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Firefly - En route to see Borneo's Oragutan's



Its Thursday 8th October and at 0500 this morning Firefly's anchor was raised after 2 enjoyable days at Karimun Java. We are sailing to a small town called Kumai which is up a river on the south coast of Borneo. This is close to the location of the Tanyung Puting National Park, home of Camp Leakey, the largest Orangutan Sanctuary in the world.

This was always going to be one of the highlights of the planned route for the Sail 2 Indonesia Rally. However, this dry season has seen some of the worst forest fires ever and much of Borneo is currently suffering from a serious smoke haze. The visit to Kumai is now down to the individuals and we are the first to go. The other Indonesia Yacht Rally is about a week ahead of us and some boats have been to Kumai already and reported via their blogs that the smoke problem is improving and their visit to the Park was fabulous, irrespective.

To access Camp Leakey we will travel up the Sekonyer River on a local Klotok river boat. Yachts used to be able to go there but this is no longer allowed and the standard package is now a shared 'African Queen' style river boat for 2 days and 1 night. The sleeping facilities are on the upper deck and will be enclosed with mosquito nets. The all inclusive deal we have been offered even includes a 'boat boy' who will sleep on deck on Firefly to make sure its safe while we are away.

The passage from Karimun Java is 200 miles and the early start is to ensure our arrival around midday tomorrow as we need good light to enter the river, particularly as there will be some level of smoke haze. So Firefly is back on the Java Sea this time heading east of north. We don't often head east as that is generally where the wind comes from - but so far the wind has been in the south east. Firefly is bouncing along over a small chop at up to 8 knots in about 18 knots of breeze just abaft of the beam. We are heading east of our required course as well, just in case the wind backs later on today.

Two days were enough at Karimun Java and we fitted in quite a lot, mostly socialising but also spent several hours snorkeling on the relatively good reefs. The 27 islands that make up the archipelago are only about 50 miles north of Java, the worlds most populous island and we therefore anticipated that the coral and marine life may be limited. Its a Marine National Park but that did not seem to limit the number of small fishing boats nor improve the Indonesian's ability to avoid littering - they are appalling and dump rubbish in the sea without any thought. However, the reefs must be quite resilient as the coral was ok as were the fish, but nothing like as spectacular as in Komodo.

Yesterday evening was the so called Gala Dinner that had been scheduled to coincide with the Karimun Java Expo event. For the Expo there were some marquees in a field, some loud music booming out but very little was actually being exhibited. The rally participants were the guests of honour and in the afternoon there was massage, reflexology and haircuts on offer at no charge. At the main event the participants were also offered the opportunity to wear traditional Japara region clothing. The planned times for getting dressed up and the dinner kept changing throughout the day and as is typical in Indonesia, despite being told it was definately 4pm, we were not in our 'local finery' until about 7pm. Plus being a Muslim country there was very little cold beer available during the wait.

The clothing was all new and unpacked for each of us. However, it was as if the organisers had managed to 'sideline' some garments that were heading to a prison. The colours were generally brown although some of the patterns were quite intricate but the cloth was a heavy texture and really not suitable for 30 plus degrees centigrade. About 15 couples got dressed up and it was good fun despite being inside a 'personal sauna'. Dinner eventually got underway and it was the usual local buffet with some things that tasted good and other things not so. We were seated in front of a stage and once the local dignitaries turned up it was speeches followed by a bizarre show.

Having attended several of these rally dinners so far we knew that the speeches would be tedious. They are long, in Indonesian and the locals in particular pay no attention to what is being said - the rally is however supported by the Indonesian Ministry of Tourism in order to promote yachting - so they are inevitable. The locals were in fact loving the fact that we were wearing the traditional outfits and a huge amount of photographs were taken of us. However, we still could not believe it when we were asked to go on stage, been called up in couples. At the appropriate point we had to walk several steps forward in a particular pose and then bow to the audience - the event run like a beauty contest.

We did not win, it was a flamboyant Frenchman called Didier with Sarah from 'Tulu of Fowey' who most charmed the judges. However, everyone was invited on stage to collect a party bag which included a very chic scarf and the 'loudest' orange polo shirt ever seen. Next on was a glamorous young lady singer in enormous heels followed by the final act that could actually have been part of a dream. About 10 bored looking schoolgirls came on stage riding cardboard cut out horses, kind of dancing to the standard 'jingly' local music. It went on for a good 5 minutes before an older chap then grabbed the mike and started singing along in a strange out of tune monotone. This guy who was dressed as a stable hand then put down his mike and cracked his whip several times on the floor before he whipped a few of his horses (the little girls). It was clearly an act and the girls were not hurt - but us westerners were all pretty shocked!

Paul and Susie

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