For the duration of our paddles in Flores we have been thoroughly enjoying the challenge of locating campsites each day that are tucked away in quiet corners of the island where there are no villages, and we are unlikely to be disturbed. While it is impossible to feel like we might actually be the first visitors to any particular spot, as there is evidence of people everywhere, our selection of campsites has been fabulous and we have slipped through almost entirely unnoticed by the masses.
However, surviving on our own stores and avoiding the relative 'comforts' of visiting villages, we were running really low on food, or at least anything edible or with more nutritious value than a cardboard box. We decided to deviate from our pattern of sticking to the most remote locations and to head into Maumere Bay, risking exposure to the masses, but opening the opportunity to actually find some healthy food. And it was in Maumere Bay that the cartographers seemed to have given up their attempt for any form of accuracy on our only map.
North-east of Maumere, the bustling capital of Flores, our fabulously inaccurate map lists a location, Wodong Beach, that is marked with an umbrella, usually the symbol to show some sort of coastal resort or point of interest for tourists. This sounded promising - perhaps a restaurant serving yummy food, or even cold beer, might be there waiting for us. As we paddled past the extensive and unbroken mangrove forest where the umbrella was listed we began to scratch our heads in wonder as to what fate may have befallen this potentially sprawling development. Alas, it was at this point that Lain noticed that the town of Wodong was in fact listed, about 35km east of where we were expecting it to be. At best, that is about six hours of solid paddling.
In an attempt to find some food along the way, exhausted as were were after the wild goose chase our map had led us along, we landed on the coast exactly where our map suggested another small town, Degit, would be nestled. A fisherman in his dugout canoe laughed at our suggestion that we were looking for this particular town, and he said that it should take us about 2 hours to get there by motorbike. Lain accosted another local who drove her to a market in a large town nearby (neither was it called Degit nor was it marked on our map) to hurriedly grab some supplies and some takeaway meals, a luxury we had not experienced for over a fortnight.
After eight hours in the pressing heat we finally made it Wodong, or at least the place on the coast where the map claimed Wodong would be. In fact there really isn't a town at Wodong at all, just a slightly more populated stretch of the same road that runs across the island. We watched a bus slow down to (literally) about 30km/h to let a passenger launch off the side in front of the 'bus stop'. Fortunately Wodong had a tiny hotel on the beach with a vacant and very basic cabin we could stay in. There was one luke warm beer in the resort, and our dinner took nearly two and a half hours to be prepared. If only we hadn't been starving to death at the time!
As a final injustice, our carefree cartographers decided to place 'Babi Island' wherever they wanted to - on the island of Flores! The map shows a small island roughly in the location that Babi should be, but clearly they never bothered to edit the rough draft, perhaps assuming that nobody in their right mind would ever actually visit these places (they might be correct about my state of mind!). This area was rocked by a serious earthquake and tsunami in 1992, perhaps this was responsible for shaking up all of the place-names as well.
Our eyes are now firmly set on our current goal, Larantuka in eastern Flores. This town will signal the end of this stage of the expedition as our visas, which we have already extended to our maximum permissible stay, will expire in about a week. We'll hopefully locate a secure spot somewhere in Larantuka to leave our boats while we zoom off out of the country to repeat the ridiculous visa requirements, so that we can then continue on to the Solor and Alor Islands to the east of Larantuka. All this of course is based on the fact that Larantuka is actually where our map suggests it will be, and indeed the islands to the east of Flores actually exist at all! Thank you cartographers, you have been a great help.
Picture: This sections represents about 200km of eastern Flores on our map - the black circles are mine showing Wodong and Wodong Beach, Degit, and Babi Island (it also points to the actual island).
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