Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Raja Ampat’s most celebrated viewpoint is the hilltop lookout on Piaynemo (aka “Pianemo”) – a relatively small island near the southwestern end of Waigeo – the archipelago’s biggest island.
You are looking at just part of the 360 degree panorama.
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At 4.15 pm on 11 October 2024 most members of our party entered the waters of a cave that is variously perceived as “natural wonder” or “pilgrimage site”.
Tomolo Cave (aka “Tomolol”) is on Misool, the southernmost of Raja Ampat’s four “main” islands.
Provided skilled guides are present, non-expert visitors can safely and easily swim right through Tomolo.
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This post’s featured image (copyright Doug Spencer) looks as if its location must be somewhere far distant from the place pictured in #16 of this teaser series.
In fact, it was taken on the same day, along the edge of the same island – Misool.
Eight hours had passed since #16’s image was taken, and we had enjoyed several extraordinary experiences in the interim.
Still, at 3.47 pm on 11 October 2024 we were not many kilometres distant from the morning’s “scantily clad” location.
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Some of Raja Ampat’s shores have to be seen to be believed…and even then, one could well wonder, “am I dreaming, or did someone spike this morning’s coffee?”
Most of Misool Island is karst, and its coastal edges present a constantly-shifting array of “fantastical” shapes and surfaces.
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Photographers prize “the golden hour” – a non-precise term for something that occurs twice-daily on days when the sun is not entirely obscured by clouds.
Shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset the sun nears the horizon, and “our” planet is bathed in flattering, “honeyed” light.
Raja Ampat’s karst-dotted seascape is exquisite during “golden hour”; I took the featured image from “our” pinisi at 5.44 pm on 10 October 2024.
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Karst, as defined in its Wikipedia entry:
a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks such as limestone and dolomite. It is characterized by features like poljes above and drainage systems with sinkholes and caves underground.
Much of Raja Ampat – including more than one thousand of its small islands, isles and islets – is karst.
The soluble nature of the relevant rock is often unmistakably evident.
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