Smoke on the water

We rose early yesterday morning for the spectacular experience of sailing into Banda Neira harbour.

Two dolphins undulated past the ship’s prow as we approached the entrance to the port. Then two long canoes filled with singing locals and drummers appeared and accompanied us to our landing site.

After we disembarked, dancers performed during a welcome ceremony, while bowls of candied nutmeg flesh were passed around for us to sample.

I didn’t realise nutmeg was a fruit with flesh until that moment – it was delicious.

Now a sleepy Indonesian outpost, 500 years ago it was the centre of the spice trade.

The Banda Islands were the only place in the world that nutmeg and mace grew endemically and the spices were in high demand. They were used to flavour food and as medicines and preserving agents.

The value of nutmeg soared to the equivalent of gold and the Dutch wanted a piece of the action so badly that they swapped New Amsterdam – now New York – for two islands in the region!

Very ugly things happened during the Dutch occupation of the Banda Islands, including one cruel leader attempting genocide against the local inhabitants and almost succeeding.

After the British learned to cultivate nutmeg in other parts of the world, Banda Neira returned to being a sleepy outpost and is more famed these days for its diving than its spices.

It was a sweltering morning as we set off to explore the town, stopping by the local museum and climbing hundreds of stairs to Fort Belgica, built by the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, its one of the last remaining European forts in Indonesia.

We also toured an adjoining nutmeg farm where we were given pieces of nutmeg shell to sniff, which had an aroma reminiscent of Coca-Cola. (Mace and nutmeg are believed to be part of the original secret formula for Coke.)

We cooled off afterwards with iced cinnamon tea and baked treats at Cilu Bintang Estate, an atmospheric colonial-style hotel. The chefs had baked an incredible buffet of sweet and savoury treats for us to sample, including delicious green pancakes filled with coconut jam.

Then we made our way back to the port, where the Indonesian performers had switched from singing traditional music to belting out disco classics such as “I Will Survive”.

It was only as we were collecting our life jackets that we realised the irony of the song choice – a boat had run aground on the reef and caught fire. (We discovered afterwards that the fire was caused by the rescuers smoking cigarettes near leaking fuel at the wreck.)

Smoke filled the air and our ship’s crew raced to help contain the flames and clean up the fuel leaking from the boat.

Fortunately no one was injured, but sadly the boat was a write off.

Our afternoon plan had been to snorkel over a lava flow located near the wrecked boat.

Banda Api last erupted in 1988, with the height of the eruption pillar estimated at 3-5km. The lava flow destroyed everything in its path, including the coral reef. 

However as soon as the lava cooled the coral started growing back on top of it, which is apparently amazing to see.

The expedition crew scouted a new location on the other side of the volcano and we cruised over there in the afternoon, spotting a blue whale breaching along the way.

The variety of tropical fish and coral at the new location were wonderful – there were at least three types of clownfish I had never seen before and lots of green, yellow, orange and purple coral, with the occasional splash of blue.

We had a bulk fun time before finally climbing into a zodiac and returning to the ship to shower, hydrate and dress for a white party on the pool deck.

Waiters served Champagne and cocktails, accompanied by fabulous, freshly caught Banda Neira tuna sushi and sashimi.

Another amazing day aboard Le Soleal.

Song of the day: Deep Purple “Smoke on the water”