Our Yellow Brick Road – Part Two

Day 4

We went to the port on that second morning in Kupang. I reckon personal connections are where the magic is and we needed to put in the hard, hot yards if we wanted to find ourselves a boat. Napa seemed to think that there might be one here in the port headed for Darwin and so we set off with a slightly wild optimism.

Was this the boat? …how incredible would that be, so perfectly landing in our laps?

The walk down to the harbour was hot, slow and noisy… It seemed to us that each country we got to was hotter than the last, can’t wait for Australia I thought gloomily with my dress plastered to my back in seconds and my red face stopping traffic.

In all the walks we’ve done this was the first where we had to find shade because the heat was so overwhelming.

We found somewhere under a tree overlooking the harbour, and there they were, four sailing boats of different sizes, rocking gently on the waves, their masts glistening in the sunlight – we played ‘guess which boat is going to take us to Australia’, poured water over our heads and headed out into the heat again.

We walked all the way to the end of the pier hoping to see someone on one of the boats but we didn’t know which one it was, or even if there was a boat definitely going to Darwin, so we headed back to the shade next to what turned out to be the harbour masters office.

One of the men sitting there introduced himself as ‘Bob’, who turned out to be a good friend of Napa’s and we told him what we were trying to do.

Bob told us that there definitely was a boat in the harbour going to Darwin, leaving today or tomorrow, and they were coming in to do their customs paperwork at three.

Oh, My, God.

He pointed out which boat it was and we walked to the end of the pier again and sent out a wish over the waves separating us from our destiny, are you listening little boat?! …then we set off on the hot walk back to Lavalon.

As soon as we got back we did a crash course in beginners sailing. We didn’t want to look like utter numpties if they asked us any questions, and I also worked out how many days it would take a sailing boat of that size to get to Darwin…

I wanted to get back to the port early that afternoon in case 3.00 meant 2.00 and we took a taxi because none of us could face ‘there and back’ in the heat. We arrived to see the speedboat dinghy that we had seen earlier attached to the back of their boat, heading away from shore…we were too late!

I went out to the end of the pier and an old fisherman sitting there knew immediately what I wanted, I have no idea how, and started hollering at the little dinghy to come over here…maybe he could read me as easily as he read the sea…I will never know but it made me feel like someone was on our side.

I doubt if they heard us and if they did they took no notice…was that it? Had we missed our chance?!

I went back to the shade trying not to feel the full weight of disappointment – the reality was this was a broken boat, and with a four day trip, yes folks FOUR DAYS, and that with a fair wind and no cyclones, we had to face the fact that this might be too bloody much for us and the universe had spared us one of the worst experiences of our lives by changing the time the captain came to shore…

None of that made us feel much better…but we decided that it made sense to wait until 3.00 – maybe they hadn’t done the customs bit yet?!

We sat in slightly depressed silence staring at the sea …and then Rosa noticed their dinghy was coming back.

We met them on the shore, two of them coming off the boat – one of them was a British guy called Hex, Napa had mentioned him to us earlier, and the other a man called Alex, we asked them in a slightly embarrassed stumbling way – suddenly not prepared to ask complete strangers for a favour,  in a breezy and confident way: ‘any chance  of a 4 day lift on your boat mate?’

We explained we had travelled from England overland, and that we really wanted to complete the journey without flying, we told them we were prepared to pay and could move fast but we said none of it with the easy confidence of the seasoned sailor!

Hex spoke first and told us there were four of them on the boat and there really wasn’t room. He said they done the paper work and were just clearing customs now – so ‘no!’ Alex confirmed that they really did need to be getting going as it was late in the season – ’no’.

No.

We were gracious and walked away but I felt devastated and couldn’t accept it so ten minutes into the walk to the guesthouse (…and I really wasn’t good company so I was doing everyone a favour!) I turned round and went back.

I thought of a couple of questions I could ask if they were still sat there, so it wasn’t crazy awkward going back to talk to them again.

They were still sat on the wall where we’d left – Hex on the phone muttering about how stressed he was and giving me ‘bugger off’ vibes  – but I didn’t. I sat down and waited ‘til Hex was off the phone – snatching two carrier bags smartly out of the air as they sailed past me in the wind and shoving them in my bag (great cricketing skills) – I asked my first question – ‘I hope you don’t mind guys but seeing as you haven’t left yet I’d like to ask you a couple of questions if that’s okay?’

It was okay…

‘What would be a good amount of money to offer for a passage’ and then I asked to be introduced to their contacts to see if we could get another boat.

I chatted with Alex about the boat and how long he’d had it and then cricket (a good subject) and he mentioned rugby (a bad one) …sports fans like talking about when their team wins a lot more than when it loses 🙂

It turned out Alex owned the boat and it was his decision really. I didn’t try and persuade him or plead with him. They’d said no but I wanted it to be clear that I really did want to get to Australia and that we were decent human beings in case something happened to change their minds…

Fifteen minutes later Bob came and got Alex and I sat and talked to Hex, who was much nicer when he was on his own. He told me about the dynamic on the boat, about what was wrong with the engine, I casually trotted out my recently learned knowledge re how long it would take to get to Darwin and my maths didn’t let me down!  As Hex relaxed he told me he would have said yes but it wasn’t his decision.

