This photo-journal is 7 pages, click on link at bottom to advance to next page.
All text and photos by Bill Burbage Copyright 2005
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"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend." -Robert Louis Stevenson 1879
Bill Burbage Carving it up in Indo
Mandala Airlines was the airline from Medan to Nias. The very next day,
it crashed and then
two weeks later we rode Mandala back from Padang to Medan in Sumatra.
BBC
News Article on Indonesia Plane Crash
The map below is from a shirt I bought off a fisherman who paddled up
to our boat selling shirts, sarongs, trinkets and other wooden stuff....it
gives you an idea, but does not include the Tello's islands above the
Mentawai chain, or half the spots that we experienced.
The boat is the Tengirri, which we lived on for two weeks. During the
stay, we only stood on land for about 30 minutes in the Tellos when we
stopped for gas, so we developed a good case of Sea Legs once
we docked in Padang. Sea Legs is when you get off a boat after
being on rough seas for a long time, and just standing on land you start
swaying, like you are drunk.
The left barrel is Brad Higgins, from WA (Western Australia), and is
24 years old. He is the head judge for Surfing in WA, and recently got
back from Japan to judge a pro-surfing contest.
We originally flew from the city of Medan on Sumatra to a hole-in-the-wall town of Gungungstoli on Nias. The boat was to meet us there, but had trouble getting through as the swell was too big. We ended up driving the Southeastern road on Nias down to a port, which was around the corner from Lagundri Bay. Lagundri Bay is the classic surf spot we have seen in the mags for years. The earthquake in Dec. damaged the roads to Lagundri for months and no one was there. But now the road is open and there were 60 guys (1 girl) in the water at Nias.
Empty lefthander at a dangerous point.
Indo is a tube riding paradise!
Pot of Gold at the end of the Rainbow!
Paradise Found!
Jackpot!!!
Local locked in.
Page 2 of Indonesia Photo Journal