We said goodbye to our beautiful homestay and made our way to the tour office. There we met the other 28 other people sailing with us, over 3 days to Labuan Bajo.
After a welcome cup of coffee, we jumped on the bus to Mataram, the capital of Lombok. Here we picked up one more passenger before taking on the rustic roads to Labuhan Lombok! We stopped on route to see the tour company's bigger boat, which is being built and also a pottery village named Mad Bail.
We boarded the boat in Kayangan harbour and were given our matching tour t-shirts! Next, a short safety briefing and we set sail to a small island for some snorkelling. The snorkelling was good at one end of the beach but at the other end it was destroyed by dynamite fishing. Part of the tour programme included re-planting of coral to try to revive the reef. What we had to do was cable tie a piece of living coral to a small square of concrete, then plant it at sea! The current was quite strong here so you had to snorkel with a little caution...
A camp fire was lit for cooking the fresh fish for dinner and the crew led the singing backed by their guitar and bongo drums. We even learnt a 'line' dance together which was very amusing! We set sail when it was dark with a wonderful view of the stars! We slept on the open deck where the breeze was so refreshing...
After a welcome cup of coffee, we jumped on the bus to Mataram, the capital of Lombok. Here we picked up one more passenger before taking on the rustic roads to Labuhan Lombok! We stopped on route to see the tour company's bigger boat, which is being built and also a pottery village named Mad Bail.
We boarded the boat in Kayangan harbour and were given our matching tour t-shirts! Next, a short safety briefing and we set sail to a small island for some snorkelling. The snorkelling was good at one end of the beach but at the other end it was destroyed by dynamite fishing. Part of the tour programme included re-planting of coral to try to revive the reef. What we had to do was cable tie a piece of living coral to a small square of concrete, then plant it at sea! The current was quite strong here so you had to snorkel with a little caution...
A camp fire was lit for cooking the fresh fish for dinner and the crew led the singing backed by their guitar and bongo drums. We even learnt a 'line' dance together which was very amusing! We set sail when it was dark with a wonderful view of the stars! We slept on the open deck where the breeze was so refreshing...
