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RAMPETAMPER, 2285 Whangarei Heads Road, RD 4, Whangarei Heads (2026)

21/12/2025

Hi all, our family, Kim, Janey and the kids have been visiting us from New Zealand here in El Nido, Palawan, Philippines.It been a few weeks ago now but here is a little movie 0f the fun...

28/09/2025

Hello family and friends,

I’m happy to say since arriving in the El Nido district of Palawan, West Philippines, Frits and I have settled into an enjoyable and
comfortable time living here in El Nido. Now it's the wet and low tourist season, which officially starts from May through until November, and as I write this a couple of fans are are keeping me cool, so necessary, as the humid conditions saw 37C in side the boat!!

Frits checks the weather forecasts daily and over the next few weeks there is a build up of approaching Typoons/cyclones, whilst they are not directly heading here there is potential for us to be effected as they move North West. Which is why we have left El Nido and have found a lovely, muddy, bottomed anchorage with plenty of swing space to wait out approaching unpleasant weather forecast for Monday onwards.

The latter part of June our friends Chris and Ariel from New Zealand came to stay with us in El Nido It was neat to have company, Chris stayed on board Rampetamper for the first week, the second week a Hotel, joined by Ariel, flying in from Taiwan with her nephew Julian. We made day trips out to the Islands, always enjoying the delicious warm water, snorkeling, exploring, sailing one day, which is a rare event, since there is in general not much wind. The evenings come alive in El Nido, hot muggy days are replaced with beautiful, balmy temperatures and gorgeous tropical colours as the sun disappears. One can stroll along the beach or the streets, people busy, local and visitors, wafting restaurant food smells, hawkers selling baubles, tricycles owners (local transportation) and the many local restaurant and bar workers all competing for the tourist $$$, it’s all go! We very much enjoy that aspect of El Nido, the evening buzz!, especially strolling along the sandy high tide, seeing so many of the colourful local trimarans lined up along the shore, or at anchor close into the shore. Daily the trimarans ferry the tourists out to the surrounding islands returning to El Nido in the afternoon. Hence it's very useful with so many boats to be armed with a good torch when returning to Rampetamper in the dingy after a night on shore.

July we left El Nido with Cathy and Richard, long time friends who make a point of staying with us wherever we are as part of their annual travel. We so much enjoyed many lovely hours snorkelling, checking out the reefs then come the afternoon when it’s cooler “tiki tours” in the dingy exploring our surrounding anchorage, beautiful sheer rock formations, diverse tropical greenery like you wouldn’t believe and caves, big and small. Filled with hidden fresh water swimming holes, so refreshing! others are home for bats. Because bad weather was forecast for the West Coast we decided to avoid it and explore the East Coast. Unfortunately for us wet weather was a constant, I guess a given for this time of the year. Tay Tay was our destination a reasonable size town we stayed at and where Cathy and Richard eventually left us to continue their journey.

You can rent a scooter here for the day, it costs around 600pecos, NZ$18.00. Very reasonable and we do it a lot, it takes us off the boat, we enjoy the coolness as we ride around checking out local places in the area and getting around the town. It's the most common form of transport for locals. It costs 100pecos NZ$3.00 to use the local transport, tricycles, motorbikes with a side car. One never has to wait long to go anywhere.

Usually our time here is spent between El Nido, doing town stuff, supermarket, fresh produce, meat and fish market, laundry, collecting parcels we have ordered. Maybe topping up the diesel or LPG, eating and drinking out. When we have done all that, about five days, we are ready to explore the islands nearby or go further along the West Coast of Palawan. Recently making a two week visit to the town of San Vincente and Port Barton, another popular tourist spot, like El Nido but smaller, very lovely, situated in a huge horse shoe bay white sandy beach cluttered with bars and restaurants. Always meeting and greeting people, in towns or small villages or on more remote islands. Discovering beautiful anchorages with trips ashore to check out abandoned resorts, surprisingly there is a lot, or walks along sandy beaches waiting to be explored. Life is very good in this neck of the woods!

