Sumbawa, full of surprises 🤩

Sumbawa = lots of unexpected fun 😲
Leaving Komodo super chilled, we were ready for some serious passage making 😉, i.e., big days motoring, no snorkelling, no exploration stops 😢. Lol, our plans quickly changed to include a ⛰️ crater hike, surprise visitors, sleepovers, whale sharks & surf ❤️.
With wind in our sails & making good progress, I convinced Ted (with a wee bit of begging) that we had plenty of time for a 4 day detour to swim with whale sharks... top of my 🪣 list.
Our revised trip plan gave us the opportunity to invite Hilly & his lovely family, who own & manage Lakey Peak Surf Haven for a boat adventure. Amazingly, they made it happen at short notice, driving 4hrs across to us, bringing not only their wonderful selves for a sleepover but lots of yummy, fresh goodies. 24hrs together.... lots of 😁, some 🎣🤿 😴 & unfortunately a little bit of 🤢🤮, before the Hill tribe returned to their fortnighlty (& crazy long 🤪) Sumbawa/Lombock/Bali commute (🏘🚙⛴️🚙⛴️ 🚙🏡 -🚙⛴️🚙⛴️ 🚙🏘) for school & business Thank you, Hill Family, for sharing yourselves & loads of local knowhow....we in awe & still not sure how you pull it off... we won't be winging about our 10-hour drive to Perth again 🫠
With a 4am start 😱 the next day, we travelled with sailing buddies SV Sheer Tenacity across Saleh Bay in a took-took boat, arriving at 🌅 to find several whale sharks at the back of a fishing boat. It took 3 minutes to get my snorkelling gear on & into the water... It took 3 hrs to get me back out 😆. What an amazing, mind-blowing experience.... 6 sharks came & went, not caring that I was floating alongside them. Whilst gathering at the boats was initiated by the sharks many years ago, the fishermen now mix a small amount of shrimp with slashing water to keep them interested. The local conservation centre reports 77% return & these are mostly juveniles. We read mixed views about the practice of feeding the sharks for tourism...our experience was its still very local/low key here, it was obvious the operators work together & with conservation efforts & when Ted climbed up on the fishing boat (of course he did), he saw they only use a tiny amount of food.
We were back on ⛵️ by noon to pull ⚓️ & catch the tide out as a growing swell meant a 2nd detour....Ted🤞to get 🌊 & 🏄‍♂️ along SW Sumbawa. Tides definitely rule the roost here... we are either racing along with 2-3knts extra or going 🐌 pace. The scenery is different too.. coastline is mostly rural/ farming with wandering 🐄 🐎 🐐 on the beaches.
Navigating down the straight between Sumbawa & Lombok was an interesting mix of dodging ferries ⛴️, fighting ripping tides & trying to capture wind so we pulled up @ 1st surf 🏄‍♂️ break, about 1/2 way down the coast. This ended up being a good call as huge swell made lower anchorages gnarly. Unfortunately, for goofy footer Ted, the break Northern Rights is... no surprise, a right 😆 so in between some stoinker rides, there were also a few dunkings & close moments with the reef.
Our Sumbawa time has been wonderful... wrapped up with fun, food & the Speedy's (Cindy & Sierra), who drove up from Tropicals, for a surprise sleepover, bringing so many amazing food goodies 🦀 🦐 🐟 🍇 🍍🍅🍉🍈🍆🥕🌽🧀 🧈 🥚🍶☕️🍺🍺🍺 that Ted & I are still joy eating 😋 .... especially our favs from Oz ❤️. Thank you Speedy's for your company (we felt like we were home) & being super Indo shoppers. More visits for sure as we will be hanging out on neighbouring 🏝 Lombok.
The current plan is to make Del Ray Marina our homebase for a few months (until we fly home end of July), & OtDs home for a bit longer as we are leaving her in Indo instead of racing back to OZ this year.

If interested, info on Sumbawa Whale Shark conservation....
https://whalesharksalehbay.com/whale-shark-sale…Read more