Day 15 - Rinca to Labuan Bajo

Another beautiful sunrise on the way to Rinca island, and all the more poignant because this is our last day on the Ombak Putih. Rinca is one of the four islands that are home to the prehistoric Komodo Dragons, and it lies within the Komodo National Park.

We were guided by Kamli who comes from Rinca. Although the guides live on site when they are working Kamli said that sometimes it takes him 6 hours to get to his village when he is going home because of the danger involved. Not only are there Komodo dragons, there are snakes, wild deer and buffalo to contend with. He sometimes has to run up a tree to sit out the danger. Although, having said that, baby Komodo dragons live in trees for the first couple of years after hatching, and they are not that small.....

Most of my photos were taken on my camera because of the lighting conditions - so the ones taken on my ipad were not so good. This is OK  in terms of lighting, however it is of a 'romantic' nature. I guess we were lucky to see that.....at least they weren't eyeing us off  instead. Although the Komodo look sluggish they can actually run up to 60 km/h and thats a whole lot faster than me! Their bites are toxic and contain Listeria bacteria, so they are really to be avoided. They immobilise their prey and then tear off chunks and swallow whole, no chewing. Their jaws can dislocate to enable them to swallow whole animals. The park is littered with skulls of buffalo and other victims.

The terrain of Rinca was quite different to other islands we have been on and I was quite nervous walking along, making sure I kept up with the group.  Even so, I walked loudly and carried a big stick....

After our visit to ghe Komodo, we continued sailing towards Labuan Bajo to catch our afternoon flight back to Bali. The crew decided to put up all the sails, which was a spectacular sight.

We then went ashore to a small sandy beach and had our last swim and snorkle. It was perfect....except for those parrot fish who wanted to nip you every so often!

This trip has been an amazing adventure and I have learnt so much about Indonesian textiles from remote islands, their cultures and their dyes. It was truly an honour to be guided through the process by David and Sue, whose knowledge, love and passion for not only the textiles but the people, is immense. They were generous to a fault and it is hard to imagine, in fact impossible to imagine trying to do a similar trip by yourself. Their personal connections with local guides and weavers and dyers on these islands is testament to their committment to help these people continue to produce  and practice their textile art in a sustainable way. The wonderful thing about this trip was also the other passengers, who all came with their knowledge and expertise, and not always in textiles. It made for lively and stimulating conversations over delicious meals and bumpy car rides and our friendships formed bonds that I hope will act as warps and wefts for future interaction.

What a great trip this has been, I am so greatful to Sue and David and all the crew of Seatrek for making it such a memorable and informative one!

Day 4 - We are sailing!

I haven't quite adjusted to the Indonesian time yet, so when I woke up at 4am this morning ( Friday) I decided to stay up and finish off yesterday's post. The internet connection is bad a lot of the time, so even if I have finished writing, it won't upload until we get ashore....so if it looks like my days are out of sync, that's the reason.

Anyway we left the boat at 7.30 am to go to the busy Wairkoja market. There were a lot of fruit and vegetable vendors and some textiles, but the ones selling the pigs were a bit distressing, so I didn't like it that much.

Next stop was a drive up into the Iwang Gete highlands to visit the small village of Doka where I was selected as the group representative along with another group member, John. This task is shared amongst us for each village visit and can be quite simple as wearing a scarf presented to us and leading our procession through a group of dancers. So no big deal. However this village had John and I changing into traditional clothes  - and for me that meant top and sarong, numerous wooden and beaded bangles, which they struggled to force onto my wrists and then the head Ibu brushed my hair for ages and put it up in a bun with a fake hairpiece. Not a look I am eager to replicate in the future....

Our official duties also required us to either smoke a homegrown cigarette or chew some betel leaf, lime and pinang, or areca nut.  I went for the betel chewing and had a red mouth for the rest of the day. The arak that they gave us added to the whole experience!

Part of the cultural dance performances put on in our honour.

Natural dyestuffs for producing yellow - kunyit,or turmeric, kapur sireh or lime, mengkudu, mangga.

For the deep reddish brown they dye with Morinda citrifolia (mengkudu)

In the afternoon we went to the Museum Bikon Blewut in Ledalero  and then went a bit further south to Nita Kloang village to again watch production of cotton yarn, ikat, and dyeing.

Tarum or indigo dyeing with Indigofera which is kept in a ceramic vat and then put in a leaf container for dyeing.

For green dye the women use leaves from the Dadap tree, which has spikes and grows to about 2m along with kunyit and kapur.

