Well, that was a rather splendid little interlude wasn't it? On a whim decided to
go and check out a little anchorage and ended up making some new friends,
and understanding a bit more about some of these local communities here, in the
Anambas islands. So we've only got a few days left now, just under a week before
we have to check out. What we plan to do (we've already told you) is to go to
Waterfall Bay, where we can get scooters and actually go to Tarempa So it
may be we can just anchor there and check out. But before we do that we
thought we'd go to another little community, a bit bigger than Air Putih,
and it is literally just there. You can actually see it. So it's a mile or so
down this fjord. And, as you can see, the sun is out, it's another beautiful day.
We've got a few clouds up there but aside from that it's looking good.
It's quite reefed, the entrance, in fact we're not entirely sure we can get in.
So we've been looking on Google Earth , and I've been outlining some of the reefs
there, and we hope that we can make it in. It's right opposite
Waterfall Bay, but we thought we'd just go and have another explore of a little
community... if we can anchor successfully.
This was our planned anchorage, this is the town we were aiming for. The bay
was here. And in fact you can see, there's a lateral marker (port marker) there.
But the only problem is is that there's a number of FADs in there.
And from our previous experience when the wind picked up and they dragged...
we just get the feeling it's gonna be pretty busy. There's not much space to anchor.
It'd be somewhere in the middle between them. So we've bottled it, we've decided it's
probably a little bit too risky
Well we made it, and as Liz puts the snubber on the anchor chain....
it was a little bit... wasn't "hairy"... helps having the way points... the reefs can be
fairly easily seen anyway. But the main problem is the entrance. There's two
reefs either side with quite a shallow channel. And there's quite a bit of
current running up and down, north and south, past the two reefs. So as you try
and line up to approach it, you're getting pushed sideways so you have to
counter that, which basically means putting in more speed in order to gain
some kind of traction. And of course it's always a little bit scary speeding up as
you're heading towards a reef. But anyway, here we are, this is Waterfall Bay.
That is the waterfall. Not so much water at the moment because, well it
rained the other day but I think it's probably a little bit more impressive
close up. But this is it, this is Waterfall Bay.
As you can see, it's a pretty overcast day today, but we thought we'd
come ashore for the afternoon. And the first thing is to tie up the dinghy
by anchoring out the front and tying to post back here, which is the first time we've
done that in a while... if ever. It's the way that the locals tie their boats up
as well. You can see a fisherman going out there . Quite a few people in
canoes, kayaks paddling past us. Just behind there is the waterfall.
I've already paddled this, in fact I paddled down to the waterfall in the
kayak, all the way up around the whole bay to have a quick nosy... And I decided that
this is uptown this is where the smarter buildings are. And then this is downtown.
And right at the end they have a... looks like a water collection point. I don't
know if you can see that right at the end there, these red containers.
There's a pipe that's suspended on bamboo poles for about 200 meters that goes
into the mangroves there. So it's obviously a source of fresh water.
So this is where the local fishermen tie up and we checked the charts and the
very first thing that you come across is a little grocery store with tables and
chairs for our kopi tampa gular - coffee without sugar. Because if you get
it with sugar, the sugar rush lasts about three hours.
So this is the Temburan waterfall. Which, apparently, is the biggest
tourist attraction on the island of Siantan, in the Anambas.
Up there, half-way up is Jamie. And he has a drone and is taking some drone shots right now.
But I was not going to go up here. It's a vertical climb...
Came out of my flip-flops twice, slipped once...and then I gave up!
So I'm half-way down. But Jamie is half-way up the hill!
Well, as you might be able to hear
I am, what, two-thirds of the way up the waterfall,
right in the middle. And all the way down there, somewhere down there,
is Liz... hiding down there.
I walked up the side of the waterfall.
