20090725 – 20090725 (Sawa)

A night out of Saumalaki we anchored around the corner from a Fishing village the locals call it “a place of gathering”. The locals turn up during the dry season to fish. They have these huge catamaran pontoon things which they take out at night, hang a lantern out which attract all the small fish, scoop them up in a huge net and dry them on these racks which run forever along the beach and up the hills. They are then sold to make cloth in the towns, brings a new meaning to fishy pants. They don’t get foreigners visiting often and we sat around a talked through Lydia about where we are all from and where we are going, such brilliant people, they had no worries about taking us for a walk around the village and sharing their lives.

20090718 – 20090724 (Saumalaki)

Leaving Darwin the harbour was full of the rally participants, was a good site to all be sailing off together to the same place, excitement was in the air but not too much wind.

It was a 2 day passage and then we arrived into Indonesia and got all of the formalities away of customs, immigration and quarantine in Indonesian style -Mayhem with 100 ~ 130 boats worth of people turning up at the same time.

Another crew member got on the boat in Saumalaki, her name is Lydia and apart from being Australian and a ranga she is a good sort. She helps her dad organise the rally every year and decided this year to see where it goes she speaks Indonesian and can order me donuts in a whiffy.

Saumalaki is a small fishing town and it’s not normally a port of entry into Indonesia and so they don’t normally get a lot of visitors. I have had my photo taken here more than I have taken photos.

I spent time walking through the back streets of the villages meeting locals, all and all they are bloody happy people. They all think that we are wealthy wealthy, and I guess compared to them we are. They find it difficult to understand that the boats are peoples floating houses.

We all managed to get a tour and went to a village with a stone boat, we had to take two bottles of soapy which is the locally brewed alcohol made of coconut sap sent though a primitive distillery. Toxic toxic stuff. You can get number one or number two which related to the purity, if during the distillery steam comes out it is number two. Nasty stuff you could run an engine on...... they drink it mixed with beer.

Independence Day in Indonesia is August 17^th to celebrate the independence after the Dutch left and the world war finished. To celebrate a government house was opened up and stalls setup with school fair type activities like horseshoe throwing with one small exception. Instead of a horseshoe a plastic ring, instead of a pin in the ground a live ducks neck running around and yup you guessed it, the prize is the duck. Im goin get me a duck, yeah ha.

Oh and Happy birthday bro.

20090631 – 20090714 (Road Trip)

After spending some time in Darwin it was time to have a look around some places a bit further out so why not go all out. I ended up booking a couple of relocation campervans for cheap, one from Darwin to Broome and then the next from Broome to Alice Springs.

After setting of and realising how bloody far everything is apart in Australia and that I would be back tracking from Broome back along the same road to get to Alice. I wanted to give rides to other backpackers to share the costs and so put up notices on a noticeboard and got some call backs.

I introduced a German to putting crisps into a sandwich and in turn was told about a cut of meat that they eat which the translation is something like eating dead grandmas, slightly at the other end of the scale of the old salt and vinegar but hey.

The far north parts of NT and WA are amazing.... if you have a 4WD. There are only two seasons up this way, the wet (hot and humid) and the dry (bloody hot and dry), I lost count of the number of bridges that I drove over with no water underneath but that can be flooded during the wet. It’s definitely a place I would like to come back to with a 4WD and a few months to get a proper look around places like the Kimberley National Park and the bee hive rock formations.

A highlight between Darwin and Broome on the highway was the Gieke gorge, the German and I took a grey haired boat cruise down the gorge and saw several freshwater crocs sunning themselves. There are amazing colours in the rock which show the level of the water during the wet. Someone told us some fact that enough water flows through it per day to fill Sydney Harbour several times over.

We pulled into 24hour camp sites each night which are fairly basic car parks with long drops and non drinking water was amazed to find hundreds and hundreds of baby boomers migrating north from Perth and the comparative cold for the winter. Living the dream I suspect. We met a couple who had been on the road for 13 years, he contracts to Toll so had a big truck for moving stuff and was towing the biggest campervan in the site, all filled with motorbikes, a 4WD, bicycles, full size BBQ. Toyed up Bogans. Choice.

Arrived in Broome and dropped the campervan off. It’s a nice town and pearls are big here (like everywhere else), stayed near the beach at a rowdy backpackers and went to sleep to the sweet murmurings of people mourning the loss of the King of Pop. If I have to listen to Thriller one more time in the next few months it maybe too soon.

On the spare of the moment booked a day trip tour out to Cape Levaque, the guide Led was awesome. Like normal everyone else was bordering Zimmer frame age so I ended up sitting up the front with this guy. He was very knowledgeable about the Aboriginal culture and recommended a booked called ‘the man from sun rise side’ which is an aboriginal account past to present about the changing in their culture over time.

Cape Levaque was picturesque and went to see a fish farm, a couple of small communities and the cape itself. It was well worth heading up that way for a look around, plenty of dogs on heat and cars left on the side of the road which Led reckoned had nothing more than a broken belt wrong with them. (No not the drive train Tim)

Darwin to Broome ended up sharing the driving with a POM in a 4 person flash campervan. OK so quickly to get this done before we leave to Saumalaki it was a good trip the highlights where floating around in a moat a couple of times after the heat of the drive, stopping at a pub with money on the wall. Locals used to do this so they could afford a drink next time they stopped through, it was amazing I listened to the guy behind the bar ask everyone who came in where they were from and then proceed to point out all the money on the wall old and new. A day of Camel racing and cold beer in Alice Springs, a big rock and the Olgas in the middle of the country, 24 hours on a train, bar in Alice where the handles for the doors are on the wrong side and the taps for the sinks are for the one on the other side of the room. Must be Australian humour, oh and making fun from of seeing how many consecutive waves from the drivers coming in the opposite direction.

The low lights, loosing camera with everything since I left Darwin on it, 24 hours on a train also, seeing a few too many black eyes on women and males pea cocking outside the pub and being further from the sea I have ever been.

Oh and happy birthday NC