Friday 5 December – visited a waterfall on our way back to Waisai

We picked up the anchor and went around the corner about a mile away to another big bay, with a couple of water falls to visit. There was nobody about, we dropped the anchor in over 20ms of water again, we are really getting used to deep anchoring now. We jumped into JeldiJeldi and found the entrance to the river in amongst the greenery of the forest. We went a couple of kms upriver following our instructions, taking the first right hand fork. It was a magnificent journey through an enormous mangrove forest. The mangroves here are much taller than the ones in Africa and are used in building constructions. They are trying to protect them now as so much deforestation has occurred in Indonesia, although it is not obvious around here. We found the little jetty and tied up, we followed the board walk for a couple of hundred metres and then slopped our way through thick mud to get to the waterfall. It was very picturesque. We read we had to pay, but had seen nobody, although there was a long boat at the jetty. We heard banging and discovered some men maintaining the path to the second waterfall. The write up said it was fairly challenging and very slippery clambering over big rocks if wet. With all the rain we have had and Rowan’s broken toe (we think), he stubbed it on a table leg at the resort, we were not going to attempt the walk to the second falls. We also had decided to go to Waisai, the first island we went to in Raja Ampat, so we could not be too late. We paid the workers our fee which they seemed delighted with and headed back to PolePole.

Once we got out the bay there was a little wind, we got the sails up and that was the kiss of death, the wind evaporated, back to motoring. We got into Waisai mid afternoon. We were amazed to see the marina full and 5 yachts anchored outside. Last time there we one of 3 yachts in the marina. Our friends on Arka, Gary (the South African) and Kim (Australian) were anchored there. We all met up for supper including Patrick, the guy in the very fancy HH catamaran made in China that had so many problems. His Indonesian wife was with him this time, who was lovely. A Danish couple also on a catamaran joined us too. Plenty to chat about and catch up with Gary and Kim.