4. The weird and the wonderful … and more whooshing current!

Our final days of diving in Raja Ampat did not disappoint. We returned to one of the local village islands and dived off the jetty there. We didn’t go below about 12m depth but were absolutely surrounded by so many fish hanging out. We chanced upon an octopus who was being bothered by a territorial little damsel fish (who was trying to move the octopus along by swimming repeatedly into his head!). Unsurprisingly, the octopus was not tolerant of this, unfurled a tentacle from within his little hole he was sitting in and punched the fish away. The fish didn’t give up and was clearly successfully annoying enough that the octopus gave up and vacated his hole, giving us a show of his camouflage, swimming and different poses they can take to ‘be more rock’ in an attempt to find somewhere else to be. The photos are all the same octopus! There were also a fleet of lovely turtles and also a big napoleon wrasse (the green blue fish with big lips - he’s about 1m long and a gentle(ish) giant) and curious little damsel fish who photogenically came and stared straight into my camera lense!

A dive trip wouldn’t be complete without a mega current derailing the dive plans and we managed to get into one of them again… we’d had the dive brief and were told about the possible strong currents that were in the areas we were to try and avoid - including what is known as ‘washing machine’ currents. The plan was, descend quickly, swim against the current and down to 20m where we’d tuck behind the ridge then ride along in a nice drift that meant all we’d have to do was float in a position and get pleasantly carried along. In reality, our group went in first, descended quickly, kicked kicked kicked ….. I’d managed to keep up with the Egi, our guide, and had made it to the ridge but Abi and Alex hadn’t and were being carried backwards. Egi signalled and off we went whooshing along after them. In shallow water, just over the reef, we absolutely flew along in totally the wrong direction to the intended ‘pleasant drift’. You had to look behind you, try to identify a good enough rock that was not living coral, didn’t have anything poisonous lurking and would be strong and shaped in such a way that you could grab it and hold on. With every grab and hold, and slight wrench of the shoulder, we managed to regroup, get our breath then were directed to abort and kick hard back to the surface. We hadn’t been long or deep and despite the ‘quick ascent alarms’ all our computers sounded, the surface was by far the safest place to be. On surfacing, everyone was fine - although we’d all heaved through a good few bar of gas with the heavy breathing and exertion of fighting the current! The boat man saw us surface unexpectedly early and whizzed over to collect us. Back on the boat, geared back up, whizzed round to the safer spot all the other groups’ guides had opted for - this time much further round the island and away from the ridge where the current splits. On our second drop and attempt, we successfully managed the drop to the ridge and find the ‘gentle drift’ to relax into a float along with.

Having thought I’d engaged enough in the night dive experience with two this trip, they announced the ‘best’ night dive (quite the oxymoron!) was the one on the last night. So I donned my gear, charged my torch and off I went. Rather than reef, this dive was in the shallows of a bay and what they call ‘muck diving’ - no reef, not corals, just sandy bottom and muck to search and find the critters. I really have no idea what most of the things were that we found and I haven’t gone through my book yet to identify them (that’s a job for when there’s a tiresomely long plan journey!) so I can’t even label them. We did see some little cuttle fish, octopus, a cool looking squid, various crabs, sleeping anemone, night anemone and all kinds of weird and wonderful plankton and a variety of night dwellers!

The very last dive of the trip on Friday morning was so a site where the oceanic mantas sometimes come (same as your average manta ray but MASSIVE!). We were lucky so having loaded into the dive boats one final time, we were rewarded with a lovely big oceanic manta (with a wing span of around 5m) who cruised through.

My transfer to Triton Bay included the odd slight mishap but has all gone smoothly.

I was up early at 5.30am for my dingy transfer in the dark from the Lady D big boat into port. The boat boy had a tiny head torch on that he navigated with and he managed the journey without incident. From the boat to a taxi to the airport. At the airport, I found a total lack of any signage or instruction so I went for ‘following the masses’ through a series of X-rays for all my bags, twice, presentation of various paperwork (I handed it all over each time and waited for each official to rifle through and check the bit they needed at each stage). I located the checkin desk according to the time of the flight they displayed and was delighted to find the lady who took my passport located my booking and said I was in the right place. Again wondering along after the crowds of locals got me up some steps and through random corridors to security. At no point in any of the X-rays or checks did anyone seem concerned by the various liquids and sun creams or the litre of squash in my bottle, which is handy. I think they appreciate that staying hydrated and protected from the sun / bugs is more important than the ridiculously pointless no-liquids laws that westerners seem to live by!

Once successfully through another set of undefinable paperwork scans and bag checks, I remembered I needed an ATM so had to perform the whole lot in reverse accompanied by saying ‘ATM?’ at each stage and being pointed back the way I’d come. I performed a quick tour of the airport, found an ATM and then had to withdraw cash repeatedly. There are no ATMs of ability to pay with card at my next destination so cash is king. Helpfully, it’s also rationed with the max withdrawal from an ATM set at around £35 equivalent. Fortunately, there isn’t a charge per withdrawal so you can just stand and repeatedly withdraw either until you have enough cash - or you get mugged, presumably! I got the cash, got it safely stowed away (4 million rupiah - the equivalent of around £200) navigated my way back through the airport labyrinth and went and sat by gate 2 as instructed. I then hurried to gate 1 when there was a final call to there for my flight.

Several flights all board at the same time so again, just into the crowd and follow along. This time that did lead me astray as I got checked and scanned through gate 1, down the stairs, round the tarmac and onto a plane where I had my boarding pass checked again. I’ve always wondered why they do that when they’ve just scanned you through the gate … turns out this time my ‘follow everyone else’ method had lead me astray and onto entirely the wrong plane! Fortunately, the air steward identified my mistake and sent me off with one of the ground crew who jogged me across the tarmac and onto a bus, which then ferried me to my little propeller plane, where my boarding pass was again checked and I was welcomed aboard! A one hour 20 minute flight later and I landed in Kaimana (pronounced K’eye - ah - man - ah) - still in the West Papau province, south of the equator and on the big land mass that is shared between Indonesia and Papau New Guinee.

I’m just in the lobby of a nice hotel where they’ve left us to wait for a couple of hours before they transfer us by boat Triton Bay for the week. There is absolutely no phone signal on the island and what they call ‘rudimentary and unreliable’ WiFi on the island so it’s quite likely that you’ll hear from me again in a week’s time once I’ve taken today’s journey in reverse and return to the modern world of connectivity!