TOGIAN ISLANDS IN SULAWESI LOST PARADISE
October 15, 2018
Arrival to Togean, Wakai and Kadidiri
Our pretty wooden boat passes near many lush islands. Groups of flying fish emerge from the clear water.
After 5 hours, the boat stops at Wakai, the capital of the archipelago. “Ben it’s tiny!” A canoe takes us with three other tourists to the island of Kadidiri. It is the island of which speaks the Lonely Planet, the most famous Togean.
I’m expecting a little village, but no!
In fact, Kadidiri is a wild island, with its jungle and beaches. The arrival on the only inhabited beach, is almost worthy of the film The Beach: the sun, the hot wind, the big rocks which pierce the turquoise water, the corals and the tropical fish in transparency, the beach and its coconut trees and behind , only a few wooden bungalows on the sand and finally the tropical forest.
Rather wild!
Even so, as there is a tiny dive center, I can pay by credit card and my cash problems are fixed.
Daily life in paradise
We are about 15 people all over the island. Everyone shares the usual fish with rice at every meal around the same table. After a week you feel like a small family.
Every day, we go diving near the surrounding islands, or simply swim with a mask. The sites are still entirely ours. This is different from the overcrowded sites of Koh Tao divers in Thailand and it’s just as beautiful.
One day a fisherman takes Julien, Doriane and me in his canoe to take a tour of the islands further afield. It stops us on several really deserted islands where the little clownfish, Nemo, may never have seen humans. On some islands, there are villages of Bajos. They are also called gypsies of the sea. An old traveler lost for a few years on the island of Katupan lends me a traditional harpoon Bajo a little twisted. I’m not getting anything, too bad. On the return we stop in a mangrove. The worm-eaten plank boards break under my feet. The trunks of submerged trees are soft and rotten. I expect to see a crocodile at any moment, but nothing. We go back home admiring a beautiful sunset over the sea.
