Angel's travels: Togian Islands / Sulawesi

I heard from other travellers that this part of Indonesia should be very beautiful and quite untouched and remote. As my final destination in Indonesia I decided to spend three weeks on Sulawesi and found out for myself.

It took me two internal flights (Denpasar-Makassar-Palu) to reach the North of the Island followed by a 13 hours car ride at night through the mountains to reach Ampena which is the gateway to the Togian Islands. I was lucky to enjoy a lift from our resort by speedboat to reach the Island of Kadidiri where I would spend my first week. The boat ride took 1,5 hrs on open sea but at some point the Islands appeared and you could see the beauty from the sea. Some of them were habitat with villages but others looked very remote and deserted. I felt I was in for a treat so when we reached Kadidiri I could hear Chris Martin sing “para para paradise, para para paradis “ and I felt I’ve just reached it. The sea was so clear you could see the reef and fish, the beaches were sandy and yellow with little beach fronted huts on it.

The resorts are on full board basis as there are no restaurants or shops on the island, there were 3 resorts on this side of the island so there’s a big community feeling as you meet with everyone 3 times a day for your meals and spend time at the beach or diving.

The rest of the afternoon I adapted to this situation and relaxed in the sun and sea before having my dinner.

On day two I was ready for finally testing my diving skills so I planned two dives for that day to get under water. We went out with a full boat to go to Catacombes to see some coral and fish, the water was very rough so I started to get a little bit worried how to deal with this on open water. When we finally reached ‘the spot’ the boat was moving up and down and one of the instructors asked us if we were OK to dive with heavy current…….. now I really got worried and for a nano second I thought I had to aboard this dive and try again. When I finally got in I was anxious and nervous for the first half hour as I needed to get comfortable again under water and master my buoyancy correctly before I could enjoy the rest of the dive and spot a stingray, cleaner shrimps, squat lobster, clown trigger fish and beautiful corals. The last 15 minutes I felt comfortable and was able to enjoy the underwater world again which gave me the push to continue and get my Advanced Adventure certificate in the next couple of days. My second dive that day would be part of my course so we went to the Mini Canyon for a deep dive (max 30 metres) which would allow me in the future to dive deeper than 18 metres which is the max depth if you only have your Open water certificate.

So I went to Mini Canyon with Irish instructor Nick and travel/dive companion Teemu. I had troubles with my left ear again to get used to the pressure so the first 5 minutes I just had to float around to get comfortable. During this dive we would do some exercises to test our skills but we started with some fun after we’ve reached the depth of 27 metres. Nick took an egg out and opened it so we could play ‘ping pong’ with the yolk, it didn’t break at all due the high pressure.

Day three was a cloudy and rainy day again which everyone said was very unusual for the time of the year. The morning dive was to the B24 bomber which came down during

WWII and made a perfectly safe water landing which resulted that the wreck is complete intact! It’s only 12 metres deep so the underwater vision is great to explore and swim around the wreck. Due to the aluminium it’s not eroded and the fish, coral, plants and other species have taken over the plane. It’s too small to get inside but you can see the inside of the cockpit and you can almost take a seat behind the steering wheel.

There are many lion fish – which are poisones – and I spotted a beautiful shell which is called tiger cowries. This dive was the only one for that day which in the end was a good thing as I’ve caught nasty bacteria so I was banned to stay in my room for the rest of the day.

Day four, unfortunately I still was suffering from the bacteria and felt very weak from the loss of the fluids so I couldn’t do any dives this day and just crashed in the hammock for most of it taking in the daily life at Kadidiri. Usually after breakfast people leave for diving or just stay at the resort to relax. There’s a nice big cabana overhanging the water to lounge in one of the many cushions or deck chairs, crash on one of the bean bags which are scattered around the coastline too. The only entertainment are the dogs, our resort had Rocky, Masker, Dive, Suntu (dive watch) which became one of my best friends and Rocky tried to sneak into my room every night and sleep under the bed. One day we came back from our dive when the staff said that Rocky was locked up in our room (without us knowing) so I had to deal with a stressed dog, ripped curtains and smelly room!

They are all males to avoid an outbreak of dogs on the island - the owner tries to have a no female policy on dogs but the neighbours didn’t co-operate- so there were three adorable puppies next door to get some puppy love and cuddles.

At the end of the day I felt I was on the mend with the help from donated medications so I planned to have a dive the next day.

Day five I continued with my course, the morning dive was to test and improve my perfect buoyance so we went to Little Lempeh which was a sandy area suitable for this dive. After the exercises we searched for underwater life and saw scorpion fish, sea cucumbers, emperor shrimps, squat lobster and chocolate chip starfish.

The afternoon I had time to relax for my planned night dive; this is a great experience and so different than a dive during the day. You make your way when it’s dark to your dive site which was in my case called China Town (lots of Mandarin fish) kitted with two torches and briefed what to expect. I was excited and anxious at the same time so after we ‘rolled’ into the water I felt a bit uncomfortable and had to adapt to the environment which is only lit by a torch. After we set off and started searching for night life I got used to and enjoy it. We had a bit of a boring night out and didn’t see much unfortunately so Nick our instructor said that this shouldn’t put us off for another one as usually you spot very different sea life which is very exciting.

Day six; today a full day with two dives to Una Una which is a Volcano Island and five quarters of an hour’s drive by fast boat.

So a group of six advanced divers went to this site which was supposed to be the best site in the area. Our first dive was at ‘Apollo’ and famous for the schools of barracudas so I was hoping to see these too. After a decent from 5-30 metres along a sandy slope we suddenly reached a strip of beautiful, colourful reef with many fish. It felt if I was transported into an aquarium as there were fish everywhere. It was a colourful sight with still in tack reef with plants, shells and indeed the school of barracudas. It looked surreal but amazing and for me the most beautiful sight I’ve seen as a diver. We also spotted a Moreno, many shrimps, trumpet fish, needle fish, batfish and (clownfish).

