An hour before sunset I paddled out to the stonking shore break thumping down simultaneity along the long beach like a guillotine with huge explosions of water and air firing out the back of the wave like canons. Big closeouts are good fun in the fading light, all sorts of colours shine through the back of the wave creating big moody rooms. Too have a water-housing for my camera would have made some great shots that evening. A USB port in the side of my head would be far more convenient, yeah….dream on.
Walking back through poppies lane from the beachfront in board shorts (surfing in just board shorts is heaven, a far cry from being covered in 3-5mm neoprene) with properly every orifice in my body full of sand and water, it was nice to be able to look at the stalls to see what’s on offer and not get hassled in the process. They know I won’t have any cash on me. Usually as soon as they spot you looking out the corner of you eye, they are right to it “My friend cheap billabong, sunglass, what you want? My personal favourite is simply “Yes!” Even if you cunningly try using your peripherals, they ruddy know some how. To be fair after three shops worth I’d seen enough to realise that it’s all the same crap like before. Then it started, two mornings later, there’s a SDS drill in my ear and a raw burning feeling. A few days out of the water seems to be the online known curing aid as well as some reasonably priced ear drops, which make’s a change from when usually buying medicine here. Luckily for me the swell dropped off, so I wasn’t missing much with the surf.
For the next few days Kara and me joined the locals and took advantage of the super low tides to walk on the reefs to seeing what we could find. We have been trying our hand at being estate agents for Hermit crabs, A simple workflow of finding a cracking/better looks wises shell about the same size as the existing property and lying it next to them with a tiny “To let” sign. The hard bit, which is out of our hands of course, is whether they accept the offer and so far non such luck. But there are inquisitive. Maybe one day. Hermit crabs and small fish in the shallow pools that bow aquatics sell for a hefty price are the normal afternoon findings, but every now and then you come across a fella that’s a bit more special.
On one day to our amazement, we stumble upon an octopus the size of a rich tea biscuit, but by no means as boring looking as a rich tea though. He was striking, adhering to the complimentary colours of orange and blue and what a clever bugger too. With a large water bottle I first checked to see that he was alive and kicking and by dipping the nose of the bottle into the water about 100mm above him, without moving from his chosen spot he puffed out as big as he could be, smart move I thought as the defensive act stopped me in my tracks. I continued to see what else he had in store, without moving a muscle (mind the pun) he disappears, by making the same effect as the sand on his skin. We huffed that we had no cameras, thanked him for the show and hopped on to see what else we could find.
Reaching Padang Padang beach we saw a lot of men older then Bali itself making a fuss around the sea stacks. Keen to see what this was all about I made way over to what is now called by Kara, “Death bay”. Upon entering the stacks through the killing fields you are faced with heads of lele still flinching and in contrast, the Balinese’s old boys smiling from ear to ear. These guys know the art of free food. They sweep under the stack’s ledge’s to get the lele moving and once out, harpoon there sorry ass’s. What got me first though was there no mincing approach to removing there heads as soon as the lele hit open air. I quiz an old boy about this in my finest English talk and role-play, and I think he got what I meant. Although he just spoke back in Balinese like I could understand every word he was saying, but I liked that. Why should he learn English? I’m being the lazy one here. Quite a few Balinese’s do speak English, but these guys clearly don’t work in the tourist industry so there’s no need to learn it. I made the most of his actions and by luck a Bali lad called Chris who does speak very very good English confirmed me of what he was saying. Lele is a catfish pretty much, but like everything else in Bali it’s got to be able to kill you in within minutes. So the lele decided to grow three venomous spikes about 15mm long from the top of its head and one either side. Hence the no mincing approach to head removals. We haven’t tried lele yet but soon me thinks. Oh yeah, Kara made a good point, “If there that dangerous, why do they just leave them lying around for other people to stand on?”
Another day at the beach we was luckily enough to see three sea snakes amongst the rock pools. They were only tiny blighter’s maybe the size of a toothbrush, but still pretty neat. Then this one snake called a colubrine sea krait, I later discovered, was just chilling around a grassy sandbank and not in the slightest bit interested in us. Standing out like a sore thumb to the greens of the grass, this stripy black and white lethal bugger looked the business.
A few notes from wilkpedia that I found interesting on these sea snakes.
The colubrine sea krait is found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters.
Total length: males 875 mm, females 1420 mm; tail length: males 130 mm, females 145 mm.
They are venomous but are not aggressive.
These snakes need to drink freshwater and regularly come onto land. And are the only species of sea snake that come onto land.
The males come ashore early in the evening and waits at the high tide line for the females. (Clearly the tracks of this snake we have been spotting)
The venom of the sea krait affects both muscles and nerves. It is 10 times more toxic than that of a rattlesnake. Each snake can produce up to 10-15 mg (0.0004-0.0005 oz) of venom. 1.5mg is a lethal dose.
The follow day we managed to get up close and personal with one female colubrine sea krait. Sadly she was dead and being washed around on our secret beach. I’m not sure if they lose there colour when they die or old age, but she wasn’t as bright as the younger one the day before. She was bigun and I fished her out and laid her out on the beach so 1. I could have a closer look 2. When I was finished it would hopefully give someone a fright and 3. There is no 3. I reckon they are stunning looking snakes and after I read about them have lose the small fear I did have. I would have loved to have caught a glimpse of her in her hay days. The man from yeye warung up on the top road (which might add, is officially home of the driest banana pancake in the world, it’s like eating a dusty flip-flop. How can they go so wrong with a banana pancake?) came down to the beach with his too little boys for a swim. Another funny conversation was had when I showed him and his kids the snake. I asked/acted “how could it have died”, with him replying “yes, that a snake”.
