x360 Journal

« Dili Departure | Main | Day 2 - Maubara »

June 15, 2005

Away from Dili

We finally paddled away from Wayne + Anne's dive centre 'Freeflow', just west of Dili, at 8.15 this morning. There was the usual all-night partying the night before (a tradition before any major leg of the expedition since the very beginning) rounded off with an utterly disgraceful karaoke episode at the AAJ Bar at 5.30 am, with Lourdes and I propped up against the bar bawling into a microphone to nightmarish 80's songs such as Wham's 'Careless Whisper' and Starship's 'We Built this City on Rock + Roll'.

So the 12 miles we managed to get down the coast to our beach campsite was (for me especially) a bit of a grind. Plus I had Starship looping in my head all the way as extra punishment. But the kayaks performed fantastically fully laden (I must have around 300lbs of gear in mine what with all the camera gear, satellite link, laptop plus 40litres of water + camping gear) and we averaged around 3-3.5 knots going at a fairly relaxed pace. Ina and Chris in the double easily outpaced Lourdes and I in the singles - as we expected they would.

The weather and sea-state we're idyllic also - fingers crossed the same conditions hold until Saturday when we plan making our first big crossing to Alor.

Tomorrow we paddle another 11 miles to the town of Maubara where we meet up with Ina's better half Isa, plus truck, for a run down to the border on Friday morning to clear Indonesian immigration. This is our next big hurdle and something we are all a little apprehensive about. Things might go a little easier for us now thanks to a bizarre twist in the final meeting Ina and I had at the Indonesian embassy. When we met with Mr. Hendarsin, the Chief of Immigration, on Monday afternoon to pick up our long awaited letter with the embassy letterhead and his signature, it was instantly apparent that he was reluctant to do so. I felt the frustration rising again - after all this delay in Dili it looked like we STILL wouldn't get our hands on this confounded letter. The reason for his reluctance is then explained: earlier that same day Xanana Gusmao, the president of East Timor, had telephoned the President of Indonesia to request that no harm come to Inah (they are good friends it turns out!). The President of Indonesia then called his ambassador in Dili, who then called Mr. Hendarsin, who by the time we arrived for our meeting was feeling the whole thing had gone too high level for him and he wasn't comfortable with the responsibility of signing a letter that, in the event something bad happened to us in Indonesia, might blow up in his face if it transpired that the letter was the way we entered Indonesia with kayaks in the first place.

The impasse was avoided however by my producing the export clearance letter for the kayaks leaving East Timor. To this he added a hand-written note at the bottom, his signature + stamp - enough to get our kayaks through the border without dramas (we hope!).

The upshot of all this is that we never got the letter we requested and waited for an extra 10-days for, but we seem now to be on the radar screens of both the President of East Timor and Indonesia (at least as long as Ina is with us). I can't think of anyone better positioned to bail us out of jail than either of these two people!

Posted on June 15, 2005 1:38 PM

Comments

Posted by: astrid at June 16, 2005 12:27 PM

Posted by: Carlheinz Franke at June 15, 2005 3:14 PM