‘So close’ I thought.

None of this helped us get on a boat to Darwin but it helped me…I hadn’t just walked away when they’d said ‘’no’ and when Alex came back he asked for one of my carrier bags so something I’d touched will be in Australia by now…

I walked back trying out, ‘Everything happens for a reason’ …and came up with the following possible scenarios:

1. The boat wasn’t going to make it – it was clearly on its last legs
2. Rosa and I were never meant to sail and it would have been the worst experience of our lives
3. Something better was just round the corner
4. We needed to go to East Timor – I had such a history with the country it would have been really sad to miss it
5. I needed to fly from Dili to Darwin so I wouldn’t be Mrs Smug Insufferable Person
6. Some obscure reason I would only discover 17 years from now

This didn’t make me feel massively better about the fact they said no, but it’s all part of letting go…and there really was a doubt in me about their boat and how many days at sea we could cope with…

Day 5

Theo and I headed off to the port around 9.30 the following day and made good time. Optimism had been slightly restored …If there’d been one boat maybe there would be another!

We stopped at our ‘shade spot’ and looked out over the port. I had half hoped the Australian boat would still be there but it wasn’t, that ship had sailed 🙂

There was a new boat on the block now though… a fancy looking red one.

We made friends with the Harbour Master that morning, and met two Marine Police – they were all a bit annoyed that the Australians hadn’t taken us with them.

They told us the new boat was French and they didn’t know where it was headed next…’come back later!’

Hope levels back up another couple of  notches we walked back discussing why the Indonesians were so surprised and cross that the Aussie boat hadn’t taken us.

Our best guess was that in the west we now have so much that is ‘ours’ that we have the luxury of saying ‘No’, ‘this is mine and you can’t use it/share it/have it!’

In Indonesia nearly everyone was poorer than we are and I saw so much sharing, of space, food, motorbikes etc. …from their point of view we needed a lift and the crew could have helped us, so they should have…!

It was really interesting to look at the world through those eyes.

Napa was back at Lavalon and he already knew about the French boat and he said he would take me back later to see if there was any news.

We figured it was time to start looking at travel to Timor-Leste (East Timor) that afternoon. Edwin assured us that the ‘letter of authorisation’ required in order to apply for a visa was no longer necessary and he gave me phone numbers of tourists who had recently just gone straight to the border and been issued with a visa there.

Compared to having to take all the pieces of evidence they required on a 45 minute journey across town and then potentially wait three days for the letters to be issued – this was a dream. The evidence they required was a bit bonkers, including a return ticket back out of the country and three months worth of bank statements proving you hard the money to stay there and leave again …(statements which we had bought with us all this way for just this moment!!)

According to our research buses to Dili only ran on even days of the week, but once again Edwin assured us he could call and book a bus every day and it was virtually half the price of the less regular bus …now we just needed somewhere to stay…

Obviously none of this would be necessary if the French boat was going to Darwin.

Napa came and collected me at 4.30 – we were going on his motorbike apparently… He was a careful driver but with a crazy trigger happy accelerator hand. We would approach a roundabout/bend/junctionreally slowly and carefully and then shoot away super fast – I considered what it would be like to fly off backwards and thought I might walk back…

We arrived at the port to find the French crew had been to shore at last and their boat was heading back to Indonesia. I didn’t feel the same crushing defeat I had yesterday but I was disappointed – it started to rain as I set off walking.

I wondered how many more boats there would be. I guessed we’d give it one more day and then we would have to try Timor-Leste, I had made it halfway back before Napa caught up with me and took me dripping, back to Lavalon.

Day 6

There was one new boat in the port when we went the next morning – the two mile walk very familiar to us now.

The new sailing boat looked like it had come straight off the set of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ – that would do nicely!

The harbour master invited us into his office when we arrived and told us sadly that that boat was bound for Papua New Guinea…

Sigh.

We’d reached the end of what made sense here – boats were few and far between and in Dili there were lots more options…we needed to ask Edwin to book the bus.

One of Theo’s efforts to contact someone in Dili had come off and I saw a text when we got back to the guesthouse. A text from an activist called Helen Hill. She thought she might be able to arrange somewhere for us to stay.

She got back to us later that day with confirmation that we could stay with Tracey, the Honorary British Consul in Dili.

Wow, might she know people who could help us…?!

We said a very find farewell to Napa and thanked him for all his help and  that evening Aurell, a sweet, shy girl I had made friends with, allowed me to take a photo with her…we had gotten close over the five days – she claimed me when I was out on the streets as her friend, and I taught her a hand clapping game Rosa has learned from Hazel, her teacher in school – Aurell was pretty good at it by the time we left and Edwin translated for me as I attempted to tell her what I felt about meeting her and my hopes for her future…

We had a big hug and she left. Time to finish packing – tomorrow we were going to Timor-Leste, and apparently it was really hot there…