It's very difficult, very slippery, very steep, And it just got to the point where it's just
too dangerous. with all the gear I'm carrying, and
flip-flops, and the wet mud. But I think this is about as far as I'm going
to go. I don't think there's any way of climbing up the waterfall itself,
possibly up the side there, but...
still quite dramatic.
So that was the waterfall. Definitely more impressive close-up than it is from
distance. It was quite good fun climbing up there, and yeah I'm glad we've done it,
but I have to say I think both Liz and I are a little bit underwhelmed by this.
I think we had bigger expectations. I guess we've just got used to a different
different side to the Anambas, and this is obviously on the tourist trail and
it's in all the tourist magazines... "must do". Anyway, we're back on the boat and
we're probably going to shoot off tomorrow
now that we've ticked this one off the list. But someone is particularly happy
that we did that little track up the waterfall, because on my way back down I
had to slide on my bum, and someone is getting rather excited at the smell of
my shorts.
Look at this! This is ridiculous, she's gone all unnecessary. She cannot get
enough of it!
At about three o'clock this afternoon Liz turned to me and said I'm surprised
you haven't had a beer yet. And I said well I haven't earned it have I?
All we've done is leave the rather underwhelming Waterfall Bay anchorage
and less than one kilometer (sorry one nautical mile I should say) and have come
out to this anchorage here, where there are two other boats as well. So it's
quite sheltered but we're surrounded by a reef. Right I'm just right over the top
of the reef right now. There's a reef here that stretches all the way out
there and then all the way around like so. And we're tucked nicely inside.
Back to the beer story. So I said to her, yeah you know haven't earned the beer so I need
to go for a kayak. So dropped the kayak in the water and thought I'd paddle over to
this island. Now this island here surrounded by reef and we've been
hearing a lot of fruit bats making a hell of a racket. I mean really, really
noisy. So I thought I'd jump over and come and have a look and see what we can
find. I don't think we'll see much, but since this is a waterproof camera I can
give you a little taste of what is right underneath me right now. Here we go!
The most amount of sea urchins I've seen. We've seen a few here and there, but this
particular shallow patch over the coral seems to be littered with them. I mean
thousands and thousands. I didn't put my waterproof shoes on unfortunately, so I
can't get out, but it's super shallow, very, very shallow. And just...
they're all over the place. I've never seen so many. They're supposed
to be quite tasty as well, but I've never tried cooking them before.
So I think this is where the fruit bats live. Sort of just over there.
Island's fairly impenetrable, at least with bare feet it is, and so you can see it's lined
with mangrove. And you get the sound of the cicadas as well. So I don't think I'm
going to try and climb ashore, but I will see if I can find these noisy
fruit bats for you.
It's them.
It looks like they're nesting on top of the mangroves...just here.
I'm now in such little water, just barely a few inches, and the kayak's touching the bottom
They're so noisy...
Incredible.
F*** me! I have never seen that before! That is a sea eagle, and he was just... he's attacking the bats!
And he just flew up...
out of the mangroves with a bat in his talons! I mean these
bats are they're not quite as big as the sea eagle, but they're big enough. And this
is obviously what's upsetting them.
Look at this!
Wow, that was amazing!
Never ever seen anything like that before, and I would never have thought that a
sea eagle would be going for fruit bats, because fruit bats are not
small. They are pretty big, very wide wingspan. They're also quite meaty
animals, they're mammals remember so they probably weigh quite a bit.
From the perspective of a sea eagle. I mean!
I should add by the way that my presence is not really disturbing them, I mean
OK they may be aware that I'm here, but these guys have been making this noise
all afternoon. So whether I was here or not they would be this noisy
Have to admit I am slightly fascinated by fruit bats. We first saw them in India.
And every evening at sunset they would fly across the river and occasionally get
caught up in the telegraph wires. The next morning you'd find a poor
unfortunate bat whose sensors didn't quite pick up the cables of the
telegraph pole. And they would fly over in their hundreds, if not thousands.
They're quite a spectacle to see when they fly across the sunset sky.
