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With the ear infection, the flight back to Honiara wasn't the most fun I've ever had but after getting cleared, headed for an overnight stay in Brisbane, Australia before flying on to Bali. Ear did okay but twinged the whole way. Unfortunately, fate intervened again. We didn't know a cyclone was approaching Brisbane which made the flight a bumpy mess & the landing wasn't the smoothest.
Then we SAT at the gate because the lightning was striking so fast, safety procedures wouldn't let them extend the gate. Okay, it's not safe to extend the gate but it's okay for us to sit in an aluminum tube loaded with jet fuel?
2 hours later, we finally made it off. Guess consider myself lucky, the rest of the flights were diverted to Sydney. Then they rescheduled my early flight to Bali the next day to an evening flight. Not able to sleep by the time I reached my hotel, I found an early morning flight to Bali that was still on schedule, grabbed a taxi & got to the airport to beg Virgin Airline to reschedule me. It was still iffy, but we made it off after an hour delay.
Getting to Alor is even more remote than most. Overnighted in Denpassr, then flew out to Kupang where I overnighted again. Gave me time to find an actually very nice mall where I could pick up snacks for my stay in Alor.
Getting to Alor means taking Wings Airlines. Wings is the "low cost" division of Lion Airline that had a downed 747 Max a few months earlier. Another commuter to Alor, then an hour long drive, through one lane road, some just dirt to Alami Alor Resort.
Located in a volcanic ridge channel with swift currents, so you had to be careful & time being on the house reef but lovely accomodations. Wasn't sure ear was going to take earplugs but it would be okay about an hour at a time, then a rest.
View from my patio of the channel with the inactive volcano in the background. It was also home to a number of pearl farms. I tried to get a raiding party up to "visit" the one nearest to us, but nobody wanted to risk Indonesian jail.
Besides the fishies, enjoyed watching the crabs & urchins as they moved about the reef.
One of the most mild of the eels, a snowflake eel. They are very active & pop out suddenly but don't pay much attention to humans.
Ringed Pipefish.
Family of Anemonefish. They always come out to watch you.
The beautiful Mandarinfish. Active mainly at dusk & night, very shy & not large. Hard to spot.
Stunning find. A Strawberry Nudibranch. Nudibranchs are basically sea slugs, ranging from tiny to good size. They are usually only seen by divers, but Alor had many varieties at the surface of the reef, easy enough for me to spot snorkeling. This beauty was several inches long. The next day, we found TWO of them mating, even more of a find. Then found nudibranch eggs on the reef. Amazing.
Nice size Trumpetfish taking a rest on a coral.
Finally, one of the three land crabs who shared my outdoor shower. They like to come out & sit under my wetsuit after I washed it. And they liked Pringles.
The house reef was amazing, full of different creatures, eels, lobster, octopus, nudibranchs & several baby blacktip sharks (mom & day visited with us in the afternoons). It's a long journey to get there but well worth the effort for both divers & snorkelers.
Then we SAT at the gate because the lightning was striking so fast, safety procedures wouldn't let them extend the gate. Okay, it's not safe to extend the gate but it's okay for us to sit in an aluminum tube loaded with jet fuel?
2 hours later, we finally made it off. Guess consider myself lucky, the rest of the flights were diverted to Sydney. Then they rescheduled my early flight to Bali the next day to an evening flight. Not able to sleep by the time I reached my hotel, I found an early morning flight to Bali that was still on schedule, grabbed a taxi & got to the airport to beg Virgin Airline to reschedule me. It was still iffy, but we made it off after an hour delay.
Getting to Alor is even more remote than most. Overnighted in Denpassr, then flew out to Kupang where I overnighted again. Gave me time to find an actually very nice mall where I could pick up snacks for my stay in Alor.
Getting to Alor means taking Wings Airlines. Wings is the "low cost" division of Lion Airline that had a downed 747 Max a few months earlier. Another commuter to Alor, then an hour long drive, through one lane road, some just dirt to Alami Alor Resort.
Located in a volcanic ridge channel with swift currents, so you had to be careful & time being on the house reef but lovely accomodations. Wasn't sure ear was going to take earplugs but it would be okay about an hour at a time, then a rest.
View from my patio of the channel with the inactive volcano in the background. It was also home to a number of pearl farms. I tried to get a raiding party up to "visit" the one nearest to us, but nobody wanted to risk Indonesian jail.
Besides the fishies, enjoyed watching the crabs & urchins as they moved about the reef.
One of the most mild of the eels, a snowflake eel. They are very active & pop out suddenly but don't pay much attention to humans.
Ringed Pipefish.
Family of Anemonefish. They always come out to watch you.
The beautiful Mandarinfish. Active mainly at dusk & night, very shy & not large. Hard to spot.
Stunning find. A Strawberry Nudibranch. Nudibranchs are basically sea slugs, ranging from tiny to good size. They are usually only seen by divers, but Alor had many varieties at the surface of the reef, easy enough for me to spot snorkeling. This beauty was several inches long. The next day, we found TWO of them mating, even more of a find. Then found nudibranch eggs on the reef. Amazing.
Nice size Trumpetfish taking a rest on a coral.
Finally, one of the three land crabs who shared my outdoor shower. They like to come out & sit under my wetsuit after I washed it. And they liked Pringles.
The house reef was amazing, full of different creatures, eels, lobster, octopus, nudibranchs & several baby blacktip sharks (mom & day visited with us in the afternoons). It's a long journey to get there but well worth the effort for both divers & snorkelers.
