After the hustle and bustle of Kupang, Nembrala was a welcome sight. It took a little while to wash away the dirt and grime of Kupang and to stop the ringing in our ears of the car horns that were blasted day and night through the streets but we eventually got there and settled into the relaxed holiday we had envisaged when we started out from Australia.

With clean water and white sandy beaches coupled with friendly locals, Jay could finally get some surf and believe me he was taking advantage of it! We entered the anchorage through a gap in the reef and could look out from our cockpit to the waves breaking on either side, it was like an early Christmas for a man who had endured a major drought in the surfing stakes up the Queensland Coast to Darwin.

We took the opportunity to experience the local markets and our first chance to polish our bargaining skills. I bought 2 sarongs for 50,000 rupiah which is roughly around $3 each, the lady I was bartering with agreed too quickly to the price though, so I have a feeling I may have paid too much but I am learning my lesson quickly. We also bought what fresh vegetables we could from the markets too. You have to get what you can when you see it because the next place you get to may not have anything. A trip like this really takes you back to basics, days are spent relaxing, sourcing food and planning meals. Getting used to the lack of things that we take for granted when we are at home, like buying a loaf of bread (not so easy here and everything is full of sugar!) red onions are the size of a clove of garlic and in some areas lack of water means that some vegetables and fruit are dry. We bought some limes and were cooking some fish on the BBQ, Jay squeezed a lime over it and all that came out were a heap of seeds!

One of the bonuses of surfers travelling to Roti was that a bakery had opened up! We would order what we wanted and pick it up the next day, bread, cakes and donuts...it was inexpensive and viewed as a treat as these things are not readily available in this area.

We've been travelling with a few other boats with like-minded people and ended up staying at Roti for a little over a week. During this time we decided to hire some motorbikes and see a bit of the Island. The people of Roti are mainly christian and every village, no matter how small, has a church. It was beautiful, the countryside changes from dry to lush in a matter of minutes and the children would run to the side of the road to hold out their hands for a high five as we passed by. The animals are all well looked after and happy, roaming around the beaches and streets oblivious to the motorbikes and people whizzing past them. There is a lot of seaweed farming in this area and we visited a family who were busy sorting and drying seaweed from the farms for sale. They offered to pose for photos for us and gave us a taste of the seaweed, it was fairly tasteless to me.

Even I tried my hand at surfing here! There was a corner where the local kids were learning how to surf called Squealers because that's all you could hear from there. I went across with a couple of other girls and managed to catch one wave, granted I was on my stomach when I caught it but it's a start, for the next couple of days after my attempt I had the sorest ribs! How do you guys do it? Anyway, at least I gave it a go!

As much as we enjoyed our time at Roti it was time to move on, next stop Sebu (pronounced Sabu).