ROCK'S ADVENTURES: KELALA - SUMBA - BEACH, SURF, CHATS

KELALA

9 AUGUST

We arrived at Kelala two hours after leaving Waingapu. It was interesting drive – a good road, traditional houses, a couple of towns and a multitude of school kids. The vegetation was abundant in a sparse sort of way and in a number of places there were rice fields flowing and glowing green.

At Kelala, we were greeted by Sri, Johanna’s daughter and the only other guest, Chris from Australia.

We eventually settled into our room after lunch and then Chris and I went for a surf. The waves were right handers next the new and already abandoned pier. The waves were good fun but the current tended to draw you into the pier.. This was a bit of a worry but was easily avoided with constant paddling.

At dinner which was late Jacinta and I had a few beers while we chatted we Chris and Sri. Chris had done a lot of travelling spending years in various places around the world. Sri is half Australian and half Sumbanese. She has been to university and achieved an Engineering degree. Presently, she was helping out her mother run the resort. Yohanna’s husband David died a few years ago.

There is a price to pay for the bride in Sumba similar to a dowry. This involves items such as chickens, cows, water buffaloes, etc. Sri's price was one hundred water buffalo. That’s a lot of money in Sumba terms. The price was high as Johanna’s father was a king and therefore she was a princess and so Sri was also of royal blood with her grandfather being the king in their area.

10 AUGUST

I woke early and had a walk along the beach and out along the pier. The sunrise was pretty and the waves were looking promising.

We had breakfast and Chris left for Waingapu and then Bali.

I went for a surf while Jacinta baked on the beach. The waves weren’t as good – some good ones but the sets were bigger and closing out so all in all I did a lot of paddling.

Near sunset Jacinta and I had a long walk along the beach to the east. The beach was empty except for a lone local and a couple of dogs and a pig. The sun setting over the distant mountain range was pretty.

At dinner we met Rodney, who is Yoyanna’s sister's husband. They live further down the beach. An interesting fellow who now has Indonesian citizenship. He runs a number of businesses especially in bamboo furniture.

11 AUGUST

An early morning walk to the pier to check out the waves. The tide was high and the few waves were breaking close to the pier. The other side of the pier had soft looking waves.

We had breakfast and then I had a surf on the left. Some waves that were about a metre were good on the takeoff over the reef but sort of edged along after that. Nice wall but too small to do such more than glide across. Still, I was the only one surfing and I had fun.

Yohanna showed us her ikat weavings and other art works which belong to her family. We talked about modern and old ikat. The difference was the use of natural dyes verses modern cotton.

Yohanna went to a wedding party and Sri cooked dinner which was spaghetti and meat sauce and spicy fried chicken. It was very tasty. Jacinta and I had a few beers and Sri showed us photos of her family and herself. A nice evening.

12 AUGUST

A warm night’s sleep.

I walked down to the pier and had a urgent need to go to the toilet. Once satisfied and I walked over the pier to the beach on the other side. Once there I had an even greater urge to go to the toilet. After an explosive performance I felt deeply satisfied and wandered over to the discarded pier-building barge. The barge was left on the sand to rust when the pier was completed.

A man with a number of large plastic bottles walked down the beach and onto the barge. Once on top he lowered each plastic bottle by rope inside the hull. On closer inspection, I realized he was gathering water that had deposited inside the hull after the brief rain from the night before. Needless to say, I didn’t think that the water would be safe to drink as the hull was heavily rusted.

Walking back along the beach to Kelala, the wind had increased and large grass seeds were rolling along the beach at breakneck speeds.

The rest of the day was taking it easy.

Near sunset we sat on the beach and watched the sun set over the mountains. The sea was calm. The water reflected the light of the sinking sun in a blinding cascade of twinkling luminosity. All was good in the world! J

Dinner was fish, rice and vegetatbles. The fish was so tasty.

We had a few beers and chatted with Yohanna. Manis the dog was missing and a seach mission was quickly carried out by all thee staff. Manis had just give birth to a litter of puppies about a week ago and tonight they were whimpering as they were hungry. Manis was not found but in the morning she was back with her puppies. It was suspected that Manis had gone off looking for boy dogs. When questioned at breakfast about where she had been, she looked away guiltily.

13 AUGUST

A pleasant sleep.

After breakfast we hired a motorbike for Yohanna for the day. Jacinta wasn’t feeling well so we drove to the west to see the far end of the beach and a few villages.

The road (track) out of Kelala was covered in obstacles – deep sand ruts, sharp bumpy rocks and deeply gouged potholes – heaps of fun. We navigated the maze of tracks that lead here, there and nowhere and reached the main sealed road Jalan Waingapu.

Along the road we passed people, houses both plain and traditional, schoolkids (technically people J), large concrete and decorative graves, dogs lying over the road with no fear of death, Brahmin cows and massive pigs with their tiny piglets. The latter were the most dangerous as they just walked across the road with little concern for the possibility of traffic.

We stopped at the far end of the beach in an area that was neatly arranged with covered decking for seating in the shade and garbage bins. In the shallow water, the women were gathering seaweed which they threw into very large wicker baskets that floated on the water. These were towed to shore when they finished and spread over the ‘grassed’ area to dry in the sun. I chatted with a two guys who told me that it was used for food.

We continued until the road ended and became a steep, washed out and deeply rutted road. We drove part of the way but we soon turned back.

We took a few turn offs along sealed and dirt roads. They lead through villages and pass heaps of schools which were filled with heaps of kids. We briefly chatted with a few people along the way. ‘Hi, where are you going, where are you from’ were the main topics of our limited discussions.

Back at Kelala we had a mandi shower to cool down and wash the dust off.

The rest of the day was resting.

At dinner with had our nightly chats with Sri and Yohanna. I told them that we met a man today who had one arm and was riding a motorcycle. They told us that the man’s arm was bitten off by a crocodile while snorkeling in the night for fish at the river mouth near the far end of the beach. The stories continued with numerous crocodile attacks at the large river at nearby Baing but all these other people were 'only' bitten.

A few years ago, a tourist while snorkelling at Kelala had an encounter with a crocodile who took the fish that he had speared with his spear gun.

The stories switched to sharks. Sri said that many years ago a tourist was attacked by a shark at Tarimbang while surfing and was air lifted to Bali for treatment.

After that it was pleasant dreams ... maybe.

14 AUGUST

We took the motorbike towards the east and the north today.

It wasn’t much fun on the main road as there was large sections where they were improving the road so it wasn’t very scenic.

We took a turn off along a dirt road to a beach. The beach was a break in the reef and it also had a wide sandy estuary that looked very much like crocodile territory. I walked around the area but saw no crocodile tracks.

Another long dirt road turn off took us nowhere and after about twenty minutes we turned around. On the way back we took a smaller turnoff and ended up in a village compound. It looked like no one was home.

Having enough of road works we turned back towards Kelala. On the way, a man stopped us and pointed out that the bike stand was still down. We stopped at a small shop and he filled the bike with benezine and Jacinta and I had a cold drink. We chatted with a few of the locals there. Friendly place.

We took one more turn off that lead to a highly eroded dirt road. We turned back at that point as we had had enough dust for one day. Along the way, we saw a man in traditional Sumba garb.