After a lunch and needed rest on shore we packed up and the captain drove is in the pouring rain to the next site called ‘Pinnacle’ this is a reef which unfortunately has been affected by dynamite fishing. This is in my eyes a very lazy way of fishing; you dump some dynamite into the sea which means that the fish its bladders gets blown up which helps them to stay underwater. The fish die and the fishermen just rake them in with nets and have month’s supply of fish and money. Most importantly the dynamite also blows up the coral reef and this won’t be able to recover any more or at least for the next half a century.

As soon as we jumped in and went underwater we were able to see fish, corals and this massive ‘wall’ of corals ahead of us. This area is very deep but you’ll see most fish around 12 metres so we just circled around the pinnacle to see explore this amazing site. At some point I just didn’t know where to look anymore as there were fish everywhere! The only thing you could see were colourful schools of fish, eating from the healthy coral or chasing each other. We slowly swam around the pinnacle and just took in the surroundings, at some point we saw turtle no 1eating and later on turtle no 2 who came to us to find out who these bubble blowing creatures were. Before we went up to the surface we saw a school of jack fish and some of us an octopus.

Day seven; after a couple of days of diving my left ear was in need of a rest so today no underwater fun planned. After a late breakfast and talking to other travellers it was time to enjoy the sun from the cabana and later on exploring the island. In the afternoon I wanted to walk through the jungle to an empty beach but people at the resort were quite protective about that and say you shouldn’t go too late and take some dogs! So we left with food, water and 3 dogs who would guide us through the jungle to the beach. It didn’t take long but the jungle is dense as there isn’t a path at all. The beach is beautiful with nobody else and due to the biscuits the dogs stayed with us too. After a couple of hours we made our way back but that was a bit more of a jungle trek as the dogs took another route more suitable for dogs rather than humans but we found our way back long before the sun would set.

Day eight; I had to finish one dive for my course which was the search and rescue dive with Teemu. We went to a dive site called little reef to do our exercises with instructor Nick. Once we were underwater we played ‘treasure hunt’ this meant that Teemu and I had to find a hidden plastic bottle in the sand by searching the area metre by metre. Angel was in the middle with a rope and Teemu at the other end of it swimming a 360degree circle and look for the treasure, after each circle I released the rope with a another couple of metres until we found it. The second task was to find the treasure (plastic bottle) to follow a 10 metre line of rope both from one end, when arrived at the other side we both measured 5 metres further and repeated the same until we found the treasure.

Then it was time to ‘recover’ some weights to the surface with a bag full of air (you blow air from your mouthpiece into the bag bit by bit until it start moving upwards) ones up you go down again to switch places and do it all over again.

After we successfully finished this it was time to have some fun and explore the reef but we used a lot of oxygen so not much time left to see that this reef is still intact and beautiful with lots of fish.

That was the end of my course and diving at Kadidiri and as a tradition you need to celebrate that with the locals. That evening after dinner our Indonesian dive assistants Jenley and Fenley took a guitar and some bongo’s to the cabana and started playing songs. After we gathered a crowed it was time to get some Arak (local palm tree wine) to finish the evening in style. Jenley told us that we had to go to next door accommodation and ask for it and it shouldn’t cost more than 50.000 rupiahs. Teemu returned with 3 plastic (freezer) bags of clear liquid for that price which filled half a jug and many glasses. As this is a much cheaper way to have fun we went back for a refill later on as for 50.000 rp 6 people could drink two cocktails which is the same price as for one large Bintang beer! We continued the evening listening to music and singing till lights went off at 23.00. We enjoyed the amazing sky with many stars for a while before heading back to our rooms .

Nick and Zena thank you so much for all the dives, instructions, patience and moral support which took diving for me to the next level. Both you are stars and made my stay at Black Marlin such a success and my appetite for diving.

Jenley and Fenley your enthusiasm for diving and the masters in finding the most little shrimps or fish between the anemones will stay with me for ever including your big smiles at any time of the day. Keep on enjoying diving and become a dive instructor!

Hope to see you all at some point underwater…..

Time for the second part of the Togians; after a 2 hours boat trip to the Island called La Bomba I arrived at a place called Island Retreat for a week of chilling. This resort is very small and is focused on treating their guests to good food and service.

On arrival there was only one other guest and the newly arrived dive instructor Jazz who would stay there for the next 6 months.

The resort is very quiet and my beach fronted cottage has a big veranda with two hammocks for Teemu and me. The many dogs and cats are as chilled as the Island so it must rub off on you after a while. Soon after our arrival we enjoyed a delicious lunch which looked promising for the other meals to come. The rest of the afternoon I enjoyed the sun from my hammock till the rain came in and it got a bit colder too. The retreat has a beautiful garden with grass and now I understand why as there’s enough water to feed it!

The evening meal was a big fish with beans, salad and fried rice which may sound a bit boring but they use and know how to season food here so my taste buds love it very much after a week of bland, basic food.

The rest of our stay we enjoyed some trips to a Gypsy village, watching sunset, snorkeling and diving with the other guest as within 2 days the place was almost fully booked. You enjoy your meals together in the open air dining area so that creates a bond and you might go for a dive or snorkel trip later that day. Unfortunately, after 2 sunny days it was cloudy and we had lots of rain – even a storm- which was a real shame but good for catching up on my blog and reading e-books. Leaving the Island Retreat I will miss the Western style food from Ujung and the chilled time on my terrace watching the beautiful views.

It was time to slowly get back to internet, supermarkets, restaurants/bars, ATM’s and noisy/busy traffic.