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| Our pier |
It had stopped raining by the time we arrived on the island at
about 2 o’clock in the afternoon and the weather was clearing up nicely. We started to investigate our new
surroundings and wandered up and down the pier gazing into the sea searching
for sea life, in particularly the famous turtles. The first thing we saw was a huge puffer fish
just by the pier, lionfish and soon we
were spotting turtles left, right and centre.
Pulau Derawan certainly delivered on the turtle front.
That afternoon, Paul and Boris went for a snorkel off the
pier where we were staying. Léa and I
chose to relax on the veranda. The boys
returned with tales of coral, fish and masses of turtles.
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| One of the stunning sunrises |
Pulau Derawan is an island in the Sangalaki Archipelago off
the east coast of Kalimantan and a breeding ground for the endangered giant green sea
turtles. We feared that within an hour or
so we were in danger of becoming a little blasé about them, we were seeing so
many of them however this was never to happen and we could quite happily sit on
our veranda or the edge or the pier watching them graze around the sea floor
near the pier, and excitedly spotting them as they came up for a gulp of air
every so often.
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| Rush hour in Derawan |
We also swam with them snorkelling or bumped into them
further out as they hung around the sea bed having a scratch on a rock or
allowing the parasite fish to nibble away the residue they collect during a
day’s grazing. As far as turtles were
concerned, Derawan was everything it had promised to be.
There were lots of pretty lionfish by the pier, crocodile
needle fish swam in the shallows, and near the end of our little pier there was
an artificial coral area where a very small Nemo lived. He was quite shy and hid in his anemone much
of the time so you had to look really carefully but he was there all the same.
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| Boris, Leah and the two of us |
Boris and L
éa were lovely and great company. They were in their fourth month of travelling
and had two months to go. They were much
younger than us but we got on really well and in particular L
éa and I were
alike in that we were (a) terrified of the all the dangers that lurk beneath
the surface and (b) likened everything we saw to Finding Nemo.
There were not many tourists staying on the island but
everyone seemed to know everyone else and strangely everyone seemed to get
on. It was a bit of a community that we
had not really experienced before and most people stayed longer than they originally
planned. One guy, Martin, a Dutchman,
had already been on the island for 16 days when we arrived and he ended up
staying for nearly 3 weeks before he finally dragged himself away. It was easy to see why.
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| Just woken up |
That evening we had dinner with Boris, L
éa, Martin and a few
other people. Later that night (remember
this was our first night on this island) word got around that they were
releasing the newly hatched baby turtles on the beach that night.
The deal is that the WWF guy watches for the female turtles
as they come up onto the beach to lay their eggs returning to the place where
they were hatched years before, much in the way of salmon except that they
don’t die afterwards, they just bury the eggs and return to the sea. The WWF steal the eggs and re-bury them somewhere
safe until they are hatched and ready to release. The reason they do this is because if the
locals find them they will dig them up and eat them which really isn’t very
good for the turtle population, particularly if you think that the survival
rate of 1 in 2000 eggs (apparently, but don’t quote me).
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Making a break
for the sea |
Anyway, we all finished up our meal and followed the small
crowd heading down to the beach past the Dive Centre. When we arrived, the WWF guy had a bucketful
of wriggling baby turtles. There must
have been about a hundred of them and they are all flapping about, looking
incredibly cute so everyone gets to take photographs before he releases them
onto the beach for them to make their way into the sea.
Once everyone has a photograph, all lights are switched off
(they are attracted to the light) and the bucket is emptied rather
unceremoniously onto the sand. We all
stood to one side to watch them as they made their way to the water. Unfortunately, despite being told that any
light will distract them some people, in their attempt to take photographs of
them shone torches on them, so we ended up with baby turtle confusion and miniature
turtles scuttling off in every direction.
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| Tiny baby turtle |
After a bit of impatient shouting by the WWF rep, everyone eventually
turned off their torches and was instructed to stand absolutely still to avoid
treading on them (I certainly didn’t want a repeat of the gecko incident). So there we were, standing there in the pitch
dark while the tiny creatures clambered all over our feet heading straight towards
the sea.
It was amazing. As
only a fraction of them survive because they are tasty snacks for many larger
predators in the sea by protecting them as eggs and then releasing them at
night (protecting them from airborne predators such as gulls) the likelihood of
maintaining the population is increased.
