Island Hopping through Nusa Tenggara
Part Four: Lembata (Lomblen) Island
Lembata Island went by the name of Lomblen at the time of our journey. It has a long tradition of whaling, though today the practice is only carried out in two villages on the southern coast. Our vessel visited the little village of Jontana. It seemed an idyllic place as we set anchor close to the shore, with children splashing in the water, and a man leisurely washing his pony down, perhaps after a hard morning's work hauling timber.
Of all the villages on our journey, we received the biggest welcome at Jontana. The entire village turned up to greet our dinghies, and followed us back to them on our departure. Treated to the usual dance performance - again of wonderful quality and delivered with great enthusiasm - we turned tables on them after their performance and gave them an impromptu 
group rendition of the "Hokey Pokey". The delight and screams of laughter we received was worth the price of the entire journey. I feel saddened that these wonderful, open people who so looked forward to their periodic visits from vessels such as ours no longer get such visits, but at the same time it might just be better that their unique culture is not further corrupted by westerners teaching them the Hokey Pokey.
We sailed from Jontana past a looming volcano - one of dozens we'd seen along this journey. Indonesia has over 150 active volcanoes - more than any country on earth - and these volcanoes are also amongst the most active in the world.
This evening, we were braced by the captain for rough seas on the final leg of our journey across to Kupang in West Timor. He was right. The experienced chef knew not to bend a big effort for the night, and indeed his dinner sat forelornly on the buffet table while most of the passengers huddled in their cabins feeling green. Us seafaring types chose instead to sit on the upstairs deck drinking good Indonesian beer.