Goodbye Indonesia

With only 10 days left on our Indonesian visa and a little more than two weeks left before we have to go back to stupid reality, we chose Palau Derawan as a site for our island escape.  Off the east cost of Borneo sits an out of the way archipelago with a unique concentration of underwater life.

After 2 days of travel by plane and an ugly half day of travel crammed 11 to a vehicle meant for 7 sandwiched between chain-smoking adults and car-sick children(not ours) we caught the last boat to Pulau Derawan.

Our first excursion was a 45 minute boat ride to a nearby island, a turtle sanctuary.   Pulau Sangalaki is a small island uninhabited except for baby turtles and large monitor lizards.  In the shallow around the island are hundreds of

Manta rays

Shallow enough that you can snorkel with them

Feeding

Baby turtles waiting to be released 

from the turtle sanctuary.

Taking a break form the mantas.

Back home on Derawan

The sea life under our bungalow on Derawan was equally amazing.  Just sitting on the deck you could see 

Giant sea turtles cruising by looking for a snack of banana leaves.  

If you could muster the energy to get into the water

You could swim with them.

Take a break from the turtles and swim under the pilings of our bungalow for gardens of Moray eels, giant clams, lion fish, seahorses, yellow and blue spotted rays, bat fish, leaf fish, box fish, schools of trumpet fish, sea snakes.  At night you could watch the morays full out and hunting in pairs.

  We counted 5 different types of moray eel in one pile of rocks.  

 

We found him!

Palau Kakaban

Another day trip was to  Palau Kakaban.  A 1 hour boat ride to another uninhabited island.   The island contains a salt water lake where the underwater sea life cut off from the ocean has been allowed to evolve in isolation.   This is one of 4 places in the world where

you find stingless jellyfish.

A few more shots of life on Derawan

Lion fish

Sea anemone

Math in a hammock, it doesn't get any better.

You actually have to be careful when you jump not to land on a turtle.

One of the wild creatures under the dock

Sunrise  from the deck of our place the morning of our departure, Thanksgiving.