Lewoleba to Gedong

We had an uneventful overnight sail to Lewoleba (with a bit of motor sailing included) we anchored in a lovely bay called TG Liang Meah. We entered a spectacular channel with volcanos on one side and steep cliffs on the other. Ahh, finally a place where we can swim. Blue Sky were with us and this is where we met Brad, Georgi, Matt and Jack from "Good Hope". There were several boats in the bay, so as usual we anchored at the back of the pack ... just in case! We stayed here 2 nights and had a lovely time. Just swimming, snorkelling and generally chilling out! We decided to head up to Lembata which is the next rally stop at the top of the island and you evidently anchor underneath a smoking, real live, volcano. So off we went. Well, Lembata was an interesting little spot, and not the hugest bay to anchor in with 130 other boats! Its main claim to fame was the trips you could take down to the last remaining legal, authentic whaling village (supposedly). We decided not to do this especially as we had seen so many beautiful Melon Head whales in the water we couldnt bring ourselves to see them being hunted, not only that, but we were also feeling a bit "rallied out" with all these gala dinners, and boats all around us. So, several of us decided to head off and sail along the northern side of Flores Island. The first bay looked gorgeous, but had already at least 10 boats anchored so we carried on to Gedong.  

We entered a lovely little bay, tucked away, motored in very deep water then suddenly it came to 3 metres so a quick dump of the anchor and thankfully it set straight away as we lost all power again. Yep, you guessed it, the repair had just failed when heading straight into a reef fringed beach! Gedong is just simply lovely, and will remain possibly one of my most favourite places. The locals came out in their dugouts (- incredible really - just tree trunks carved out and shaped) just to say hello, they didnt try and board our boats, they just constantly smiled at us and waved. The younger boys that dont own dugouts were ingeniously grabbing any piece of wood they could and paddling out to us to say hello. There were only 3 of us anchored here the first night, clear blue water, coral, sheltered anchorage and lovely, smiling happy villagers. This is also the poorest village I have ever encountered however one of the happiest group of people - it says a lot really! (photos of gedong boys in water here)

The next day we decided to donate school books, pens, felts, erasers, rulers, colour pencils to the small primary school along with clothes, rope, toothbrushes, soap, googles, and anything else we could think of this poor village needed. So we traipsed up a VERY steep path to the village and met with the village people, gave our gifts and talked with them...an interesting exercise! We then went to the school. The children were so excited and loved having their photo taken and then they could see themselves in the image display afterwards. The teacher was overwhelmed...he was very very close to tears. It was so humbling and very difficult to describe, and as far as I was concerned I wanted to adopt the whole village! By this stage several other boats had anchored as well, so we invited them to come with us. To this day they say it was the best experience they have ever had.

Every morning at about 7am you see the older children, all smartly dressed in their uniform, walking the path along the beach, over one hill, then over another and after several km's they are at their high school. We wanted to visit them and donate supplies as well. So into Blue Sky's dingy we get and Lawrence from the school showed us the way (much much quicker by water!).

Here the children were getting ready for a big game of soccer. The teacher spoke very little english and again was overwhelmed by our donations. Here is a photo of the school playground...makes our children realise how lucky they are - hopefully!

By this stage there were too many boats for sundowners on board, and we didnt want to offend the villagers by going ashore and drinking so we decided on a dinghy raftup. It was fabulous and is now how we usually enjoy our sundowners!! We all met in one spot in our dinghy's and tied up together and either drifted or one of us dropped anchor, while watching the sunset, and the monkeys play on the rocks, and the fishermen go out to fish.

Sadly the time had come to move on, the bay was crowded with up to 17 boats ... far too many for us! We had also been here now for five days and it was time to get moving.