Fun in Dili

Hi it’s now Thursday the 9th of April… and another hot day in Dili.

Yesterday we tried to book a water taxi to go to Atauro island 36km north of Dili. Water taxi did not run today so we asked Caesar (Rina’s brother) if he could rouse up a boat for us to get to the island.

At 8am this morning I got a tap on our window by Caesar saying he has a boat for us and it was to leave at 9.30am. We scrambled together, had breakie, cleaned up, packed up, and took off to the Port area to catch the boat.

For the past 6 days we have had a hire car. Caesar dropped us off at the Port and he returned the car for us back to Rina’s work – she is the finance manager at the car rental place.

Before we left Caesar we gave him food and drinks for his family as a reward for all his assistance over the last week.

The boat we caught to Atauro island was a long dug out with a 15 hp outboard motor 2 out riggers. 3 crew on board – one driving, one bailing water out, and one sleeping. The trip across part of the Timor sea took about 2.5 hours – a bit bumpy and wet towards the end. Donna and I got pretty burnt.

We arrived on the island at about 1pm.

A local Timorese fella piled all our gear into the back of his 3 wheeled motor bike, we jumped in on top of the gear. The rider had 2 of his kids up front with him, full load me thinks.

We travelled on this good gravel road for about 3km to a place called “Barry’s Place On Atauro”. Scottie Menser back homer recommended this place. It is a lovely quiet layback place with grass huts on the beach. As soon as we arrived we took to the water – crystal clear 25m visibility and great temperature.

Donna not well. 🙁 I went and found a doctor this morning and got some medication for her runs and cramps.

When we arrived here before our swim we had lunch. It’s all local food and very nice. Thanks Scottie for the recommendation! We will stay here till Monday morning. Our cars are due into the port of Dili on Saturday. Hopefully by Monday we should be able to take possession of them and be on our way west to Kupang to catch the next ferry.

Tomorrow will be more swimming and diving in the crystal water. Will try another area where there is suppose to be more coral and marine life.

10th April

Donna feeling much better as the medication has kicked in. 🙂

Today we received a document that must be presented to the port authority for the release of the cars.