Until next time,
On standbye,
Lynda&Frits,
S/Y Rampetamper

28/05/2025

Hi, once again to our dear family and friends,

Frits posted the route of our travels in our last post because it’s so much easier to get a visual handle on our exact whereabouts, otherwise names have no meaning when you have no idea where we are. Rampetamper has made it to the northern Islands of Palawan and into the China Sea, we are cruising along nicely. Tropical weather, hot out in the sun but there’s enough wind in the sails to keep us moving forward, sailing is the best, much more enjoyable than using the motor, however that is necessary most of the time, not much wind since we started exploring the Phillipines.

Rampetamper travelled up the East Coast of Mindanao and into the Visayas, a group of Islands located in Central Phillipines. A wonderful, relaxing cruise and because we traveled reasonably quickly we got to appreciate a picture of many islands, green coastal flora and very impressive mountainous ranges following the coastline. The Philippines, just so you know, is made up of three major island groups. Luzon in the north, Visayas in the middle and Mindanao in the South, where we stayed on the island of Samal.

As you know by now we love checking out the local scene, now that could be our chosen anchorage for the night in front of a sugar fine sandy beach on an uninhabited island, an opportunity to stretch our legs and maybe discover the ultimate shell. Or a village tucked away behind sea shore greenery, or a small town like Aras Asan, where we stayed a few nights, hired a scooter and toured the area. That’s always fun on a scooter snuggled behind Frits, a delightful tropical breeze blowing and off we go! I think I mentioned left hand drive here, good roads and if we get the opportunity we love to aim high, traveling up into that there hills where its so beautiful, cool and steep!!

We were also on a mission to reach Surigao City the northern most city on Mindanao and an important commerce and transportation hub between the Visayas and Mindanao and a go to spot for international Yacht Cruisers. After days cruising the coastal sea and geography of small towns, mangroves and villages, arriving in a big city with all the noise and the hustle and bustle is exciting, we enjoy the contrast. The Mayor of Surigao, popular and a man of vision, as he offers immigration support and warm hospitality from Surigao to Cruisers. Through the City Tourism and Cultural Affairs Office manned by super friendly people, help is on hand with provisioning essentials such as food, diesel, LPG, laundry, all hassle free. Suriago considers Cruisers tourists and the positive economic impact we can have on local businesses.

Our next destination the Visaya Islands which encompasses most of the Central Philippines, so many islands. Cruising along the coastline one has to admire the densely populated and very hilly geography. Silhouettes of impressive mountains shrouded in mist towering in the background with smaller hills and mangrove nestled along the shoreline where the towns are built on the flat land. Fishing is important in the Visayas, lots of colourful boats built in a unique style only seen here. Trimarans made with a narrow central hull with outriggers on each side, which makes it a mission for the locals sailing them to come along side our boat. Filipino people are quite shy, they’ll wave from a distance and often keen to check out Rampetamper (another trimaran)up close but seldom stop and chat. Unlike the curious Indonesians who have no such qualms about invading your space and will happily climb aboard without invitation.

We have enjoyed so much about the Visayas, people, sights, food, had the best pizza ever in Siquijor, where we stopped for a few days. A popular tourist destination with a lot of young people visiting this beautiful island and one of the highlights of the places we have visited. Cafes, shops, hotel accommodation/ hostels, restaurants, good roading which makes it safe and easy riding the many scooters for hire and inexpensive for the day, about NZ$16.00.

Our plans were always to make our way slowly west to the famous Palawan Islands and considered still part of the Visayas. Arriving in El Nido a week today we were immediately impressed with the beauty of this area. The township is dwarfed by huge limestone formations a few hundred metres high, some are covered in lush green flora dropping down onto beautiful white sandy shores, others are bare cliff drops that look like a giant (with sharp fingernails) has gouged out these amazing striations that give an otherworldly feel to the place, you almost expect to see a Pterodactyl. And yes there are a lot of tourists and surprisingly yachts, just like us, anchored here in the well protected bay of Corang Corang. The township is on the other side of El Nido about twelve minutes walking, but a more comfortable place for boats to anchor. Not so busy with tourists as El Nido which is rather lovely, trendy shops, narrow little streets fill of yummy food places, accommodation, cafes and bars and of course the tourists, mostly younger Europeans escaping their cooler climates for a tropical "hit” lots of pink skin, not like us, seasoned "sea dogs”,We don’t feel like "tourists" with our established sun tans already in place, oh so cool!

