Day 10
It's our last day on the boat. It was a bit cooler last night but most people opted to sleep up on the deck. Sadly we stayed in a nice quiet bay so I didn't get rocked to sleep last night. Once you get used to it is a nice feeling.
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| starfish |
There was an optional sunrise hike early this morning. We had seen the trail from our snorkeling the previous afternoon. So we said no. It looked really steep like the last hike and to beat the sun we would have been doing it in the dark. So we decided to stay on the boat and get some extra rest. Only one guy ended up wanting to go and said that it was good but just another sunrise. Which we watched from the boat anyways. And we didn't get much extra sleep with the boat starting up around 5 when he departed for the trail.
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| sea urchins |
It was a lazy morning of sailing to our final destination. It was this lovely island with a beautiful beach to snorkel from. Instead of a garbage layer we had a seaweed layer to travel through. It also had the delight of being filled with sea urchins. Which are apparently a delicacy and are incredibly sharp and dangerous. When I did come across them it was a little unnerving floating far above them. Terry opted to stay away from them. We did see many new fish this time, including starfish. I was so excited for the first one and then realized there were hundreds on the seafloor. We did see some more sea cucumbers here as well. The only catch is that the water had a bit more of a current than we were used to. It did make for a few mask issues and makes me think that sometimes I do need to invest in my own mask to snorkel with.
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| the island we snorkeled from |
The real adventure of the day was when the engine broke down on the boat. Luckily we had lots of extra time today. Our trainee guide needed to get back to town to make her flight so they had to find a boat heading back to Labuan Bajo to get her there on time. We were towed to the last beach we were snorkeling at by another boat. And while we were in the water they sent a new boat for us. They told us that our original boat would have to be towed back to the harbour while they waited for parts to arrive. And happily we were only about an hour away from Labuan Bajo, which surprised us all. The new boat was more of a day boat and everyone just seemed to doze off a bit as we watched the islands pass by.
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| beach we snorkeled from |
It was a bit terrifying with all the boat moves though. We had to climb from one boat to another which wasn't too bad as they were tied together well and the crew were more than strong enough to haul us and all of our stuff over the railings easily. The real challenge was arriving at the harbour. Our new boat was way too low to just climb onto the dock. So we had to moor up to a second boat. Climb on to that boat, up a ladder backwards and get pulled up onto the dock. It was terrifying but we made it with out any more shoulder injuries.
Then it was back to the same hotel from the last stay. We had a later than expected arrival but still had a bit of time to visit the beach during the day. And made it there to watch another sunset. Which was lovely and didn't involve climbing any steep hills.
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| Labuan Bajo sunset |
We ended up going into town for dinner at a Mexican place. I'm always amazed at the unusual location you can find Mexican food. The town is a bit bigger than we realized on the way to the restaurant. And with it being on the harbour there are a lot of hills to go up and down. Luckily the little area we went to was a nice flat part.
Now to rest up for our return trip back to Bali.
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