Wednesday 28 January – a stormy birthday!

We had a massive thunderstorm overnight, Rowan was kept awake by spectacular lightening which thankfully I slept through. We woke up to a very wet grey day. Rowan had booked lunch at a resort where a few people had raved about the food, on the NFL app. We waited for a break in the weather and thought we would dinghy around to the resort about 2kms away and have a long beach walk before lunch. I also thought I might pamper myself with a massage, but on further inspection we realised it is a very rustic Homestay, no spa. We headed over which meant skirting around a huge reef next to the island, the wind was up, so Rowan suggested we should tie up at a huge long concrete jetty, so we don’t get stuck on the reef at low tide and need to get back quickly to PolePole. The forecast was for heavy rain in the afternoon. The jetty was totally abandoned, luckily someone had put a rickety wooden step ladder up the side so we were able to get up onto it, which was piled high with debris. It must have been a significant place in the past, you can see where the land was cleared and a few dilapidated cabins, looks like a Covid disaster. We were pretty disappointed as the beautiful white beaches on both sides of the jetty were piled high with plastic litter, just awful. We had a good distance to walk to the Homestay and in a couple of places the trees and bush were in the water so we were potentially going to have to swim. In the strong winds I looked back at JeldiJeldi and could see she had gone right under the jetty. I was nervous she was going to be bashed about on the sharp oyster encrusted pillars, or get stuck under as the tide changed, we had no idea whether the tide was coming up or down. I got very anxious especially with all the dark clouds about, Rowan reluctantly turned around, he did not want to go over the reef at low tide, but I had seen a long boat at the Homestay so thought it was a better option. Plus there had been reports of a recent theft of things from a dinghy so I was reluctant to be out of sight of her. We finally got back to JeldiJeldi and she was really wedged under the jetty and difficult to get free in the wind. I found a long skinny pole and with Rowan down the steps pulling on the rope and me pushing her with the pole we finally got her free. We went straight past the Homestay as it looked so rustic and onto the next building another km down the beach, but that was truly abandoned, so we headed back and found a sign confirming the Homestay. Truly rustic, with a lovely little beach, but sadly covered in trash.

Wia owns the Homestay and has done for years, it is a dive Homestay, but hasn’t had guests in ages and won’t until March. She lives here on her own, no husband, she has neighbours and a little village a few kms further down, but only accessible with her little dugout canoe. Her English was fantastic, she obviously had a husband as she has two grown up kids who have children. She comes from the main Sulawesi island, but inherited this idyllic spot from a relative so decided to come here on her own and set up a Homestay. One of her staff about 8 years ago had a baby and could not keep it, so she adopted the little girl who is now 10. We had read great reviews about her cooking, so we sat down for lunch in great anticipation. She had given us some roasted cashews to snack on while waited for lunch, we had brought a bottle of cold Sav Blanc that we had bought at a lovely winery in NZ, we were very happy to be sitting under cover up a rocky bank overlooking the beach with the place all to ourselves. The next minute there was a screech from Wia in the kitchen, we asked if she was alright, it turned out she had been startled by a monitor lizard who she was not pleased with as it had eaten all her eggs last night! Our food finally arrived a delicious fish that she had caught with garlicky green beans, delicious aubergines, served with sticky white rice and best of all potato chips cooked in a very light batter, they were amazing! Pudding was perfect little mangoes. We always manage to select the wrong kind of mangoes in the markets. During lunch her adopted daughter was dropped off by the school boat, that some European sponsors. She was very cute, lots of banter with the kids still on the boat and the driver. She came up the path carrying loads of eggs very carefully, to replace what the monitor lizard had stolen! Wia had got her to get more eggs in town where the school is. What an amazing way of life!

With some very ominous dark clouds looming we did not hang about thankfully we easily got back to PolePole, but only minutes before it absolutely tipped down with rain. Loads of thunder and lightning about too. We had about an hour to recover, with Rowan having a quick snooze, before speaking to all the kids. Such a good catch up with everyone and a good distraction from the weather. It was a great stormy birthday!