Heavy hearts and a new bolt hole

Our hearts were a little heavy when the river trip to see Orangutans in the Tanjung Puting National Park was nearing completion as it meant that not only was this special trip finished but also our daughter’s visit was drawing to an end. 

We had one more night in the Hotel Grand Kepubung to enjoy and in the time we had left we had a massage, swam in the pool and had a last dinner together. 

And went shopping!

 

 

 

 

All too soon it was time to leave for the airport where we would be parting ways – our friends and ourselves back to Bali Hai and Yantara and our daughter off to England to visit family and friends and do some European travel before going back to India in October. 

 

We were glad of the company back to Belitung via Jakarta and having boat visitors for the next week or so. 
We returned to find our boats in tip top condition with everything working well and totally shipshape. Captain Ringgo and Captain Jack had both done a great job. 

 

 

As soon as we were settled we made a trip to the market to pick up supplies for the next few days and then joined our friends Jackie and Lucky in having a relaxing time away from the rat race (whoops only in their case!)

Jackie honed her hairdressing skills on Capt’n Birdseye’s ever decreasing pate. Hmm maybe more practice is required and she should concentrate on her very successful business instead! Lucky valiantly stepped in to “clean up” her efforts and shaved the Capt’n’s head. Then he shaved his own head and his beard off. Suspecting someone would start on me next I hid. 

 

 

We decided to take Jackie and Lucky for a bit of a sail so we headed for the southern end of Pulau Tanduk just a few hours sail away from Belitung. 

“There will be lots of lovely white sand beaches there where we can swim and snorkel,” Capt’n Birds Eye promised. 

Well to be fair there should have been – every other island we have visited recently has had white sand beaches but sadly there was only muddy mangroves fringing this and its neighboring islands. 

However, it gave Jackie and Lucky time to read books and enjoy doing very little and it was interesting to explore the mangrove fringed inlets on our dinghies. 



It was also good to discover that it was a great all weather anchorage and a useful bolt hole to know about. 

 

We visited some fishermen and were invited on to their fishing platform. From our dinghies we admired at close quarters their majestic looking boats that the Yantaras have dubbed “flying boats”.

It was Jackie’s birthday the day before they were leaving and we had a lovely birthday celebration at Crabby Hut, our new favourite eating place in Belitung. 

It is always great to have boat visitors but especially good when they come to somewhere out of the way and not a normal tourist destination. I think this is what makes the difference between holiday makers and travellers and we look forward to their promised next visit.