By Tutus Wijanarko

After having finished exhausting dives, we had a rest aboard the Menami in the afternoon. We dived in Rusa Island and SoyangCape that day which are located in Pantar, Alor. The contour of Rusa Island reflects those of a drain with patchy reefs and sand banks in between. Encrusting coral dominates the substrate which indicates naturally occurring ecosystem restoration following reef damage by previous potassium and blast fishing activities. Soyang Cape is characterised by its strong current which is not easy to swim against during reef and fish surveys. Stronger kicks are necessary if we were to dive and swim forward in this area. Many times did the teams maneuver off the reefs.Soyang Bay is also part of Alor KKPD, located in the southwest of Pantar Island and it was the last dive site to monitor the impacts of marine reserves in Alor. We also waved goodbye to the arduous dive against the current.

As soon as we finished diving, we headed to the west towards Larantuka, East Flores to continue the expedition. Menami’s captain, Saleh, arranged the route through the southern path to reach our destination. It took about 10 hours to get there and we left Soyang Bay at around 12pm WITA.

In the afternoon we passed through Lembata region in which Lamalera, a district part famous for its traditional whale-hunting activity, is located. LembataDistrict hosts extensive green hills with lush trees stretching from one corner to another, providing thick canopy.Some parts, however, were dessert-like filled with black sand which added characters to the landscape.In the eastern horizon, the sky appeared to have changed in colour; the white sky faded and sunset took over the clear blue sky. This was what we had been waiting for aboard the Menami: God’s very own majestic painting on such extraordinarily vast canvas. The orange strokes that became red and darker as the night called never ceased to stun us. The afternoon, then, marked another beautiful end of the day as we sailed to Larantuka.