Our day started early when the wind picked up to 30kts on a lee shore, a thunder storm let rip and we felt ourselves start to slide along the slimy mud anchorage. The only thing for it was to up anchor and get well away from land… at 5:30 in our jammies and in the pitch dark (well, apart from the lightning bursts ripping up the sky). Soaked to the skin, but no worries! As dawn came the storm abated, and we motored up the Strait for about 30 miles until we came to an interesting looking muddy river.

We timed our entry into Batu Pahat for high tide as the entry is very shallow. Once over the bar at the river mouth, we carried on upriver until we found a peaceful spot with jungle on either side, just downstream of a local harbour area where wooden trading boats were loading and unloading cargo. We imagine them trading with the ports of Sumatra (or somewhere equally as tropically evocative).

We took a run in the ding up the river, against a lot of outgoing tide, to have a look around. The banks were full of herons and egrets fishing, and swiftlets and terns were busily swooping. We were enjoying our jaunt until a local at the Chinese temple flagged us down and told us that the river was full of big crocodiles and we should be very, very careful. We hightailed it back to the safety of Barracuda and carried on bird watching from there.

As the sun set we watched the adjutant storks roosting high in a nearby tree, as the muezzin call floated across the stream. Very tranquil.