Kimberley Trip, Day 7: Sumba Island

Wednesday, May 29, 2024

This morning’s activity was another opportunity to snorkel from a nearby beach. Kenna had gotten a bit of a sunburn yesterday, and I wanted a little downtime, so we opted to stay back at the Orion, check in with our daughter Celeste and Kenna’s mom, and relax in the very comfortable observation lounge. Of course, we expect to hear that the snorkeling today was the best, but we’ll take that chance.

After lunch, we disembarked the ship to visit a village on Sumba Island that specializes in weaving and other textiles. After a short bus ride on festively decorated (but sparsely upholstered) buses, we arrived at the village and were treated to an elaborate dance program and a welcome from the King. After the program, we were invited to see a demonstration of ikat weaving and dyeing and buy textiles on display all around us. As we walked around, the locals competed furiously for our attention. We were able to find a table runner that we liked and negotiate the price down to the amount of rupiah that we had remaining.

We returned, cleaned up, and attended the “usual” cocktail hour, daily summary, and dinner. After dinner, we enjoyed a talk by one of the naturalists on the state of coral, especially the current problem with coral bleaching.

We realized that we hadn’t gone to look at the stars in the evening, so we went up to the observation deck and could see quite a bit of the sky, although light from the ship didn’t make for ideal viewing conditions. I did get to try out one of the suggestions from yesterday’s class on iPhone photography: I put my phone in night mode and took a long exposure photo of the stars. Despite the ship’s movement, the picture came out sharp, and it is easy to see the Southern Cross in the image.