We are looking to travel a bit further this year. Necessary items have been bought and otherwise obtained, and contact has been made with the bureaucrats. We’re planning to head for Raja Ampat in Indonesia.

Significant locations have been circled in the map below. We will leave Australia from either Thursday Island or Nhulunbuy where we will clear out with Australian Customs. We will have to enter Indonesia at a designated port of entry. That is most likely going to be Tual in the Kai Islands, as it will be best with the winds to stay as far east as possible. From Tual, the plan is to continue north to Sorong, as Raja Ampat is just to the north. Returning to Australia is best done in the months from December to March, when the prevailing winds turn from SE to NW. At this stage we are planning on returning via Ambon and maybe Saumlakki, but everything is weather dependant.

The Emperor of Four

Situated off the northwest tip of Bird’s Head Peninsula on Papua, the most eastern island of the Indonesian Archipelago, Raja Ampat or literally meaning ‘The Four Kings’ is an archipelago comprising over 1,500 small islands, cays, and shoals surrounding the four main islands of Waigeo, Batanta, Salawati, and Misool. The name Raja Ampat itself is believed to derive from a legend where a woman found seven eggs, with four of them hatch and become the kings of the four main islands, while the other three became a woman, a ghost, and a stone.