Sorry to past my ear infection on to you from listening to me rabbit on, Bit of a long update this one hey. We are on Nusa Lembongan as you read this.
Walking back through poppies lane from the beachfront in board shorts (surfing in just board shorts is heaven, a far cry from being covered in 3-5mm neoprene) with properly every orifice in my body full of sand and water, it was nice to be able to look at the stalls to see what’s on offer and not get hassled in the process. They know I won’t have any cash on me. Usually as soon as they spot you looking out the corner of you eye, they are right to it “My friend cheap billabong, sunglass, what you want? My personal favourite is simply “Yes!” Even if you cunningly try using your peripherals, they ruddy know some how. To be fair after three shops worth I’d seen enough to realise that it’s all the same crap like before. Then it started, two mornings later, there’s a SDS drill in my ear and a raw burning feeling. A few days out of the water seems to be the online known curing aid as well as some reasonably priced ear drops, which make’s a change from when usually buying medicine here. Luckily for me the swell dropped off, so I wasn’t missing much with the surf.
For the next few days Kara and me joined the locals and took advantage of the super low tides to walk on the reefs to seeing what we could find. We have been trying our hand at being estate agents for Hermit crabs, A simple workflow of finding a cracking/better looks wises shell about the same size as the existing property and lying it next to them with a tiny “To let” sign. The hard bit, which is out of our hands of course, is whether they accept the offer and so far non such luck. But there are inquisitive. Maybe one day. Hermit crabs and small fish in the shallow pools that bow aquatics sell for a hefty price are the normal afternoon findings, but every now and then you come across a fella that’s a bit more special.
On one day to our amazement, we stumble upon an octopus the size of a rich tea biscuit, but by no means as boring looking as a rich tea though. He was striking, adhering to the complimentary colours of orange and blue and what a clever bugger too. With a large water bottle I first checked to see that he was alive and kicking and by dipping the nose of the bottle into the water about 100mm above him, without moving from his chosen spot he puffed out as big as he could be, smart move I thought as the defensive act stopped me in my tracks. I continued to see what else he had in store, without moving a muscle (mind the pun) he disappears, by making the same effect as the sand on his skin. We huffed that we had no cameras, thanked him for the show and hopped on to see what else we could find.
Reaching Padang Padang beach we saw a lot of men older then Bali itself making a fuss around the sea stacks. Keen to see what this was all about I made way over to what is now called by Kara, “Death bay”. Upon entering the stacks through the killing fields you are faced with heads of lele still flinching and in contrast, the Balinese’s old boys smiling from ear to ear. These guys know the art of free food. They sweep under the stack’s ledge’s to get the lele moving and once out, harpoon there sorry ass’s. What got me first though was there no mincing approach to removing there heads as soon as the lele hit open air. I quiz an old boy about this in my finest English talk and role-play, and I think he got what I meant. Although he just spoke back in Balinese like I could understand every word he was saying, but I liked that. Why should he learn English? I’m being the lazy one here. Quite a few Balinese’s do speak English, but these guys clearly don’t work in the tourist industry so there’s no need to learn it. I made the most of his actions and by luck a Bali lad called Chris who does speak very very good English confirmed me of what he was saying. Lele is a catfish pretty much, but like everything else in Bali it’s got to be able to kill you in within minutes. So the lele decided to grow three venomous spikes about 15mm long from the top of its head and one either side. Hence the no mincing approach to head removals. We haven’t tried lele yet but soon me thinks. Oh yeah, Kara made a good point, “If there that dangerous, why do they just leave them lying around for other people to stand on?”
Another day at the beach we was luckily enough to see three sea snakes amongst the rock pools. They were only tiny blighter’s maybe the size of a toothbrush, but still pretty neat. Then this one snake called a colubrine sea krait, I later discovered, was just chilling around a grassy sandbank and not in the slightest bit interested in us. Standing out like a sore thumb to the greens of the grass, this stripy black and white lethal bugger looked the business.
A few notes from wilkpedia that I found interesting on these sea snakes.
The colubrine sea krait is found in tropical Indo-Pacific oceanic waters.
Total length: males 875 mm, females 1420 mm; tail length: males 130 mm, females 145 mm.
They are venomous but are not aggressive.
These snakes need to drink freshwater and regularly come onto land. And are the only species of sea snake that come onto land.
The males come ashore early in the evening and waits at the high tide line for the females. (Clearly the tracks of this snake we have been spotting)
The venom of the sea krait affects both muscles and nerves. It is 10 times more toxic than that of a rattlesnake. Each snake can produce up to 10-15 mg (0.0004-0.0005 oz) of venom. 1.5mg is a lethal dose.
The follow day we managed to get up close and personal with one female colubrine sea krait. Sadly she was dead and being washed around on our secret beach. I’m not sure if they lose there colour when they die or old age, but she wasn’t as bright as the younger one the day before. She was bigun and I fished her out and laid her out on the beach so 1. I could have a closer look 2. When I was finished it would hopefully give someone a fright and 3. There is no 3. I reckon they are stunning looking snakes and after I read about them have lose the small fear I did have. I would have loved to have caught a glimpse of her in her hay days. The man from yeye warung up on the top road (which might add, is officially home of the driest banana pancake in the world, it’s like eating a dusty flip-flop. How can they go so wrong with a banana pancake?) came down to the beach with his too little boys for a swim. Another funny conversation was had when I showed him and his kids the snake. I asked/acted “how could it have died”, with him replying “yes, that a snake”.
Sorry to past my ear infection on to you from listening to me rabbit on, Bit of a long update this one hey. We are on Nusa Lembongan as you read this.
Dawn at Nusa Lembongan seaweed farms with the perfectly conical Mt Agung just visible through the sea mists. Bali’s highest active volcano.
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