To all my loyal fans,
Sorry for depriving you of a post for nearly three weeks now, I know it must be rough. Life out at the lodge has been a lot busier now that we have had quite a few guests staying with us. FEAR NOT….
All the vicarious adventure action and visuals of tropical wonders are packed into this baby. So I’ll pick up where I left off…
I had just left Penang, and although I had a great adventure, I was happy to be heading back to the island. My re-entry into Indonesia went smoothly, and after a night in Medan, I was back on the job. I met up with our 3 new guests and headed to the airport to catch a 7am flight. Of course, being an Indonesian airline, the flight didn’t leave until 2pm. The plane that showed up looked like it had been invented by the Wright brothers, and didn’t hold many more people.
With no other people on the flight besides the four of us, we had plenty of leg room and space to throw our boards in the cabin. One of the benefits of taking a small airline is the personal touch and family atmosphere. Ross had taken this flight before when he departed the island, and told me he smelled smoke coming from the cockpit. Therefore I figured it couldn’t hurt to ask the captains if they had an extra smoke. With nothing but a small curtain between me and the cockpit, I walked up and asked them. Like a shoot out in the wild west, they both quickly drew their pack of smokes from their front pockets and offered me one with a smile. I was mostly joking, but when I asked them if it was cool to smoke on the plane, they said “tidak apa-apa”, Indonesia for ‘no worries’.
A 40 min flight landed us safely in the harbor town of Singkel. I had to buy some things for the lodge, so I spent the night in Singkel and caught the speedboat the next morning. On my trip to the lodge the water was crisp and the sunrise was radiant. After a couple hours, I was back home, safe, sound, and ecstatic to arrive to pumping swell. The next 3 days saw perfect waves and conditions.
While I was gone a couple changes occurred; the construction was finished in the back, giving me my own room, and my beans died from heat exhaustion. Despite the death of my beans the garden is coming along all right. It’s not growing extremely fast, but my cucumbers, tomatoes, chili’s, peppers, basil and eggplant are healthy.
After the swell faded it was time to go on some non-surfing adventures. First stop, the cave at the base of the mountain. A 40min boat ride around the backside of the island took us to the small mountain where the caves lies. 
The caves had a eerie feel to them. A mushy layer of mud encrusted the ancient rock formations. The larger cave was spacious and deep, however I really enjoyed the smaller cave that was teeming with bats. We took turns standing in this small corridor that housed heaps of bats eager to coming buzzing around our heads.
After a few drinks in the cave and a couple bat encounters, it was time to continue our excursion. As we exited the cave the water in the afternoon was the most bright aqua I have ever seen.
After admiring the ocean for a bit we saw a school of fish jumping nearby and knew it was time to drop the line and go for a trawl. Pak Dean, knows all the good fishing spots. So when he said we were getting near a patch of reef teaming with Travali, it wasn’t even a minute later that one of the boys struck into a nice 6 kilo fish.
Healthy and sizeable it was more than enough fish to make a sushi feast for the whole camp.
The next day I got a little sick of everyone else pulling in fish so I went for a spear dive. Snagged a couple fish, but nothing big. One was a nice baby snapper, not much meat on it, I figured I'd use it as target practice and surprisingly I stuck it. Next time I see a big one...he's toast!
Later in the dive session, I let the boys borrow my spear and cruised around taking photos. I just kicked around, swam into some holes, found some cool coral heads, and eyed some good spots to go lobster diving.
It's amazing how the fish can tell when your hunting them. Without my spear I had so many fish cruise right up to me and show not the least bit of concern. Check the school I followed for a while below...
The swell came back up and it was surf time again. This swell was generated from a windy storm to the north, so it was hitting the reef at a weird angle. The inside section was very hollow but also breaking into 6in of water. When one of the boys pulled off of a beauty, my eyes lit up, and before I had time to think about it I was in the barrel getting smashed by the lip, and face planted on the reef slicing my shoulder pretty good too. Luckily the cuts weren't too deep!
While the next BIG swell makes its way around the cape of South Africa, I’m gonna work on my spearing skills and tend to the garden. I’ll try and throw some wave pics in the next post, I figured I’d switch it up, your probably getting bored of surfing by now. I know, I know, of course not...what was I thinking, who could get bored of surfing!!!(check the photos below) Hopefully this has quenched your craving for adventure. Until next time…. sehat dan senang (health and happiness)
Until next time... Live long and get barreled!
