It is getting very steamy hot and in our little bay there is not a breath of wind. We headed over in JeldiJeldi to Chief John’s at the other anchorage, to make sure he keeps the mooring ball for us tomorrow after Profasea leaves, we were pretty sure nobody else is around, but just wanted to make sure. Quite a long dinghy ride over but nice to have the air blowing in our face to cool us down. We got it all sorted with chief John. We had a brief word with Profasea, her new crew seemed nice which must be a huge relief for her, we are pleased she is doing our route to Indonesia. We popped by Alma Feroz, the Trump supporting Americans and will catch up with them tomorrow, they are going to go south of PNG as they think it is way to unsafe to go north the way we are going.
We took a detour around the island in the middle of the bay, called Mbike island, it looked like a smart resort but very closed. We found out much later that in 2004 some gov officials were staying there the night before elections, a gang came and set fire to their boat, but managed to set there own boat a light and had a bit of a shoot out. The court case still continues after all these years!
We went and had a long snorkel to cool off. Simon is doing a great job of protecting the reef and coral around his land. We saw some different fish and loads of more unusual corals. Quite a few soft corals and one particularly colourful pink one. It was a lovely snorkel, with loads of fish and healthy coral. We were always keeping in mind that salt water crocs may be about!
At 4pm we went into Simon’s village as he had organised some custom singing for us. It is an amazing location. The singing was great, but felt the young girls were rather coerced into it. Their pet parrots which are free to fly were very cheeky and entertaining. Simon also has a great collection of orchids and plants growing in tubs. It was a lovely evening, the kids were very sweet, and consumed most of my enormous bag of lollipops!
View from the back of the boat, we are very close to the coral
Off to the other side of the bay
Leaving PolePole behind
Calm waters with reflections
The other entrance to the bay, with the hidden reef that the cruise liner hit
The entrance we came in yesterday
Chief John
The gorgeous beach at his home/village
Rain showers everywhere
Chief John’s house
More squalls
Mbike island, the abandoned resort
Mbike island catching the sun before the rain hits
We were lucky to miss the rain everywhere around us
PolePole in our lovely bay, with fluffy clouds looming
We saw this lovely anemone with its black fish host
Sadly Rowan’s long camera pole down to the anemone meant he wan’t sure if he was getting it all in the picture, but it gives the idea
Sitting down with Simon to listen to the custom singing
One of the cute kids
A young girl performing, so sad she already is chewing beetle nut, look at the red on her teeth
The performers, all young girls being led by one older lady
As you watch you will see the cheeky parrots
The pet parrots are very unafraid
Cheeky birds
Little boy enjoying one of my lollies
Rowan felt very honoured until their claws and beaks began to hurt him!
Love their seated area next to the water
Simon’s sign posts
The seating area with all his potted plants
The whole young gathering
Amazing orchids
Up close
Simon seeing us off
Simon’s brother helped us out, we bought a lovely wooden face mask from him
The entrance to the village through the mangroves
Enjoying a cool drink at the front of the boat and watched the locals paddling home
A family heading somewhere
Dramatic clouds catching the sinking sun
The reflected sunset on the clouds and water
Discover more from sailingpolepole.com
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
