Birds, Tribes and Gaol

Long Island was an old timber town and as a result all the buildings were large timber ones although very run down. We did manage to find a restaurant after following the blue arrows painted on the path. The ½ hour walk needed the arrows. Here the record for the time between ordering and eating was broken at 2 hours 14 mins. A long time, when they don’t serve beer. Trevor got separated in town so we sent out a motorbike to find him. He had stumbled across the code word to get the only alcohol available a home brewed whiskey, which was quite drinkable with coke.

The next day, we were all keen to head up the Humphrey Straight apart from Amanda who wanted to spend time hunting the local Hornbill. After confirming the arrival of a ferry the following morning heading to Neil Island she decided to stay another night and meet us at Neil. We anchored near the ferry crossing and got a rickshaw limo (seats 6) to the local village. Having seen very few westerners we were a highlight for the village getting invited for tea with the school headmaster. Trevor got the code word for whisky however as thyme was short didn’t try the local brew.

Catching the tide the following morning we headed to South Button and had a dive before over nighting at Henry Lawrence Island. We arrived at Neil around lunch to discover the Islands accommodation was booked out. This resulted in Amanda not being at the rendezvous point. I went from place to place on my hired bike eventually finding a very excited manager who claimed the Police came for her. After he calmed down I got him to show me the guest register and her room to make sure we were talking about the same person and made the Police station my next stop. Sure enough there she was waiting for an official to return with her papers. It turns out upon arrival by plane you are issued with travel papers that need to be shown when traveling between Islands and when checking into accommodation. Her papers allowed the boat to travel around but in the fine print said that you couldn’t leave the boat. Of course when he arrived back and wanted to know the boats whereabouts she was able to say anchored out front and things sort of blew over after that.

We were planning on staying a few days until my birthday but the wind had changed the anchorage was uncomfortable so we decide to head over to Port Blair in preparation for our outwards clearance. Sven and Kartja booked a flight to main land India leaving us to explore the local sights. The jail was well worth a look.

The Indians also appeared to have had some trouble with Simon in the past

Clearing out was straight forward, visit the required offices, wait for them if they are not in and meet them 1 hour after agreed for our stamp in their port office or foundations of, then leave. Two ezy.

The trip back to Phuket was mostly uneventful however Amanda suffered from chest pain, and difficulty breathing for the trip. As soon as we arrived I took her to hospital on a motor bike where she was rushed to a doctor, sent for X rays and back to the doctor who kindly told her maybe she pulled a muscle. Ha ha, I told her it was quibblitis. We later found out 2 other people had suffered from the same thing at the same time so maybe whatever it was had cleared up by the time we got to the doctor?

Here's the route we took around the Andaman Islands.