New day new island

We wake this morning and Oji greets us with coffee. Once again it's the packing ritual and sometimes I feel like it would be easier just to stay in places and island hop but it's booked now. As I'm walking to the ferry I bump into Nico's girlfriend who was a diving instructor in kho phi phi in Thailand all those months ago and is now working in Neil's diving shop in Gili T. We chat for a few minutes before I have to head for the ferry. When I arrive to the ferry port Bobby tells me I need to go to the ticketing office as there is an issue with the Komodo trip. When I arrive Alex explains that the government are now going to charge an extra entrance fee for Komodo Island. I check online I'm find out that it's going to be an extra 3.7 million rupee as of the first of August. This is like an additional £200 which makes the trip nearly double what I paid for it. I'm doing mount Rinjani on Monday but can move that to Sunday and potentially move the Komodo trip to Wednesday instead which will mean I evade the fee. I manage to get it sorted and I really regret booking the trip with the guy as he keeps changing the parameters and agreements, and this is the problem when you are traveling, you book things in a little shack and will probably never see the guy again. The boat is leaving for gili Meno and we have to run to make it and as I climb on board I nearly drop my big rucksack overboard. I'm feeling pretty stressed when we arrive but we dump our bags and head out for breakfast as it's only 10am and the room isn't ready yet. I start to chill as I sit on the dock of the bay eating jam and toast and drinking coffee. Meno is definitely a more chilled vibe than gili t and after brekky we take our usual walk around the whole island. The first thing we stumble across is the turtle sanctuary. I speak with the lady called watta. She has worked at the sanctuary for over 20 years. The sanctuary has 4 different Pools with baby turtle ranging from 1 day old to 4 months. They bring the turtles in here as when the mother's lay the eggs on the beach they are prone to predators and the idea is they keep the babies here till they are at least 9 months old so they have a fighting chance. I guess this must work to a degree as in the waters here you are guaranteed to see turtles. They depend totally on contributions here and have a donation box and sell sanctuary memorabilia here to raise funds. Once again on this island they are very good at keeping the island clean. Recycling all the plastic and I love this because compared to somewhere like Semporna they will maintain the beauty and wildlife here and it just boils down to a little education and awareness that cost nothing. We walk the island diverting to the huge lake. It is a saltwater lake spanning approx 8 hectares and is surrounded by mangroves. Back to the beach I collect little shells and pieces of broken coral the difference between them is amazing, so many shapes and colours. A little further along is a shack which I jump behind and pretend I'm the new Peggy Mitchell behind my bar. We enjoy lunch halfway around the island before hiring a snorkel to go and see the turtles. Exhausted we head back to the chalet and eat locally before retiring to bed.Læs mere