My grandparents visited! By Emelia.

Our grandparents, Loulou and Pa, came to stay with us recently!

They flew into the airport in Komodo area, where we picked them up and went sailing over the horizon to an island called Banta.

It was around 4 hours away from Labuan Bajo, the main town in Komodo.

The island was big, with long fingers coming out from the centre. It used to be a volcano, but now it is only half a volcano as one side was blown away by the force of the eruptions.

The giant fingers were actually formed by the lava flowing down from the top.

We anchored up in between two of the fingers where it was calm and out of the wind and then we went on a mission in the dinghy to find a dive spot for dad and I!

There was a little island just behind our boat, to the side of one of the fingers that looked like a good snorkel and dive spot, so we sped over there in the dinghy and hopped into the cool water.

As soon as I hopped in I was surrounded by little fish! They were everywhere and not afraid of me either, ‘not many people must come here’, I thought, if they are not scared.

I looked around and there was a whole garden of beautiful soft corals. Mostly greens and darker colours with the occasional red and yellow. It was not the most colourful coral we have seen but it was like a blanket smothering the bottom of the bay.

By the time we got back to the boat from our snorkel there was not enough light to dive so we decide to go first thing the next day.

The next morning, I was so excited! I got up straight away and started to get my gear organized, fitting my tank to my bcd and my reg to the tank and bcd.

We had a quick bite to eat and then we were off!! Everyone came, as Loulou and Pa, Noah and Libby were going to snorkel above us while we dived and mum was driving the dinghy to watch us all.

We all set off toward the beautiful reef! I LOVE diving so I was very excited!!

At the spot, dad helped get my gear on then I rolled backward off the dinghy into the water. Dad and I slowly descended and I started to look around me. I saw a small stingray, some nudibranchs and hundreds of fish drifting with the gentle current, just like we were doing. I looked up and saw Loulou and Pa waving at us. the water was so clear!

After a while I got cold, so we went up and all headed back to the boat to warm up and have lunch.

Our next stop was a village called Bira. It is well known for the huge boats they build on the shore. We stopped here because Pa wanted to see the ships and is into woodwork.

As we drove to the shore in the dingy we all started at the 2 monstrous ships that were looming in front of us. They were HUGE!

Pa wanted to get a closer look at them so we asked the local people if we could look inside, they said ‘yes’.

As we climbed the side plank to look inside, we saw all the workers in bare feet using huge chainsaws and sanders!

Where is the safety in this place! Some were wearing jandals too. They all had their toes still so they must be quite good at their jobs!

Noah and mum, with his Ark!

They had a boat named after me! Just a slight spelling error!

Loulou and the little kids that followed us

From the boat beach, we sailed to an island called Moyo. It is not a big island but it has something very special there.

It is famous for its waterfall, called Mata Jitu. Many people go there to see it, even famous people!

It was a 7km round trip so we decided to go in the morning, to avoid it being so hot while we walked. It was a bit of a walk!

Starting our walk

The path was dusty, rocky and dry. It was pretty hot but luckily there was lots of shade to walk in as the sun was not too high. We saw all the cashew plantation trees and the little huts the workers must live in at the harvest time, maybe to scare off the monkeys we thought.

It took us about 1.5 hours to get there. The final 600 m or so was shady and cool and we could hear the water bubbling away. We ran as we were so excited!

We finally got there and saw the pools. There were lots of pools flowing into each other with limestone all around. It was really beautiful!

We played in the top pools, it was very refreshing after the hot and sweaty walk, then we all walked down to the bottom and looked back up at the big falls. It was impressive!

There were more pools down that end and we swam in them and played under the icy water coming over the falls.

The waterfall was dumping onto the smooth rocks below, under the overhang of the falls were long stalactite like things the water was running off.

Loulou and Pa having a swim by the edge in the big pool.

I had a shower under the falls! It felt like someone was pounding on my shoulders!

I found the cutest little frog when I was getting out. It was tiny like a 10c coin. I showed it to Loulou and Pa and they loved it!

Libby, with her frog like mine!

On the walk back we were all tired so we asked for piggy backs from dad and Pa. Dad said I was too big now, but he tried anyway! It was funny.

We sailed to another island called Gili Air the next day. This is by the big island of Lombok.

Pa did lots of the sailing at the helm as he loves to be on the water!

We stayed at Gili Air with them for a few more days. We got to do some fun things like hire bikes and ride around the island, go to nice restaurants and have dinner out and play on the beach while the sun set and the adults had a drink.