Monday 16 February – off to Padar Island

We set off for Padar Island soon after breakfast, it was sad to leave our idyllic setting, but there is so much more to see. It was a couple of hours motoring to get there. On the way over we saw a huge school of small rays all swimming in a tight group, it looked really stunning. There is a ranger station on the island with a few local boats, we found a spot at the beach next door to be out of the way of the boats. It was really hot so we headed to the beach straight away, sadly the beach had so much litter at the tide marks, but there was enough sand in between for the kids to enjoy. There was a huge sea eagle on the beach when we arrived. We watched two eagles what appeared to be fighting in the trees not far above us. We also had a good view from the boat of a group of deer on the beach, one of the main meals of the Komodo dragons.

We returned to the boat and discovered a big phinisi coming in, Rowan spotted the name of the boat and we realised it was the boat that Noah’s great childhood friend Max, who works out here as a diving instructor. Noah had given us his number so Rowan sent him a message to come over for a drink which he did. He could not stay too long as he had a night dive to do right in front of PolePole, it was very interesting to hear all about his life here. He returned to his boat and about half an hour later he called to say his dive group had cancelled, and invited us over to see his phinisi. It really was an amazing boat, so much wood and beautifully made. We had a good look around with the kids which was a surprise to some of the guests! What was amazing was that the bay had filled up with phinisis, about 15, they all come to do a sunrise hike up the hill for a spectacular view. Max was telling us it has become so popular that the gov has created entry slots that you have to apply for to do the walk. We could not believe that so many boats had turned up in the evening, all afternoon we had the place to ourselves. This is the lowest time of the low season, hate to think what it is like in peak season.