There was heaps and heaps of fun waves with only a small crowd.
The weather was mainly sunny and there was little rain … it was the rainy season???
I stayed at Gubug Bungalows. The staff were as usual friendly and relaxed. I spent a lot of time at the pool and hiding in the air con room during the hotter part of day.
I met heaps of wonderful people who are now friends … mainly from England. I caught up with a number of people I'd met on previous trips - expats, visitors and locals. So good to see familiar faces.
Besides surfing, I spent a lot of time chatting, walking, sitting by the pool and reading.
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.
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.
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