We have decided to stay in this area for a bit, it ticks a lot of boxes and a wonderful area for our friends to come for a visit. El Nido is a direct, short flight from Manila, let us know when you want to visit us dear friends and family, most welcome.

Lynda and Frits,
S/V Rampetamper,
On standbye

01/05/2025

Just to give you a idea of our journey so far

03/04/2025

Dear family and friends,

At last we have finally returned to the motion of the ocean, back in the saddle so to speak after a five month hiatus where we were guests of the Holiday Ocean View Marina, (HOV) on the Island of Samal. Affectionately named "Hotel California" by the international mix of yachties residing there. Rampetamper was hauled out, high and dry on the hard stand about a month after we arrived at HOV, in early November 2024. Our stay, five months and as it turned out was much longer than we thought we would need.

Living at the Marina are three types of yachties, those who are keenly working on their boats, those who have given up the sailing life and have abandoned their boats and those boaties who would like to leave and sail away, but the pull of a secure easy life living in a Marina with all of life’s amenities on hand, does become home sweet home. It was still a bit of a wrench when it was our turn to leave, over our five month stay we have made some amazing new friendships. There exists an easy camaraderie between boaties, like minded people whom we saw every day and who share the love of boats, living and sailing. Hence the HOV Marina’s nickname, "Hotel California" an easy life where everything is provided for your comfort, including friendships.

When one arrives in a foreign place and in need of materials essential for the work to fix or maintain your boat, it can be quite a time consuming challenge, investigating either online or finding reliable local sources. You certainly come up against a different mind set in The Philippines from what we’re use to back home. I think the heat has something to do with it. It’s too ferkin hot to get worked up about anything, the Filippino’s have the right attitude, tomorrow is another day to work …..no hurray!!

Babak is the local town of Samal and a 15 minute drive from HOV, but very limited in special boat products. We needed desperately to apply a new coat of antifoul on Rampetamper and finding the best product required a trip into the city of Davao. A big city with over a million people and conveniently for us only a 10 minute ferry ride from Samal. We contacted an agent, RJ and he sourced our paints and anti-foul needs, which needed to come from Manila, this of course would involve a waiting time!

Frits wasted no time starting on our next big job, repairing the broken centre board, like a keel but not, on our boat its retractable and very necessary to keep Rampetamper sailing on course. The centre board (which was the original one, 51years old!) had to be removed and rebuilt, hard yakka for Frits as it weighs around 80kg. A lot of manurering, the man never ceases to amaze me and layers or fibre glass and painting.Tropical temperatures are energy sapping, man it gets hot, and best to get a jump on the sun and have early starts. Boats on the hard sit on metal cradles, with no breeze, hot sun, heat radiating from the concrete, poor Frits had to beaver away daily in these conditions, never complaining! (my hero) tackling his long list of “to do”jobs. Fortunately there was an abandoned catamaran in the yard so he was able to set up his work shop underneath, precious and necessary shade!

Come the weekends we would hire a motor scooter, about $NZ15.00 for 24hours. It always felt so good (warm tropical breeze on our faces) to escape the Marina and the never ending work to explore the Island.The infrastructure in Samal is excellent, roading is made with concrete, that’s different, feels like driving along a private driveway and its left hand drive in the Philippines. Samal is promoted as the “GardenCity” a tourist resort destination with many Filipino’s from Davao and other places in the Philippines making it their holiday destination.

There is huge diversity in the living conditions on the island, incredible wealth plainly obvious with the expensive houses and gated communities we saw along the coast. Though many people live in very basic housing, primitively made from organic materials.Then there are regular houses with their unique designs to keep out the sun, extended roofs out front, lots of potted plants, small windows, oh and their homes are painted wonderful colours, not a beige non colour in sight!! bright yellow, blues, red, and pink is quite popular, colour here is embraced!

