Tuesday 14 October – Rowan has a great dive

Rowan left the boat before 8am to go on a dive trip with Ahmed, Claudette and a Croatian guy were also on the dive. The first dive was to a Catalina wreck, an amphibious bomber plane from WW2 that is still intact. The wreckage of the plane is thought to have fallen due to an engine problem, not because of enemy fire. It is in good condition because it is in calm water with a depth of less than 30 meters, it is filled with hard and soft coral and colourful fish. Their second dive was to one of the fishing piers we walked passed the other day, they went looking for Nudibranchs. Ahmed was good at spotting them, in amongst three recent wrecks. Rowan was very impressed with the fish life and visibility, it was a very successful morning, helped by the fact it was a beautiful, calm and sunny morning.

In the afternoon we had to go back into town to sign out with the harbour master, all good, just time consuming. We had planned to go on a bird watching tour at 5am tomorrow before departure. It really was not ideal as we have to leave by 8am, and would be cutting it fine, so Rowan offered it to the Croatian guy, who readily accepted it. We did a dash to the supermarket to get last minute provisions, to find they only had a dozen eggs, so pleased Claudette didn’t want any. We finally got back to PolePole just before 5pm which is when Rowan had invited Nick the Croatian guy and his Papuan partner for drinks. He works for the same bunch of schools for the mining company that Renee works for on the West Papua mainland. Renee works for the International school high up the mountain fairly close to the mine whereas Nick works for a local school owned by the mines down at the coast. Nick’s job is to raise the level of education at the school to benefit the local population. Very interesting. His daughter from an Indonesian wife he is no longer married to, won a mining scholarship to go to school in Europe to do the IB. He looked at Oakham but opted for a school in Rome. It seems to have been a mixed success, he says she is just continually hungry! Natalie his Papuan partner did not speak much English, so it was quite hard work while Rowan was showing Nick around the boat. Apparently Nick wants to sail around the world one day!

We headed back to the resort for a grilled chicken supper which was very good. Ahmed joined us, we had asked them to join us for drinks but they were too busy. We went to say goodbye to Julia at her home next to the hotel, and met her lovely cockatoo, who Ahmed is in love with and vice versa, the parrot sleeps with Ahmed every night! They are an amazing couple, they have no kids but have adopted two poor kids who have lost parents, and were starved living with elderly grandparents. Ahmed and Julia left the States 4 years ago to live here permanently, they are definitely trying to lift the area up and ploughing money back into the village and employing loads of locals. The food stalls alone give plenty of income to the locals. A fascinating place, Ahmed and Julia could not have been more helpful, it will be sad to leave tomorrow, but with winds beginning to turn against us, we need to take the the weather window that comes.