INDONESIA - MOROTAI - D'ALOHA AND SOUTHERN ISLANDS - 12 FEBRUARY TO 14 FEBRUARY 2019

I woke and thought 'time to leave Morotai … need to surf BUT firstly I will visit the southern islands'.

I said my goodbyes and caught a share car to D'Aloha Resort near Daruba in the south of Morotai.

I settled into my room and caught up with my friend Norma. In the afternoon, I had a walk along the beach and the nearby town. It was a fun walk along the beach, chatting now and again to a few locals. The walk through the village was great. The people were friendly, ready for a small chat and wanting their photo taken. Two kids followed me for ages, I took their photo and they ran off happy.

Back at the resort, I had dinner on the beach. It was a 3/4 moon. The moonlight was quite pretty reflecting off the water.

Back in my room, I organised onward plane tickets and hotels for my next destinations.

The next day, I did the boat trip to the islands. it was 1 000 000R but worth it. I had the boat for 7 hours and the boat had three motors (always good in case of problems) and a cabin.

Norma was my guide. We had fun sitting on the cabin roof, walking around the islands, wading through the shallow water and being silly.

The first island was small and sandy with no vegetation. Small waves were breaking from all directions either depositing or withdrawing sand. We walked around the island (a couple of minutes) and I had a swim in the clear water.

At Kokoyo Island, I had a snorkel next to the pier. The water was clear and there were massive schools of fish, pretty coral and a sea snake. The fish were so numerous that I couldn't see through them but they parted for and around me as I swam through them. Very magical.

After that, Norma and I walked around part of the island along the shore and through the shallow water.

Dodolo Island was really two islands at high tide connected by a sand spit. We walked around the islands crossing over on the sand spit. The sand was blindingly white. It was so pretty.

There were a number of places to stay on the islands. We had lunch on a cabana in the shade.

The last stop was between two small rock islands in the middle of the ocean. the water was shallow between the two islands and was ideal for snorkelling. There were lots of fish and coral. the visibility was good but it parts the sand movement obscured vision.

It was a great day on the islands. I got back feeling good tired, had a shower and dinner then off to bed.

The next morning, I had my final walk along the beach. I said my goodbyes and drove off to the airport. At the airport, I had problems with the charging of my surfboards but it all sorted out in the end.

INDONESIA - MOROTAI - BIDO - 10 February to 12 February 2019

Next stop was Bido on the east coast of Morotai.

It was a pretty town with a long white sand beach fringed by an assortment of trees.

I stayed in a room in the family house of Oci, Ronda and Fanda. The room was big with a stand fan (150 000R with meals). The house was big and cool. Oci was a local pastor. The people were strongly practising Christians, They seemed to be regularly off on a church project.

The house was a short distance from the beach so I spent a lot of time sitting/lying/reading/chatting on a raised platform under the shade of a tree during the middle of the day hours. The beach was nice for a swim at high tide.

Across the main road from me were living three westerners - Callum, Jennise and Lizzie. They worked for an educational group called Liquid Foundation. I watched them working with the local kids on the beach teaching them various water skills. It was all very cool, They were very nice people. We went for a hike one afternoon to look for a waterfall. We didn;t find the waterfall but it was still a fun jungle walk.

I finally managed two surfs, One okay surf on the reef in front of where I was staying with a few of the local kids and one at another reef further north. The second surf was better but the wind blew it apart after 40 miniutes. It was fun getting there with one of the local guys by motorbike then a pick up two hours later.

Once again the local people were lovely. They were polite and friendly and ready for a chat.

I was getting restless for surfing. The main reasons I came to Morotai was surf and adventure. I got plenty of adventure but little surf. Time to move on!

Highlights of Bido:

walking along the beautiful white sand beach.
watching sedated beach activity.

getting free mangoes from the local kids.
conversations with my host family in my limited Indonesian
surfing, at last.
swimming, snorkelling and surfing in clean and clear water.
walking through the village.

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.