Samal is tropically lush, many mangrove orchards, however the mangoes are heavily sprayed due to the voracious appetites of the insects, which means the fruit cannot be exported. The mango trees are huge and often line both sides of the road for may kilometres. Pineapples are plentiful, sweet and delicious, my most favourite tropical fruit. Most people get around on motor scooters however there are plenty of vehicles including humungus, expensive 4x4’s, which is surprising.
The local people are quite shy and although english is the second language it’s not readily spoken, It took me awhile to get use to being called Ma’am, Frits, like all the western guys at the marina was called Sir Frits, always made me chuckle.
It’s of course considered polite and respectful and impossible to get the Filipino’s working at the Marina, whom we saw and spoke with daily, to call us by our first names.

In amongst all the working we took a trip back to New Zealand. We were so excited at the prospect of returning home. Flying from Manila into Auckland we arrived Christmas Eve 2024. Our first catch up with family was with Frits’s youngest son Ziggy, he met us at the airport and drove Frits onto Whangarei our home town, whilst I was dropped off on route to spend a night with my dearest sister Kaye. So very cool to see her again after 18 months away. Christmas day I flew from Auckland to Wellington to spend time with my daughters, Jess and Sarah and Dave, wonderful memories!
Between Frits and I we have two daughters and three sons, Frits’s oldest Kim is now a Dad and we have our much, much loved and missed grandchildren, Lewis 8 years old and his brother Frankie 6 years old.
We were so excited and ampt to be seeing them again. Boy kids grow and change so fast it was wonderful to reconnect and share some great fun times, with their Opa and Nana, awwww special!!

Frits spent most of his visit home helping Kim put the finishing electronics together on his Farrier, a very fast racing trimaran called Sunny. We never did quite make the trial sail, but Kim and his partner Janey got to experience the successful sail, it was a resounding thumbs up, hallelujah!
Whilst I got to revisit my gorgeous daughters again, Sarah and Jess and also my special family members and old friend Tina, in my home town of New Plymouth. I now have the honour and title of Great, Great Aunty Lynda, to little Zorka and Freya. My nieces who are also sisters Ruby and Anaan became Mums within a few weeks of each other. Two itty, bitty little girls, oh so sweet!!

On the 3rd of February we had a celebration at Kim’s lovely home for Frits’s 70th Birthday It was yet another occasion to catch up with more family and lots of friends. My brother Rod made it, a surprise visit from Australia and our special friends Cathy and Richard. Frits’s family, Coen his nephew and son Jamie and Frits's sister Irene’s husband Henry. Django, Frits’s middle son was on a visit home from The Netherlands where he lives, so all of his sons together! that doesn’t happen every day!
We flew back to the Philippines on the 14th of February, very much contented with our holiday back home in NZ but also ready to get stuck in with the remaining work left on Rampetamper and get sailing!

All our job’s on the boat were completed by the 3th week of March. Rampetamper looks very spiffy, new antifoul and tie-coat finally arrived from Manila after much hair pulling, patience!!! A very impressive new centreboard, which should last long after we have finished sailing, rudder make over, very sexy, and the hull cleaned and polished, looking good. Upholstery removed and washed, I did that, it was also a big job… too. Cockpit sanded and a new very stylish (of course) wooden cockpit table Frits built. Our interior wooden floors, made from over one hundred year old NZ Remu were re-sanded and oiled oh la la!! The Marina gates at HOV swung open for us on the morning of Thursday the 27th March and we exited “Hotel California” and sailed away ….. finally!

Now we are making the long haul up the east coast of Minadao, one of the biggest islands in the Philippines.The coast line of this North Pacific island can be notoriously rough with strong winds and currents coming from the north and working against travel in our direction. Fortunately for us its been very doable and with light winds we have been able to motor/sail during the days and hiding out in little bays by night. Day eight, (but who’s counting) a week now back at sea and our life, living and traveling on our boat Rampetamper. It feels very good indeed to be back on the ocean and Fritsy and I are very much looking forward to discovering the beautiful north western cruising islands of the Philippines.

