From Balbulol in the Misool group of islands, we made our way through Selat Sele to Sorong.

Sorong is the major city in Papua Barat (West Papua) and is the gateway city to Raja Ampat. We needed to be in Sorong for a number of reasons; we had to reprovision our supplies (both fresh food and groceries), we had to fix a mechanical problem with the outboard motor on our dinghy, and my father took the opportunity to fly in and visit us.

There has been ongoing civil unrest in Papua Barat for some time. It had been a Dutch colony after Indonesian independence, and there is a strong movement amongst the indigenous Papuan people trying to resist the influx of people from other parts of Indonesia. With much mineral wealth in the area, it is unlikely that Jakarta will grant that wish. Instead, they have been spending on infrastructure to support the growing oil and gas mining industry. The population of Sorong has doubled in the last decade, and is now 300,000.

There have been a number of recent reports of visiting yachts being boarded at night while anchored off in the harbour, with properly being stolen. While we were in Sorong, we twice witnessed protesters closing the main route through the city with barricades of burning tyres. It was for our security that we sought shelter in the pond of the old Tampa Garam Beach resort.

Tampa Garam resort would have once been a local wonderland. Water park activities and playgrounds were filled with food stores and eating venues. But like much of Indonesia, maintenance is a problem. Much is poorly built to begin with, with concrete often being made using coral rubble for aggregate and salt water in the mix, and crumbling to dust in a few years. But it seems the problem here was corruption. We were told that the developer of this resort was jailed, and the resort placed in the hands of a public administrator who has clearly not allocated money for repairs and maintenance.

The huge chlorinated swimming pool remains the jewel, and is the source of the name, as tampa garam literally means “without salt”, a reference to the rare fresh water swimming pool. The large administration building remains in good condition, and the attached kitchen still provides meals to visitors. In front of the administration building, the resorts sea water pool is now used for mooring the visiting yachts. This provides a safe haven in this city as the gates to the road are manned by “security” staff, who charge the locals to enter.

It was really sad to see the neglect of this once beautiful park. All timber structures such as board walks and gazebos are rotting and collapsed, concrete structures like statues roads are crumbling, and curiosities like the flying fox, and the high wire bicycle remain unused and fenced off. Even the swimming pool filtration system sits unused, with the electric pump motors wrapped in plastic. Pool cleaning is now done with a portable pump. Workers sweep the area every morning, piling up the fallen leaves from paving and grassed areas, but plastic waste is ignored and lies scattered everywhere.

Boats anchor in the “marina” in the usual med-moor style, with the boat anchor deployed on the opposite side of the pond before reversing in towards the shore, where two lines are secured on angles. No water or electricity is available, and you make your way to shore with your own dinghy. Rubbish is collected in bins, but we later learned that it is simply piles up and burned. We had intended to stay only a few days, but circumstances changed and we ended up remaining for almost two weeks.