Raja fun with crew... continued

Week 2: Leaving Friwin Island, with julie (🪵 👀) out the front, we ⛵️ west along the bottom of Gam 🏝 to Yanggelo 🏝 & one of the best 🥇 snorkelling spots we have visited so far. We ⚓️ near an abandoned homestay, well protected from occasional squalls & out of busy tourist traffic. We found hard and soft 🪸 growing in the currents around the island & a myriad of 🐟🐠 , including wrass, coral trout, clownfish, batfish, and even a big mangrove jack. Above water, we had beautiful 🦜🦜 songs in the surrounding mangrove jungle & watched 2 herons fishing off the old jetty (perfect sundowner 🍺 spoz). We swam, padle boarded, snorkelled... & then snorkelled some more over an amazing 2 night stay.
Then, wrapping up a 2-week Raja tour, we left to look for Manta cleaning station @ Bantanta 🏝, arriving early arvo everyone straight into swimming gear & water... super excited. After a little bit, we located the favourite spot/ rock cluster & the Mantas circling in for their grooming session. Unfortunately, a strong tial movement meant it wasn't the clearest, but this didn't diminish our WOW at watching such magical creatures 😍.
Back on OtD, the weather changed quickly 🌬⛈️🌧 & we soon had 🌊 come over the bow. With self-appointed & 🦇💩 crazy Storm Riders (Julie & Ma) getting drenched out the front, we pushed out & around the corner to a more protected anchorage for the night. We buzz back 1st thing in the morning to learn that Manta beauty treatments don't start early. While waiting, Ma & I jumped in to check out the nearby reef....we quickly jumped back out when a 🐊 joined us 😆. (previous post).
Travelling east along top of Bantanta, we stop 1 night (& washed) at Waterfall Bay & 1 night Ayumi 🏝. Here we swam, snorkelled & chilled on the ⛱️ for hours... sustained by coconuts 🥥 😋
We travelled into Sorong on the 12th, through 🌞☁️⛅️⛈️🌧, so the crew could get sorted for early ✈️ the next day... as it was stinky hot, & to distract our 😔 crew, we spent the arvo watching 🚢 🚣‍♂️ 🛥 🛶 ⛵️ with🍺 🍟 down @ the Marina.
With big hugs, we said goodbye 👋 ... super greatfull for Ma, Pa & Jules leaving us with topped up on laughs, love and fun memories ❤️

Fun facts about Clownfish (video)
THEY....
* are common here in Raja. We have been lucky to spot several different types ... big, small, pink face, black stripe, racing stripe & and Nemo's extended family.
* are carnivorous omnivores & can grow to 11cm, average being 8cm
* perform an elaborate dance with anemone before taking up residence.
* have a layer of mucus on their skin that makes them immune to the anemone fish eating lethal stingBaca lagi