Well its been a long catch up, ain’t they all though,
On standbye, hugs
Lynda & Frits S/Y Rampetamper

You can also keep track of Rampetamper on the website or app “NOFOREIGNLAND"

23/12/2024

Hello to all, dearest family, friends and to new friends.

Our travels since I last posted have seen us leaving the dry, parched islands of the Komodo’s. Well provisioned we were keen to travel at a leisurely pace along the north coast of Flores heading due east. Its truely mind boggling to see such diversity in the geography of these southern islands. No lush tropical forests here, a very dry landscape, trees struggling for survival along the edge of white sandy beaches, leaves droopy on green trees, others have given up, autumn coloured leaves clinging onto trees, beauty even in dying.
We dropped anchor at a place called Bilibobo, big excitement, seeing monkeys on the sandy beach, a first time for us this trip. However we didn’t get a chance to see them up close, very shy or maybe wary, they didn’t hang around.
Our routine became motoring or motor/ sailing during the day, (not much wind happening) for as long as it took to reach our predetermined anchor for the night. Walks along uninhabited shorelines is always welcomed after hours on the boat. Its heartbreaking at times to see so much washed up rubbish strewn across these beautiful sandy islands, the majority of it being plastic and the majority of the plastic is drinking bottles!!
Stopping at Maumere the second largest town on Flores, we dropped anchor in front of a resort, which is always pleasant. After having only each other for company, not that Frits isn’t good company, however its a treat to be around other conversation and to met other travellers. In this case, Grace an American doing her thesis on an obscure Indonesian dialect, and a group of European overland travellers staying at the resort. We got the opportunity to hire a motor scooter, everyone here rides a scooter and it's not uncommon to see families of four or five people travelling on one scooter. At first glance there seems to be a free for all attitude when it comes to road rules, however an etiquette of patience and courtesy clearly exists, we could well learn from in New Zealand. We headed off to explore the streets were clean and the roads well maintained, no potholes! Lining the edges of the main road was an amazing display of mango trees and bougainvillea’s in full bloom, displaying warm colours, bright pinks and oranges and then a blend of both, a balmy breeze, yummy smells and people busy with their day makes us hugely grateful to be here experiencing it all.
As we rode out of the town and headed toward the hills the air changed and became delightfully cooler as we climbed steadily up ever increasing narrow winding roads. Houses dotted both sides of the road, people sitting about, mostly in the shade and certainly surprised to see a couple of white folk, with big smiles on a motor scooter, waving gidday! One thing that we had never come across before was the elaborate grave stones up close to the houses, even in death they are still part of the family and not forgotten. The distinctive smell of drying cloves, kapok trees, huge bamboo stands, banana trees, just so much tropical lushness and the smiling people waving as we made our descent, Frits reckoned we had climbed about 1000m, our ears were popping on the ride back down. What a super neat experience.
We made the two day sail back to Suluwasi and a return to the Marina in Wangi, Wakatobi. By this time we needed to top up our diesel, there is no serious wind in Indonesia, so unfortunately we don’t get in much sailing. Diesel is around NZ $nz1.50 a litre give or take depending on the areas a good thing because we use a lot. At this stage in our travels we decided to extend our visa for the last two month extentsion. Which meant we were good to go until the end of November and would continue our travel to North Suluwasi and from there across to the Islands of Halmahera.
More leisurely travel on our way north along the east coast of Suluwasi. Given a choice we much prefer the lush, green, tropical flora. Island bays rimmed with mangroves hiding river entrances that we love to discover and explore. When its cooler we go on "tiki tours" in our dingy, motoring along rivers often lined with huge ancient, musty smelling mangroves. Fertile flat land is claimed by local village families for their gardens. A noisy dingy engine prevents us from hearing or seeing much bird life along the rivers, but when we’re cruising, majestic beautiful sea eagles roam the sky along with the incredibly agile frigate birds.
One of our favourite times of the day, at the end of a destination and the anchor is safe, is to sit back with a cold beer and enjoy our new surroundings. At dusk is when the parrots move from one area of jungle to another, screeching noisily and with a distinctly clumsy flapping motion as they fly overhead. We are almost always assured of a beautiful sunset.
Halmahera didn’t disappoint, more beautiful anchorages and “tropicalness” a chance visit to a coastal village and an offer by kind people to take us on scooters to explore inland. What we thought was a oneoff little village turned out to have a major two lane interior highway in its back yard. For over an hour we enjoyed the sights of the island travelling over a very mountainous terrain. These islands hide some serious infrastructure, roads are often two lanes and are well maintained, with communication between villages and towns well developed. This region also boasts some impressive volcanos, Mt Ruang erupted in April of this year, thousands of people were evacuated, we were up close and cruised by the Volcano and very mindful that it wasn’t that long ago it erupted!!
Whilst in the Halmahera islands Frits discovered that our centre board (like a keel) and essential to our sailing (keeps the boat going in a forward direction) is broken and will need to be replaced. Hence an earlier departure than planned from Halmahera Islands and indeed Indonesia. We will need to haul the boat out of the water to replace the centre board which requires a lot of work, big job!
We made the decision to travel to the Philippines sooner rather than at the end of November as was our original plan, we have a Marina in mind that has haul out facilities so made the crossing back to Bitung and the only port clearance in North Sulawesi. Our huge thanks to Budi whom we met at the coastguard station near our anchorage in Bitung. Over the course of a few days he drove us around, completing chores, laundry, diesel and with his lovely wife Ummi joining us we spent a day in Manado a bigger city about forty minutes drive away. A better selection of supermarkets meant we could indulge some of our cravings, for western food, cheese, yogurt, muesli. So my friends its farewell to Indonesia for now, thank you for all of the kind, generous people and the special friends we have met on our travels. We will return some day.

