The morning looked a bit dodgy once again, but as it was
Iyan’s second last day with us, I decided to make the most of the day and head
over to both Gili Meno and Gili Air in the dinghy to take a look as none of us
had been over there before.
The weather looked reasonable, although hot as hell so we
got ready and headed over to Gili Meno and parked the dinghy on a beach on the
eastern side and started to walk around the Island. There was massive damage caused
by the recent earth quake and some of the large resorts were totally destroyed
and completely abandoned.
It was really sad to see. There were even ATM’s tipped over
that had been ransacked and expensive furniture scattered out in the open
abandoned to the elements and swimming pools full of green water. As this
Island doesn’t get a fraction of the tourists that Trawangan does, there is no
cash flow to repair or rebuild most of these damaged buildings.
By the time we got half way around the Island we were all
knackered, so we waved down a frothy horse and negotiated a price to take us
the rest of the way. It turned out to be a good decision.
In the center of the Island was a large lake that was once
very beautiful, but now is a dirty polluted decease festering mess.
One thing that was very noticeable on this Island was the server
erosion taking place around the shore line due to global warming.
Bad erosion on Gili Memo
There were tall trees, shop fronts and foot paths all collapsing
into the water. On Trawangan, they must be constantly repairing the erosion damage
as it happens so you don’t notice it, but here with the few tourists and
limited funds it’s slowly eating their Island away and there is nothing they
can do about it.
We had some lunch at a small resort near the dinghy before
heading off once again to Gili Air. As soon as we arrived at Gili Air the skies
opened up and it poured down so we took refuge in a small bar. It wasn’t long
till the rain stopped and off we headed again walking around the Island in a
clockwise direction.
This Island had some very nice resorts and home stays, lots
of shops and bars, but was very quiet and low key compared to Trawangan. We
managed to walk right around this Island and it started to rain again just as
we were getting close to the dinghy and we got saturated.
The sky started to darken and I was concerned we might lose visibility
on the journey back to Gili Trawangan five miles away, so I decided we should
leave immediately and try to outrun the weather.
It was a good decision, at first we had driving rain
stinging our faces, but by the time we made it back to Sirocco we were in
bright sunshine with black storm clouds rolling in behind us.
After nice hot showers, we dined in as the weather raged
outside and I was glad we changed moorings as I might get a full night’s sleep
tonight.
Chilling out at night
Gili Trawangan
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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