Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
As we walked from the jetty to the school in Aduwey village, it was easy to see that most inhabitants were not materially wealthy.
It was also readily apparent that they had self-respect, they enjoyed each other’s company, meticulously maintained their houses and paths, and fully appreciated the natural beauty of their particular part of the world.
One Comment
At 8.45 am on 09 October, we climbed onto the jetty at Aduwey – a village on Misool Island.
You are looking at a tiny piece of soft coral – severed, probably accidentally.
Leave a Comment
I took this post’s photo 8.07 am on 09 0ctober 2024, as we were preparing to head to the pictured shore – that of Misool Island, one of Raja Ampat’s four “main” islands.
The other 1500+ islands, islets and atolls are all much smaller; most are rainforest-clad.
The waters around them are currently “our” planet’s’ most species-rich; their clarity is oft-astonishing.
Leave a Comment
This post is a pointer to two opinion pieces.
Both are particularly worth reading in light of the re-election – as leader of “our” planet’s most powerful “democracy” – of an incorrigible liar, felon, bully, ignoramus, narcissist, jingoist, misogynist (probably, also a “sex offender”) and racist.
Just published by ABC News, Carrington Clarke’s is an immediate response to Donald Trump’s victory.
The October 2024 edition of The Monthly published Tim Winston’s more finely-crafted essay, which makes absolutely no direct reference to the American presidential election.
Leave a Comment
The mostly-uninhabited islands of the Guraici Archipelago offer something rarely found in north easternmost Indonesia: “white” beaches.
At 9.36 am on 06 October 2024 my feet and those of the pictured, very petite hermit crab shared one such, on an also-tiny island.
Leave a Comment
Only India, China and the United States are home to more humans than is Indonesia.
The north easternmost islands of the Indonesian archipelago – those east of Sulawesi – are huge in number, but most are small isles and islets…”invisible” on most maps.
Collectively, they account for a miniscule portion of Indonesia’s human population, which now exceeds 283 million.
The islands and waters of North Maluku, Maluku, and Raja Ampat are extraordinarily biodiverse, species-rich, and scenically splendid; this is a region of rainforests, reefs, karsts, astonishing marine life, birds of paradise, incredible cloudscapes…and surprisingly few humans.
Leave a Comment
Just south of Ternate, Tidore Island is also just “a dot on the map”, and was likewise “built” by its volcano.
Ternate Island and Tidore Island were once the centres of two rival sultanates.
Tidore’s big volcano – Mt Kie Matubu – dominates this post’s photo, which I took from Ternate’s eastern (Ternate City) shore.
Leave a Comment
On Ternate the third afternoon of October 2024 was very wet – a not unusual circumstance on an island where annual average rainfall comfortably exceeds 2,000 mm.
At 3.46 pm the rain was easing, as we stood on the rim of Tolire Lake.
We failed to see any of its resident crocodiles, but the view across the crater lake – and up to Mt Gamalama’s highest peak – was becoming progressively clearer.
Leave a Comment
Our first primary destination was the quintessential “spice island”,
In eastern Indonesia’s North Maluku province, Ternate is small in area, but handsomely that province’s most populous island.
Its active volcano – Mt Gamalama, which rises 1,715 metres ASL – has long been Ternate’s key benefactor and destroyer.
The Maluku Islands are also known as “the Moluccas”, or “the Spice Islands”.
In pre-colonial times the Sultanate of Ternate was wealthy and powerful, thanks to it then having a global monopoly over a highly prized commodity.
Leave a Comment
In appearance, Lichmera indistincta – the brown honeyeater – is a strong contender for an “undesirable” title: Australia’s most plain/drab/nondescript honeyeater.
This species’ song, however, is widely considered the finest of any Australian honeyeater’s; clear recordings of it are here. (the second grab is the better one)
The pictured brown honeyeaters are young individuals who dine on pollen & nectar from plants that naturally occur only in southwest Western Australia.
However, brown honeyeaters are highly adaptable; they live across parts of all mainland Australian states and territories, except Victoria;
Leave a Comment
