Gili Trawangan

 Today we decided to have a short holiday from our holiday and visit one of Gili Air's sister islands, Gili Trawangan.

It's the biggest of the 3 Gili islands (a whopping 6.5 miles around) and is the most built up.

We boarded the fast boat and headed off to the "Big City".

On arrival, we were shocked by the sheer number of people. We must have seen 20 or 30 people in the first 10 minutes. 

That's more than we see in a day on Gili Air.......

Other things were reassuringly familiar. Bicycles, pearl sellers and horse and cart chaps (Though again lots more than we were used to).

Feeling slightly overwhelmed, we made for a beach that JB had earmarked as a place to play among the volcanic boulders that littered the shoreline. 

I should probably say now that the islands themselves were formed from the volcanic eruption of Gunung Rinjang (on Lombok) in 1492.

But I guess you knew that......

Mucking about on lava completed, we continued our circumnavigation of the island. The North proved to be the nicest bit (as it so often is...)

Stopping for a restorative pineapple juice at a bar in the optimistically named Turtle Point, we were mildly sceptical of the barman's claims that there were, in fact, turtles in them there waves.

However ..... a closer scrutiny revealed a definite turtle snout breaking the surface!!

Without further ado, it was on with the snorkels and into the sea.

And after a couple of false starts (my mask fogged up, my snorkel took on water, I am a master diver) there it was. Only a bloody turtle. That's all.

I swam around with it for quite some time and, although we didn't actually exchange numbers, I felt we had a connection.

All too soon it was time to get back on the fast boat home, both of us with daft grins plastered to our faces.

All in all, a grand day out.

To the best of our knowledge, no turtles were traumatised in the making of this blog.