Returning to the boat in the evening we had a great lecture from Sue followed by our safety briefing from Nato in preparation for our cruise. Whilst dinner was served we heard the anchors being raised and we were off, sailing through the night.

Day 3 - Kelimutu - Maumere

We had a very early start this morning before breakfast, driving up into the Kelimutu National Park to view the three-coloured crater lakes, known as Tip (Tiwu Ata Polo), Tin ( Tiwu Nua Moori Koohi Fah), and Tam (Tiwu Atu Mbupu). These three lakes differ in colour according to the water composition. Tap is an acid saline crater whose colour changes according to the state of water oxygenation; Tip is a cool  acid brine lake which contains minerals and chemicals such as sulphur; and Tam is an acid sulfate crater lake.

The view from the top was breathtaking but you could only take a photo of all three lakes if you were high above in a helicopter as Tam is on the other side from Tip and Tin.

On our way back to the Ecolodge to have breakfast and pack our bags we noticed all the small villages on the way busily cleaning the roadside, slashing grass, sweeping and burning off rubbish, and tying colourful garlands onto makeshift fences along the road.  This was all in preparation for the 'Tour de Flores' which was due to start today from  Maumere.

After a little traffic congestion due to TdeF followers, we finally made it to the harbour and had our first glimpse of the Ombak Putih, or White Wave.

Here we are getting into the first dinghy to get to the boat in the background. Once on board we were shown to our cabins and sat down to a delicious lunch.

View of my cute cabin - all cabins have their own ensuite and are air conditioned. It was threatening to rain when we arrived but miraculously passed us, leaving a wonderful omen for the days to come.

After finding our cabins we had a few hours to unpack, relax and unwind before we got back into the dinghys to head ashore for a short trip to visit the nearby village of Wuring which is home to the local Bugis and Bajao sea gypsies.

They are mostly Muslim, and many of the men were volunteering their time and money to build a new masjid at the end of their village on stilts.

Many of the parents  wanted you to take photos of their babies or toddlers, as did the small children who were were totally charming and cheeky. So while we didn't see more textiles, we did have the opportunity to have a short glimpse of what life was like for these sea-village families.

On board the Ombak Putih we had an informative lecture by David about the history and textiles produced by the Sikka people (the region we are now in) followed by a delicious dinner of nasi campur which included beef rendang, fish, mixed vegetables and salad folowed by fresh fruit.

We were all pretty exhausted so looking forward to our first night sleeping onboard the boat.

Day 1 Bali - Ende

The first day of our pre-cruise trip started at 5am this morning to get to Denpasar airport to catch the 7.20am flight to Ende, on the south coast of Flores. The plane actually has three stops - Labuan Bajo-Ende-Kupang and those travelling onwards get to sit in the plane on the tarmac until new passengers arrive. Our group consists of so far of 11 people from the US, Australia, UK and Taiwan, but we will be joined in the next few days by a couple of others to go on the cruise.

We were met at Ende airport by David and Sue Richardson who have developed this tour with Seatrek in Bali, this being their third trip. Our first stop was  to visit the nearby district of Ndona to visit some Lio weavers. In the photo above, Teresa is quickly tying her warps for ikat. The pattern is in her head and despite her age and agility issues, her fingers were very nimble, so we could see the pattern emerging as bundles of warp threads were bound with strips og Gebung palm leaves.

We were also given a demonstration by several of the women on their natural dyeing processes using Morinda citrifolia and indigo from Indigofera tinctoria which grows wild.

Weaving the ikats was done on backstrap looms and the women bought out many beautiful textiles to show and for sale, similar to the ones they are wearing in the above photos.

Our next stop was to the village of Saga, where we were greeted with drumming and dancing by local school children. 

We were welcomed by Maxi, one of the mosa laki (traditional leaders) of the area and after a delicious lunch in one of the schoolrooms he took us on a tour of the village with historical homes with wonderful architectural details and carvings.

Driving through this lush, mountainous terrain after coming from a wintery Canberra is quite surreal at the moment, as are the intermittent but heavy downpours. 

Wending our way through some fantastic scenery, we reach our final destination for the day, the Kalimutu Eco Lodge. We make this our base for two nights as we explore further the textiles of the south coast of Ende. The view from my room is amazing, looking over misty rice fields, hearing the turbulent river rushing by below, with a stormy grey sky just threatening to soak us again.

We are given a few hours to fest and relax before pre dinner lectures on Ende textiles by David and Sue followed by a delicious dinner complete with a birthday cake for Kate, one of the women on our trip. Most of us are eager to get to bed early to catch up on sleep and ready for an early start tomorrow.