It is thought to be quite successful in Derawan although it will
actually be decades before it is known whether it is making any real difference. Watching them flapping about and being washed
out to sea you certainly hope that at least some of them will survive to
adulthood.
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| Paul with one of his catches |
This all happened on our first day and by the end of it we
had the distinct impression we were going to like this place.
The village itself was very sleepy, quite literally as the
locals could be found snoozing at any time of the day. There were no cars, a couple of scooter, a few little shops, a few places
to eat, and although obtaining alcohol was possible it was expensive (and frowned
upon by some of the older residents) but for the moment we were happy without
it.
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| The view back down our pier |
The view from (and through) our pier was amazing and on the
odd occasion when others came to sit on the edge in front of our veranda we
were a bit miffed. We considered it
“our” pier. You could see the sea
between the cracks in the floorboards of the room and to be surrounded by water
so alive with sea life was magical. We
never tired of it.
Paul was woken up most mornings by the call to prayer just
before 5.00am and usually got up to do a spot of fishing as the sun came up
(the best time apparently). It was worth
getting up just for the sunrise which was spectacular. Usually I slept a little longer but a few times
I dragged myself out of my pit to operate the camera to capture the amazing
colours as the sun peeked over the horizon.
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| Another of Paul's catches |
Hours were wiled away just watching the turtles in the
shallow waters as they came up for air every so often. You could see them feeding on the sea floor
holding their breath for up to 20 minutes before surfacing for air and heading
back down again.
We also spent a lot of time snorkelling between our pier,
the next pier and, sometimes, the pier after that (where the posh Dive Centre
was). We would drift along with the
current and get out and walk down one of the other piers and come back through
the village to avoid swimming back against the current which was altogether
much too much like hard work. Sometimes
we went the other way but as there was no other way back you either had to swim
out or back against the current. It
wasn’t too strong but it was preferable if you didn’t have to exert yourself
too much!
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| Paul swimming with turtles |
I loved using the underwater camera. It took my mind of being eaten by some sea monster and I was able to really enjoy the snorkelling. It was a different world with so many different species of fish, all shapes and sizes, and all the colours of the rainbow. And of course, there were turtles everywhere.
The coral reef had suffered from dynamite and cyanide
fishing in the past but was beginning to grow back and the diverse species of
coral fish was incredible.
We had all
this literally on our doorstep and never tired of snorkelling. Paul went out every day and I only gave it a
miss the day it rained. It was a proper tropical torrential downpour and didn’t
stop all day. We didn’t actually mind it
too much as it was much cooler that day and normally as soon as the sun inched
its way over the horizon the heat was relentless and we often had to shelter
inside our rooms until the sun passed over the veranda and we could sit in the
shade.
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| Batfish |
Time passed slowly on the island, but at the same time the
week we spent there passed in a flash.
One day we hired a boat between 6 of us to visit Kakaban and
Sangalaki Islands. The 4 of us were
joined by a guy from Singapore called Wai, and a Thai guy named Rath. Paul, Boris and Wai went off diving, and Léa and I went snorkelling with Rath.
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| A stripey fish |
L
éa and I were well suited to snorkel together because we understood
each other’s terror of the water. We
loved what we could see but if we felt the current was too strong, or that a
fish looked a bit scary we wanted to get back to shore as quickly as
possible. We stuck together and looked
out for each other and as a result we had a fantastic time.
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| Lots of fish |
The first stop was Kakaban, famous for its inland lake of
stingless jellyfish. We were to dive and
snorkel first near the coast before heading inland to snorkel in the lake. L
éa, Rath and I were dropped off at the pier
on Kakaban and the boat headed off to take the divers to deeper waters. I quickly realised I was missing some
fundamental equipment and that I had left my snorkel and mask on board the dive
boat which was heading off into the distant.
Luckily, an Indonesian man who just happened to be moored up
by the pier with a speedboat immediately realised my predicament, motioned me
inside the boat and we sped off to catch up with the boat and picked up the
essential equipment. Paul threw me
20,000 rupiah to give to the speedboat driver and when he deposited me back I
had to force it upon him because he wouldn’t take it at first. I would have been very disappointed had I not
been able to snorkel and he had saved the day for me. And when I say it was fortuitous he was
there, I cannot emphasis how lucky I was – there was no-one else on the island apart
from us and him. A boat full of Germans
turned up later but other than that the place was deserted. He saved the day for me!
