We are spending the final five days of the AVATAR portion of our Indonesian adventure in the Wayag group. This is an absolutely stunning location – the very essence of Raja Ampat. If you pick up a guidebook you will more than likely see a photograph of this beautiful island cluster, consisting of dozens of undercut limestone pinnacles springing up like mushrooms out of the vast ocean with the sea meandering amongst them in a maze of waterways. This limestone geology (called karst) has very little to no soil, but nevertheless the islands are covered in karst forest growth, roots clinging tenaciously to the porous rock except on the vertically plunging gray cliffs. Small white and purple orchids blossom sporadically in the undergrowth.

 

 

When we first arrived a few days ago we came upon a helicopter circling overhead, its crew frantically waving us off. They were shooting film for an upcoming IMAX movie and didn’t want AVATAR sailing into the scene! Their subject was the MV Kalabia, a wonderful Indonesian boat that serves as a floating classroom, visiting all the 97 villages in RA by turn to educate the children about the ocean environment and conservancy. The boat’s colorful exterior is charmingly painted with Papuan sea motifs. I had seen the boat’s photograph in our guidebook and fell in love with it – it was a treat to see it for real.

To get our own aerial view we took an adventurous hike up Mount Pindito following a steep, in some places nearly vertical, path that ascends one of the jagged limestone domes. We followed Rod’s rock climbing instructions, maintaining three points of contact at all times and making sure that our hand and footholds, whether rock outcropping or tree root, were sturdy before trusting our weight to them. We were rewarded with a 360-degree view of the entire island group, on a sunny day no less!

By the time we made our descent back to the beach Mike and I were hot and sweaty enough to wade into the lagoon fully clothed and swim back to AVATAR.

Every couple of nights we change anchorages to better enjoy Wayag’s varied scenery. We’ve had a lot of hazy gray overcast this trip, it being the rainy season here, but the other evening before moonrise we were treated to a brightly starlit night sky silhouetting the dramatic limestone formations that loomed black and forbidding – except where clusters of fireflies sparkled in the forest.

And the following evening a light mist at sunset produced a horizon-filling rainbow that arced across the lagoon for our viewing pleasure.

Per usual the diving has been routinely awesome, as we dinghy out of the lagoon to the pinnacles dotting the entrance. Out in the strong currents, these islets teem with life – both fish and coral. Of course we are careful to time our dives around slack tide to avoid the freight train effect of speeding currents. Unhappily my dive computer failed yesterday. A dive computer is an essential bit of equipment that tracks depth, air in the tank, and time remaining before requiring decompression. Luckily I had bought a spare dive computer in Tucson before this trip. It is a quickly learned lesson to always have a spare of any crucial item of equipment this far from civilization.

We had visitors today from one of the liveaboard ships, the Matahari Ku, that arrived in the lagoons this morning. A group of military veterans from the Netherlands are on a 45 day tour of Indonesia, and were curious to see our boat. Their captain,  Eric,  brought them over by dinghy and we had a pleasant visit. Eric tells us he will see us again in the Komodos next June/July when we return for our next Indonesian visit.

Today is our last day in the Wayag. Tomorrow we set sail for Cape Kri where we are booked into the Sorido Bay dive resort. Indonesian visitor permits are expiring for AVATAR, Rod and May combined and it is time for them to depart. As soon as they drop us off at the resort they will head back to Sorong to fill out the paperwork required to clear out of the country. Then they will embark on a 400-mile passage to Mindanao in the southern Philippines where AVATAR will layover for a few months while Rod and May head home for a well-deserved vacation. They have been aboard for nine months straight now in relatively remote environs – Vanuatu, the Solomons, and Indonesia. Rod is definitely displaying some nostalgia for city lights and modern conveniences!

Mike and I still have a week to go on our 30-day visitor’s visa, so we plan to enjoy even more diving based at the resort. Sorido Bay’s literature says they offer Internet (which has been sadly lacking for the duration of this trip) so I expect I may actually be able to post these blogs, which have been accumulating, along with a portfolio of photographs, on my computer.