The Islands of Derawan

The journey down from Tarakan to the Derawan Islands off Tanjung Batu took us two days with an overnight stop half way at Pulau Bunyu. 

Working our way through the reefs to anchor outside the town was somewhat of a nightmarish obstacle course as we had to keep changing direction to find a safe passage.  The only reason this became necessary was because we'd been heading for one waypoint for an anchorage then, while on the way there, heard that instead we were to anchor off the town to be greeted by the town's dignitaries.  That took another three hours in fading light which made it even more difficult causing us to hit a couple of reefs, fortunately nothing too serious, just very nerve wracking  In fact, upon leaving a couple of days later, one boat did end up on the reef and had to wait for the incoming tide to float off.

 

At the anchorage, one chap decided it would be nice to dress his rigging and before you knew it, we all had our signal flags flying making a gorgeous spectacle which apparently thrilled the Regent (head honcho) who was even more delighted when he was told that we didn't dress our boats very often at all and certainly not just because we had entered a new town.  

Snorkelling in Jellyfish lake

This particular village rolled out the red carpet for us, fed us, entertained us and plied us with gifts.  They also laid on a power boat to take us on a day tour of all the nearby islands where we snorkelled in the jellyfish lake (non stinging variety) and then along the outlying reefs supplying us with breakfast and lunch boxes for the journey followed by a big dinner once we returned to Tanjung Batu.  

It was a delightful day sadly spoiled by the fact that, one by one, we all became ill.  Over a period of four days almost everyone was affected, some more seriously than others.  We came to the conclusion that we suffered from salmonella food poisoning probably from something in the dinner.  The effort the townspeople had gone to in order to welcome us was incredible so it was despair that we had contracted something from their efforts.

 

 

We moved on over to the Island of Derawan but due to illness and also to the incredibly strong currents, we didn't manage much in the way of snorkelling, just enough to check that we'd suffered no damage to the keel when we hit the reef and to swim around the few coral heads near the boat.  We wandered around the sandy streets of the village which appeared to cater primarily to backpacker tourists but otherwise just stayed on board trying to recover.

 

PHOTO GALLERY: 

 

 

I found these two little giggling chaps under a porch on Derawan Island

Maratua Island

And on the reef

Beautiful white beaches

Lion/scorpion fish