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| A big fish |
The snorkelling was simply awesome and I do not use that
word lightly. Although on one side of
the pier it was clear that the coral had been badly damaged by dynamite, on the
other side and just a short way out, the coral was stunning, as were the fish. As we swam further out we reached the wall
and I was completely unprepared for this.
Most people will know this is the ocean drop off into deep waters but I
simply wasn’t expecting it. Having
nothing else to compare it with, for me it was just like in the film “Finding
Nemo” and it quite literally took my breath away.
There were, in fact, a lot of references to the film
“Finding Nemo” throughout our week long stay on Derawan. Léa and I in particular referred to fish by
their name in the film and I became slightly obsessed by clownfish, to the
point where every time someone found a clownfish (a frequent occurrence), I was
summoned to take a picture. I never did
tire of them.
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| The coral drop off |
When the divers returned we all then walked the path inland
to the jellyfish lake where we all snorkelled among the 4 species of jellyfish all
of which have lost their sting. There
are a few places in the world where this phenomenon has occurred and although
the waters were a bit murky it was fun swimming among the jellyfish. I didn’t have the nerve to touch one but a
lot of people handled them and being jellyfish they didn’t seem to mind. There were also lots of fish but visibility
wasn’t great for anything except the jellyfish which are obviously the big draw.
After a stop for lunch (fish again) we headed off to the
second stop which was Sangalaki. Once
again, the snorkelling was amazing and there was another wall but Leah and I
just bobbed around looking to see what we could see in the coral. Rath found the current a bit strong so headed
back to the boat but Léa and I were fine as long as we could see each other,
and the boat was drifting with the current so was never far away.
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| A lot of fish |
In fact we were disappointed when the captain motioned to us
it was time to get out of the water and pick up the divers. We could have stayed in the water for
hours. It had been a great day for
snorkelling.
Paul however found the diving a little disappointing. Derawan is recommended as being one of the 10
best diving areas in the world and although he can only compare it to Cambodia
which he thought was fantastic. In fact
Cambodia does not have a particularly good reputation for diving but he said he
saw more there than he did in Derawan. There
was much less destruction by dynamite and cyanide of the coral in Cambodia and
the sea life was more impressive. He was
expecting more at Derawan.
Derawan is also one of the few places that you are almost
guaranteed to see a manta ray (massive rays up to 8 metres wide) but none
materialised which was a disappointment but apparently it was not the season
for them.
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| Another fish |
However, Paul did agree that the snorkelling was fantastic
although for him the diving was a bit of a waste of money in a place like
Derawan where you could see as much with a snorkel and mask. He didn’t bother going on any more dives and instead,
amused himself fishing and snorkelling.
After about 3 days and no alcohol the 4 of us finally cracked. We saw one of our fellow pier dwellers
happily supping a bottle of Bintang and we just couldn’t resist temptation any
longer. However, at 50,000 rupiah a
bottle ($5) it was an expensive luxury so consumption was curbed. Obviously it wasn’t expensive by UK standards
but certainly by south east Asian standards.
Léa and I were duly dispatched to go in search of beer
which turned out to be a bit of a mission.
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| Another stripey fish |
We headed out just as evening prayer was starting and I have
to say it felt a bit wrong to be searching for alcohol while there was all that
wailing going on at the mosque. When we
asked in one shop, the smile that we were greeted with instantly turned into a
frown of disapproval from the elderly shopkeeper. We did eventually find a shop with a small
stock of beer and quickly made our way back to our pier where we could indulge
without fear of recrimination.
Once we cracked we got into the habit of having an “aperitif”
as Léa called it at sundown followed by one or two with dinner. Very restrained but then at those prices, we
had to be.
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| Jellyfish - visibility was poor |
We also met a French couple, Julien and Emily, and obviously
they were able to speak freely in French to Boris and L
éa which gave them a break from conversing in English all the time for our benefit, so they spent a lot of time together
chatting away on their balcony but we always ate supper with them and
sometimes lunch if we were hungry. L
éa amused us all by gnawing at all the chicken bones once everyone had finished with them. She wouldn't finish until the last scrap of meat had been chewed off. It was a bit of a competition between her and Paul as to who could snaffle the chicken bones first.
