The rats still won. Last night they knocked my hard plastic dive goggle case to the floor which popped the lock and they stole my biscuits. We were warned, the sign said; They love your biscuits.

We don’t quite no how to organise things without the owner here. But Solan is keen for an outing. There are some faded handwritten notes on the wall. Prices for day tours. And with the cook Nowa we made a plan for something, anything. She says one day four people, next day four people. Nope, we all want in. So we have four couples split between two boats Claudia, Chiara, Solan and Thierence in one . Steve, Cal, Jenni and I in the second boat. We head across a beautiful bay between islands. It is so beautiful.

At home we have a neighbour who gets hours of noisy pleasure out of his lawnmower, whipper snipper and leafblower. He sometimes runs his boat motor too but nothing has prepared us for this

Our boat has a of pair of the noisiest Honda 160cc 4 stroke single cylinder engines, running without exhausts. And even better -they are out of sync. our boat required two drivers because the motors weren’t side by side as well as a navigator/pole punter.

My fingers are wedged firmly in my ears except to take photos. Because we haven’t been able to charge our phones (no power) I have my waterproof camera only and almost immediately my camera says..card error.
No pics today. But I haven’t enough hands in the boat anyway. And Oh the scenery is stunning. Little rocky islands rise out of the ocean all around. They look like leafy green cupcakes.

We stop. There is a boardwalk away from the beach, seemingly going nowhere. There is an empty beach and jungle..is it a hotel that got cancelled?
Milton hasn’t much english. Me, in Indo – is there a hotel? “No.” is this for snorkelling? “Yes.” he points away from the beach. For walking? “Yes.” We followed the finger. He stayed on the boat.

Over the hump we came to a lake and a sign. Danau Ubur Ubur/Jellyfish lake. I’d seen there was a jellyfish tour amongst the options..why would I bother, they look just like the ones in the river at Freo. The lake is maybe 80 metres from the beach and has a jetty. Which seems a lot for just us. We’ve seen no other tourists today.

I assured everyone these jellyfish don’t sting and we all jumped in. The water was the most beautiful aqua and there were thousands of smaller brown jellies. It was quite lovely. I swam across the width – about 150metres. Then I dived down..it was the weirdest experience, the water got hotter and hotter. And more curious there were different jellyfish, white saucer jellies down there. And one brushed my lip. Ooo, a little scratchy tingle. Well, that’s not reeeally a sting.

I did another dive . Yep, its definitely a thing. It’s hotter deeper down. Uncomfortably hot.

And now everyone else dived. Then we discussed it as a group . All our theories about thermal springs and volcanoes . Chiara asked Steve what was his theory. He said -“it’s cool on top and it’s hotter underneath .” Chiara replied “THAT is a fact, NOT a theory.”

We trundled back to our boats. And off around the corner for a snorkel. Here there is sea grass and sand and then the corals begin about 20 metres from shore. My favourite; a fish I followed for quite a while in and out of weed a delightful little fish that had neat green checks. She looks like she is wearing pyjamas..the white stripes and bars amazingly good camouflage in the weed.

Our next stop is a mangrove forest. Another big boardwalk and this one is rotting. We follow each other. Pick or way between rotting boards.
Stay above the beams, says Steve. A plank breaks under Jenni’s foot. Chiara says its like Quit Race on Netflix. The French couple know it too. Huge in Europe last year. Contestants died.

I’m not expecting to be awed but these are different to the mangroves I’ve seen before. The ones at the back are maybe 30 – 40 metres tall.
These are serious trees with great roots.
Again we are the only ones there .

Lunch has been set out for us when we return. The food that had been packed for us…hot food that had arrived with the cook at 6 am fish, rice and a mystery squash dish, labu sium, ( later the cook brings one to show me it’s choko) we cleared our plates and stacked them. The scraps were promptly thrown into the water by the boat crew. Probably thought hopeless westerners can’t they clean up after themselves? A bouquet of banana skins is left floating behind us. The fish liked everything else.

We board the boat for 45 more noisy minutes. A big jetty looms up in the middle of the ocean. California Reef. Really? California Reef? does it have a local name? It’s a really shallow coral reef. Maybe an area of a couple of hectares. Snorkeled for at least an hour. Some bits are too shallow to snorkel over. Its fabulous being so close to all the brilliant little fish and slugs and starfish

We would swim into really hot water patches again and again. With no bubbles and no idea where the heat source drifted from.. Oo, there’s a lot going on underground around here.

The sea is as calm as a millpond. Steves dive watch records the minimum temperature as 31 degrees.. warmer than the cold water bucket shower in our room.

Content and happy we began a slow journey back.

The other boat has only one motor working. Oh I wish we had one less noisy motor. I tied my towel around my head as a muffler.

We return to Sunset Beach a very friendly jovial group. And we also have the solar thing sorted. Phones are charged for tomorrow. No Internet but I can take photos and do blog notes… it’s been a good day.