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Today we left our luxurious accommodation in Padangbai to return to Ubud and the final leg of Dawn’s trip to Indonesia. Still, it was an interesting day. Alison wasn’t picking us up until the afternoon so we had time to kill between then and checking out. It wasn’t a problem. Our gracious Danish host was happy for us to laze around the pool and watch the world go by until our lift arrived. As the day was overcast we didn’t get fried by the sun, instead we spent our time catching some filtered rays and enjoyed a warm shower courtesy of mother nature!

The birdlife around the pool was amazing. Various species were attracted by the plants so I managed a couple of decent shots using my new Nikon S series 100-400m lens which is proving to be a really useful bit of kit – even at very silly slow shutter speeds that you’d never have got away with in the past.

Nope, I’ve no idea what this one is either…UPDATE: Mystery solved, a Malaysian friend (Alan Bligh) has identified it as a female olive sunbird.

Part of me would have enjoyed staying longer as the hotel was fabulous and the location was so peaceful but there’s just too much to see and do – and ground to cover. On the way back Alison introduced us to another different world. We stopped at a natural sea salt farm in Kusamba, where a lovely old chap called Nyoman Warta and his family produce sea salt by traditional (and rather labour intensive) methods by harvesting sea water off the beach, Nyoman takes it through several natural processes to refine and dry it before it’s bagged and sold. Here’s a few pictures.

Having filled his bags with sea water from the sea behind me, Nyoman scatters the water on the volcanic black sand beach as the first part of the process.
The second part of the process takes place inside his wicker building, where the volcanic soil is washed and the salt separated.
The final part of the process takes place outdoors where the salt is washed in these long troughs, then the water is allowed to evaporate, leaving behind the pure sea salt which is then dried and bagged up.
Inside his workshop, with equipment that hasn’t changed in generations.

Needless to say, we couldn’t resist buying a couple of bags to take home with us. This isn’t something you get to see everyday. We get to see something different on Saturday too, as we’ve been invited to a local family ceremony – but more of that tomorrow…

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