On Friday we went to the Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve with Heather but Eric was not feeling his best. Another dodgy tummy turn. This is one of those places where toilets are a long way apart, the tree cover is not thick and the ground either side of the track could be surprisingly unsafe. Not to mention the mozzies if you have to drop your pants. He wasn't getting any better so he turned back. Heather and I persisted and although we didn't see anything particularly surprising we did get to see a female olive-backed sunbird building a nest, a large water monitor emerging from the weed covered pond, a golden orb web spider and a pair of common flamebacks (male upside down here, red crest fully erect) at very close range. Unfortunately our photographer had left and although he left the camera with me, the shots aren't great. He rested up while the rest of the team went to work in the evening.
Syd and Kym were keen for us to return to Bali with them so late last year we booked the same villa again and we chose this weekend as it was close to our birthdays. Saturday and Sunday went by in a blur and we were on the plane straight after work. June and Heather joined us back at Villa Horizon, Nusa Dua.
The flight left on time and although it was probably the noisiest flight I can ever remember taking, we seemed to touchdown in Bali in no time. Jainie was there to collect us, with a second driver and we were soon on our way with loads of duty free bags between us. We tucked into that as soon as our rooms were allocated and it was alarming to wake the next morning and see the level left in the vodka bottle. Some of us were more active than others in the morning.
We had arranged for our breakfast makings to be in the fridge on arrival but they had omitted the bread so Eric and I went for a walk to Bali Mart down the hill. The return journey certainly got the heart pumping. There are too many of us to all travel comfortably in the one car so after a big serving of scrambled eggs, I magnanimously offered to mind the couch with a good book for company, while the rest went to Hardy's Supermarket for more supplies. By the time they returned it was lunchtime. All we seem to do is eat! Between dips in the pool, music challenges, reading and puzzles we made it to pre-dinner snacks which rolled over into dinner cooked by Fathma. Her baby has really grown since our last visit when she was only 3 weeks old. Now she seems mostly attached to Mum's hip yet Fathma managed to turn out a fabulous meal including garlic fish, spicy fish in banana leaf, chicken with lemon grass, gado gado, fried tofu and another green bean dish. It was all delicious.
Overnight it rained heavily and we woke to thunder and the threat of further rain so it was tempting to just stay in bed. However we had booked Jainie to drive us to the water treatment lagoon to go bird watching and it seemed a shame to miss the opportunity even if we did get wet. There was some confusion about the destination and it was only when I twigged that he might have mistaken "lagoon" for "Legian" that we turned around and headed in the right direction. He left us there for 2 hours and dropped June at the gardens in Nusa Dua to walk. Fortunately for all of us, the rain held off and we were very happy with our list of sightings which included the purple heron, scarlet headed flowerpecker (very wet) and scaly-breasted munia. One new sighting was the Fulvou-breasted Woodpecker but we were unable to get a picture.
Back at home we feasted on grilled bacon and tomatoes for brunch before another dip and siesta. I managed to update June's laptop which she was really happy about and I was rather chuffed that I still remember something of the old ICT knowledge. In the evening we returned to Bumbu Bali in downtown Nusa Dua for a terrific local meal in an authentic setting. We chose the traditional Balinese Rijstaffel menu again to sample all the essentials the island has to offer. It is a set menu of three starters and a soup followed by seven (you read it right) small main dishes, vegetables, three types of rice, four desserts and finally, Balinese tea or coffee. Once again we all left completely sated (read stuffed).
The morning return flight left on time and we had plenty of time to drop in at home before heading off to work for wk 5 of Term 1. Can we be halfway through the term already? Sttlement on Luke and Tahlia's place in Wagaman was held up but should now proceed without further delay. Adrian is thinking of returning to Darwin before the next winter in Alice so we look forward to having him closer to home when we return. I think we have our belated tax return completed now and flights booked for the next trip so we can relax. Tough life really!
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