with us for a minute or maybe it was eternity. Either way it was very magical.