And now… We just arrived in the Holiday Ocean View Marina on Samal Island just off Davao City, Philippines, but more on that later…

Standing by,
Lynda&Frits,
S/Y Rampetamper.

13/09/2024

To our dear family and friends,
Like all of my catch ups, I don’t do brief, so you better grab a drink, get comfy and read about our incredible time traveling from Sorong West Papua to our present location, writing this while anchored in calm waters beside an island on the north east coast of Flores Island.
It took us three nights sailing, wonderful sailing, to reach Seram Island, a big Island in the Maluku province and our third stop after leaving Sorong on our planned journey south. Saleman the town is tucked into a backdrop of huge peaks, a gorgeous an unexpected panorama, truely impressive, with almost vertical bare peaks, lush tropical valleys between with huge displays of tropical greenness and spilling down onto the flat land, where the town sits. Saleman is a destination for tourists, mostly Indonesians visiting here via Ambon, so the place is well set up to accommodate visitors. Beautiful homesteads made from natural materials and built above the water edge, others are built tucked into the splendid tropical greenery. A fresh water stream perfect for a dip flows from the valley and mingles with the incoming tide and is delightfully cool and refreshing. Wandering around the village which is pretty much Muslim and the main religion of the area, the local people are friendly and curious, not too many while folk stop here. It was very cool to see cloves drying in the sun on mats out in front of the houses, the green fresh ones through to the dried brown colour. The smell of cloves wafting in the heat of the sun, was very pleasant, but man it was hot!! We witnessed one evening the flight of millions of night fishing bats, tiny wee animals that skim the sea for fish, then return back to the coolness of their cave in the early morning hours, amazing to see so many flying together in a continuous line, they are only found in one cave in the world close to this little town.
Buru Island, was our next island stop, Namlea is the main city, more welcoming people and in this case the local teacher who spoke good English showed us around a very clean orderly place, neat tidy houses and well kept gardens. A sit down with a cuppa tea over comfortable conversation about our respective countries. Frits always gets the nod when he says he’s from Belanda, (Netherlands)
Wakatobi is a great place to stop the name derives from an amalgamation of four islands. Wangi Wangi is the main city and we arrived after another great night and day of sailing. We never stay in Marinas, one they’re usually rather expensive and two our trimaran doesn’t have great manoeuvrability. Having said that Wangi Wangi offers a free stay in their marina. So we took advantage and made good use of the opportunity. Being able to step off the boat and onto the dock was such a novelty. Initially the marina was full of boats from the Australia/indonesian boat Rally. So from sailing on our own most of the time we were confronted with lots of cruisers all together in one place.
When the rally departed and we were pretty much on our own in the marina.
Local high school students wanting to practice their english were available to help us with our needs, from providing transportation, pillion passengers on their bikes or hiring their bikes to us, taking us on excursions or helping us to sort out our shopping needs, so sweet. We had a long list of "must dos” to get through including some big jobs, like making a cover for our dingy, to Frits fixing a leak in our cabin, both turned into big jobs!! A couple having motor starter problems sought refuge in the Marina, from Barcelona, Joan and Esther were an immediate click with us, our kinda cruisers. Turned out Esther was a marine upholsterer, just what we ordered! Her help in the initial stages of patterning our dingy cover saved us a lot of time and was so appreciated and Joan made the best aioli ever!