Paul’s fishing was, I have to say, rather impressive. He caught 3 big fish, one which he threw
back, one which swallowed the hook so he gave it to the people who ran the
cottages where we stayed (they were very happy), and one which nearly swam away
with his fishing rod.
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Emily, Lea and Boris relaxing
on the veranda |
He got into the habit of leaving his rod on the pier with
the baited line in the water and assured me that it was safe and wouldn’t get
dragged in if he got a nibble. How wrong
he was! We were sitting around one
morning and suddenly his rod went flying into the water and we saw it
disappearing across towards the next pier but luckily Emily saved the day. She had been in the water waiting for a turtle
to surface so she could take a picture. Emily
had been waiting very patiently in the same position for about 10 minutes when
everyone called out to her to swim after the rod which to her credit she did,
she managed to grab hold of it and hand it to Paul who by this time had jumped
into the water. The poor fish was still
attached so Paul reeled it in while heading to the ladder at the end of the
pier. L
éa caught all this on video and
sent it to us later.
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| Orange fish |
Meanwhile, the turtle Emily had been stalking chose that precise
moment to surface briefly for a gulp of air so Emily missed her shot. All in a good cause!
Julien and Emily taught us how to play Cubo which is a card
game played all over South America and which they learned while they travelled
around there earlier in their trip. Paul
didn’t play but I had a go and it was fun, largely reliant on memory so I was
rubbish but it was something else to do when we weren’t watching turtles.
On our last evening we finally walked around the island. Estimates of how long this is supposed to
take varies from 20 minutes to 45 minutes.
The reality was that if you walked at a fast pace and ignored everyone and
everything along the way you could probably do it in 15 minutes. Paul, Boris, Léa and I headed around to
catch the sunset on the other side and sat on the pier there while we watched
the sun set over the sea as all the little boats headed home before dark. We then headed back to the main village stopping
off for essentials along the way at different little shops.
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| Moorish idols |
The shops seemed to be open all day from early until late
but getting served was another matter entirely.
We were used to the nap culture in Vietnam and Cambodia where everything
halts just before lunchtime for a few hours, understandably so in the
oppressive midday heat. Indonesian life
seems to revolve around constant napping at any opportunity.
On one occasion we were on our way back to our pier after
dinner and we needed cigarettes. It
wasn’t late, probably about 8.00pm. All
the shops were lit up, goods on display outside and the doors apparently open
for business but at the first place we stopped at there was no sign of life
anywhere and I’m sure we could have helped ourselves were we that way inclined
but we gave up and moved on to the next shop.
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A clownfish hiding in his
anemone |
At the second place we called through to the back where we
spotted the husband giving his wife a neck massage but they were in no hurry to
finish what they were doing to serve pesky customers so off we went. At the third shop we called through again and
saw the shopkeeper stretched out fast asleep on the tiles at the back of the
shop and no amount of yelling could rouse the women from her slumber.
We were getting desperate as we were just about to run out
of cigarettes but luckily at the fourth shop the man was both awake and ready
to do business so a minor disaster was narrowly averted. The two of us without cigarettes for any
length of time would not be pretty.
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| More clownfish |
We were lucky enough to see a second batch of baby turtles
released into the sea. This time an
Indonesian film crew turned up and interviewed a few people. They arranged to interview L
éa and Emily
later that night (Emily had told them she was a Parisian actress!).
The film crew didn’t turn up that evening and
were leaving early the next morning and somehow mistook me for Emily (it was very dark the
night before). They asked if they could do the interview that morning so I ended
up being interviewed by a TV station in Jakarta who were doing a production
about Derawan, turtles and mantas. I
doubt it will ever be broadcast because I knew absolutely nothing and was only
able to answer a fraction of their questions but it was strange being
interviewed in the searing heat by two women fully covered up from top to toe
wearing headscarves while I was in shorts and a strappy T-shirt.
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| More batfish |
We loved Derawan and the time spent there. It currently remains a sleepy little island with
traditional charm and although it is so tiny, much building is going on and we
have no doubt that within a year or so it will be overrun with resorts so we
were glad we were able to visit while it was still relatively quiet.
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