Maumere Sea World (day 4)

Hi everyone,
We've been having a great time with about a dozen other Sail Indonesia boats here at Sea World.  Amazingly this is now our fourth day here.

On Thursday we had a "lay day" of sorts.  We intended to stay on the boat for a rest.  Instead of course the job list came out and we got to work on it.  I serviced the engine (changed oil, oil filter and primary and secondary fuel filters).  Nic baked bread.  Together we extracted, greased and replaced the sheaves (pulleys) at the clew (outer) end of the boom.  The sheaves have been squeaking for a while and silicon spray only fixed them for an hour.  Mid afternoon we went ashore and arranged a tour for Friday and socialised at the happy hour on the beach.

On Friday we were up at 0415, ashore at 0500 and on the road to Kelimutu with 6 of our French friends by 0515.  The three hour drive to the Kelimutu National Park was interesting and on fully sealed roads.  We travelled in two nice new "people-movers" which were very comfortable.

The national park features the famous three coloured volcanic crate lakes.  From the car park there is an uphill walk of about a kilometre through lush vegetation to the viewing area over the two lower lakes.  From there it is a further uphill walk of perhaps 500m to the top viewing platform.  Note - one needs to get to the lakes before 0900 since clouds often roll over them from mid-morning.  Along the lower path we met a troop of monkeys.

Monkey

Colourful lake

Milky lake

Black lake

Impressive scenery

The volcanic lakes are amazing colours which apparently change over time, sometimes quite quickly.  On the day one was turquoise, the second topaz and the third a very dark green.

The drive back to Maumere was enjoyable since it was in the middle of the day and the views were clearer than they had been early in the morning.

When back in Maumere we stopped at a BNI bank to withdraw cash from their ATM, then visited the Roxy Supermarket.  Roxy has an array of western foods and is unique (so far for shops we've found in Indonesia) in accepting credit card payment.  We bought UHT milk; Kellogs Corn Flakes; loo roll; cans of fruit, corned beef and tuna; and various snack foods.  We then visited the local market for fresh veggies and "pulsa" (credit) for my mobile phone.  From there it was back to Sea World in time for sundowners.  A fun day!

Today we are trying to have a real rest day.  We expect to resume heading west tomorrow.