Monday 3^rd – Friday 7^th March

We had a very interesting afternoon visit to a temple in a cave called Giri Putri Temple.  The climb was up 110 steps to a very tiny opening that entered into a 310 metre in length cave, with 6 different places to pray.  It opened at its far end to a shelf like opening with a spectacular view over the jungle. We traveled there by our Green Lion van which took about half an hour from home, however coming back took three hours due to the vans fuel line breaking and Agus hitting it with a piece of coral to get it to work again: no surprises that this didn’t work.  Eventually we had another open van with no seats come to collect us and tow the other van back. After the tow rope breaking a couple of times and amusing the locals we were off.   By this time it was dark and we were all hungry but had its humorous side all the same.  I’m sure we all felt confident that we would get back eventually!

On Thursday we were all involved in the release of two green turtles.  This time there wasn’t the luxury of a boat trip and we drove by a now repaired van to the top of the road and walked down the hell track and back up again.  After a slow start, with one turtle swimming off course a bit and the surf being a bit rough, and our co-ordinator Agus (pronounced ‘a goose’) dived into the water to check the turtle  wasn’t headed to the rocks; it was a successful mission.

Jim is very interested in the stone walls and terracing which is all over the island and we believe all started when the Dutch had a strong presence here about 200 years ago.  The huge areas are evident both here and Lombongan the other island we can see from the beach. They are quite different in style to the rice fields in Bali which are all soil.  The main crops grown here are coconut, bananas, a root vegetable similar to a sweet potato, and various other vegetables for the locals table. They also grow peanuts. The growing and gathering of seaweed, which is sold in Jacarta by the local s directly or through an agent, called the Boss, mainly the latter.  It is a large source of income for the locals.  There are many fishing boats on the island, however I think the fish that are caught are for local supply.  As the Hindu religion do not eat beef they raise calves to sell and we have seen these dragged through the water and hoisted rather roughly onto boats to be taken to mainland Bali.