On leaving Komodo, we took
on a passenger, one of the rangers wanted a ride home across the bay to Labuan
Budjo. We needed to pickup fuel, so off we went. A beautiful ride. The
whole way Towley was talking about setting up a charter boat company there since it was so
pretty.Labuan Budjo is a small town on
the east end of Flores Island. It is the only place to pick up supplies anywhere in
the area. We arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon and anchored in the middle of the
fishing fleet about 400 meters off shore. We then rowed into town with the jerry
cans to look for the petrol station. For small town Indonesia, this was a very
pretty place. It turns out this is a favorite stop for German and Scandinavian
backpackers. There are even a few backpacker hotels in the area. That
explained all of the blond hair we saw on the street.
Diesel found, we filled up the cans and Dave D. rowed
them back out to the boat while I explored town. Beyond the few mosques and couple
of small shops there is not much along the water front. I was told that there is a
big shopping center "over the hill." Unfortunately, we did not have time
to go for the mall since we wanted to be out before dark. Definitely a place that I
would not mind going back to in the future.