Wangi Wangi is a vibrant small city, not too big and hectic, with loads of things going on. Over a weekend was a festival celebrating Indonesia’s liberation from the Japanese occupation. The locals put on a re-enactment of the Japanese cruelty, everyone was out in full force enjoying the performance, so cool. We took a visit to a village that has its beginnings back in the 1300’s, in fact the beginnings of Muslim to this region. Amazing frangipani trees alive and flowering, there amazing trunks twisted and old. Walls still standing built from coral and carried into place forming a protection around the village and an ancient cemetery still in use today, wonderful history. A festival celebrating women was also a happening, the local people supporting the beautiful women's displays and dancing. The costumes and makeup were exceptional. It was truely wonderful to get to know Wangi Wangi, its colourful culture and the many people incredibly helpful and friendly, fond memories indeed.
Our friend Kundang, whom we met in 2018, lives in a Bajo village build above the reef near Wangi Wangi. Bajo people are the sea gypsies, they don’t own land and build their homes on poles above the water on the reef. Coral piles packed down over decades also provide solid ground for building homes and other communal buildings. When we met Kundang and his wife Sofia they had one small child and he was left with paralysis in his legs after an operation to remove cancer. Yet amazingly he could get to his house by hauling his body up the ladder. When we dropped anchor by the village this visit, we wondered about Kungdang and whether or not he was still living in the village. A boat soon came alongside ours and to our utter delight it was the man himself! Big smiles and a warm welcome, Kungdang proudly showed us his legs, although not one hundred percent working he could stand and walk a bit. All due to his own determination and exercise. Also there were two more additions, now a family of five. A special time with them sharing a meal and meeting the many curious neighbours.

Labuan Bajo the gateway to the Komodo Islands, was our next stop and a place we also visited in 2017. Its a large city buzzing with tourists and a harbour full of Phinis’s. These are traditionally built live a board boats, catering to the huge amount of tourists who come to this part of Indonesia for the diving and to see the Komodo dragons. Which is what we did, with our good friends Michele and Ruud, old friends from Fritsy’s former life in the Netherlands and are touring the world on bikes…. Amazing couple!! They spent four days with us cruising, snorkelling and visiting the Komodo village to check out the huge animals. With a guide one gets to be up close to these amazing animals, so well camouflaged that you can appreciate how easy it could be to stumble across one and why you need a guide. Their bite is septic and can kill. We saw the results of a local man who was caught in a tussle with a dragon and after seven hours being in its grip managed to escape and live. His injuries were very very nasty … gulp!
Ruud and Michele have flown to India to continue their biking journey and we continue ours, heading due east back over the Flores island.
Love and hugs,

From the two of us, Lynda & Fritsy,
Standing by S/Y Rampetamper.

PS for those who want to follow us, you can do that with a App called “ NOFOREIGNLAND” or www.noforeignland.com/boat/6755394716172633 look for RAMPETAMPER

RAMPETAMPER

21/12/2025

28/09/2025

28/05/2025

01/05/2025

03/04/2025

23/12/2024

13/09/2024

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