On Tuesday morning, we were still travelling towards Kokas. After breakfast, I attended a lecture on the life of Captain Cook given by Danny Edmunds of the Expedition Crew.
Danny (left background) delivering his talk on Captain Cook. The lounge has four screens for showing presentations, resulting in the audience looking in various directions, which I found a bit odd.
By the time Danny had completed his most interesting history, 'Caledonian Sky' had intentionally travelled beyond Kokas to moor mid-channel at Andamatta (which I think is ten nautical miles beyond Kokas).
By Zodiac to the cliff paintings of Andamatta
We set off from ‘Caledonian Sky’ in the Zodiacs but this time we were accompanied by local guides arranged by Destination Asia (the local agents used by Noble Caledonia).
Zodiacs being made ready to take passengers to the cliff paintings (port side passengers first, then starboard side).
We sailed to the small island which has cliff paintings on the limestone pillar a few feet above the current water level. Known locally as ‘Tapuraran’ these pre-historic rock paintings are made using a red pigment. The primitive images appear to show scenes from the life of the people who made them. Perhaps the most haunting theme was the recurring pictures of a human hand.
The cliff paintings of Andamatta.
We returned to the ship for an early lunch starting at noon. Whilst we enjoyed another excellent meal, the ship was moved back to a position off the village of Kokas.
By Zodiac to Kokas
As we approached land in the Zodiac, we could see a neat, modern village straggling along the shore. To our left lay a modern jetty built on concrete piles but we headed to the right and landed at an older, smaller stone jetty with uneven steps leading up to road level.
View from my Zodiac nearing the stone jetty with the road approach to the modern jetty on the left.
Part of the young welcoming committee on the stone steps.
Everybody was smiling as a group of local women in some sort of ‘traditional’ dress performed a Welcome Dance in the roadway. It appeared that the whole village had turned out for the event and we were soon surrounded by curious but friendly locals.
The Welcome Dance.
There were clearly a number of Muslims from the number of girls and women with their heads covered with colourful scarves. We were invited to walk along the shore road a short distance to a school. A temporary bamboo shelter with seats had been arranged on a grassed area outside the modern buildings where we were invited to sit. We were offered coconut milk (whole coconuts with a square section neatly ‘trepanned’ out allowing a straw to be inserted) and a variety of fresh fruits.
The performance started with a group of the youngest girl students performing an energetic Hula-Hoop dance.
The Hula Hoop Dance.
Then a team of women performed the dance where two parallel poles are first separated then ‘clacked’ together by two women whilst dancers try to step in between the poles without getting trapped. Two people from the ship gamely accepted the invitation to try the dance.
The Pole Dance.
Finally, a group of older girls in another form of ‘traditional’ dress performed a Friendship Dance. When guests were invited to join in, a number of passengers (including me) came onto the ‘floor’. Of course, they then added a couple of ‘changes’ we hadn’t seen before to confuse us but it was a jolly affair.
The Friendship Dance.
I’m afraid the proposed visit to the local market was scrubbed, because the market had closed (as normal) at lunchtime. But we were able to walk through the rock tunnels of the Japanese World War II bunker, rather damp and dimly illuminated by a series of pendant electric light fittings. Apparently, the bunker is only opened on special occasions so a number of the young villagers squeezed through with us.
The Japanese Bunker (complete with graffiti).
There was time to explore a little more of the village before returning to the stone steps and reluctantly saying farewell to the charming population before being returned to our ship by Zodiac.
It seemed that most of the villagers had camera/phones and wanted photographs taken with their visitors.
Yet more photographs!
Our Zodiacs returned us to the ship.
On to the Boo Archipelago
At 4.00 p.m., the ‘Caledonian Sky’ started the journey of 201 nautical miles to the Boo Archipelago. I’ll tell you more about that area next time.
You can find all the posts on this trip here.
My pictures
Andamatta.
Kokas.
[Minor revisions, pictures and links added 24-Feb-2015.]