For many years I thought that that noise that you hear is rats and of course rats
and fruit bats are quite closely associated. They're very similar.
The only difference being that these guys grew wings. The noise that they make
is quite similar, but it's quite distinctive. In among that shrieking that
you hear, occasionally you hear the odd murmur that's quite human-like and it
sounds like crowds of people chatting and arguing and fighting.
That's just me. Right, back round to the land of the sea urchins. I just realized this
kayak has four holes in it to allow the water in and out, and if I'm not careful
I'm going to prick my bum with them. Anyway, I'm just going to go round to the last
little bit before going back for my well-earned beer.
So how was that beer, Jamie?
That beer was exceptional, it always is after venturing into nature
like that. Nice contrast between last week's episode where we met the people
of Air Putih, and this week it was just about going back to nature really.
Admittedly it wasn't as 'awesome' as some of the drone shots in previous episodes
because the lighting wasn't great, and there was a real mix of camerawork there.
That's unfortunately one of the things that we have to compromise on when you
go out in the kayak, to use that little waterproof camera.
Yeah, but it told a good story, I still think it's great. That episode with the
fruit bat and the sea eagle... you know I'm so sorry I didn't capture it
I missed it by about three seconds, you can hear me sort of swearing in the wind as
I as I just saw this incredible sight. I think it's...
the only other sight that I've seen that matches that is when we saw the wild
tiger in India. Oh yeah that was the moment to never ever forget. I'm so
jealous you saw the eagle with the bat in its talons, it's extraordinary. I mean you
know how I have this funny pet hate of the use of the word 'awesome'?
That was awesome! I mean it was just an incredible sight to see. I looked it up,
the fruit bat has a wingspan of about 1.7 meters [yeah, they're flying foxes they're
known as aren't they?] that's right. Whereas this eagle (and you get sea eagles
all over the world) and this particular sea eagle in Southeast Asia, their wingspan
grows to about two point one meters! So, I mean you know, this - it's like this.
But not much difference between a fruit bat and a sea eagle. So this sea eagle has got rich
pickings with all these, you know, big - and and I think the bodies of you know fruit
bats at least - but just I mean it really was the most amazing sight of
nature I have ever seen. It just blew me away.
I'm afraid it's no David Attenborough episode you know, we didn't have a whole
bank of camera crew there recording the scene. The fruit bat of course is
very common around here. Yeah we've seen them really since
southern India haven't we, so been watching them for the last five years. They're always
brilliant to watch.And at night when they stream across the the sky to their
picking grounds, it's like a motorway of bats... Anyway I just wanted to say I like
your hat. Oh why thank you very much Elizabeth! That's a nice segue. So this is
one of our new 'Esper' hats! It is indeed. And it's available in our shop. And I
think it's about time we put out another little discount code I think? Why not?
We've got new hats, we've also got cats as well. Yeah we've got quite a few new items in the
shop. So yeah, what we'll do is we'll send out a discount code to everyone on our
mailing list. So if you haven't yet signed up then please do. We'll put a link in
the description, and in the next week or two we'll send out a little discount
code for new items in the shop. And I think you want to say something
about sharing? Yes, yes! A number of you have been starting to
share our videos and our photos on Instagram and Facebook and so forth, and
you know what? It really helps. It's helping us meet new people online, and
we've got more and more subscribers! So if you want to help us get the word out,
you can do that really easily simply by sharing this video or any other video
that we produce. Doesn't cost a penny! Of course, if you want to support us as well
on Patreon or Rum Fund, there is always that option. But just sharing, liking and
commenting helps us enormously on YouTube. And don't forget to subscribe if
you haven't subscribed to our channel. If you just stumble across this video, we
put out one episode a week, sometimes two. Sometimes we put out a couple of
episodes. We've got a few extras lined up as well. So stay tuned! And in the
meantime... peace and fair winds! 👍