From disaster to opportunity - Marooned on an off-grid Indonesian island

FROM DISASTER TO OPPORTUNITY

10 days in the life of a travelling family in search of truth & beauty. The Steemit Exclusive film can be seen here, published on Youtube at the same time as this article.

After being invited to make a film on board a beautiful boat my family and I left the calm tranquility of our home in Bali for the open seas intent on enjoying every last minute of the 2 weeks it would take us to get from Komodo Island to Ambon.

A route the boat must take annually to avoid the raining season storms.

What we did not account for were a few small hitches in the general organisation behind this trip. The people running the boat didn't seem to like the idea that I had an 18 month baby with me and despite the company knowing full well this would be the case, I was advised upon boarding it would be unsafe for him.

Regardless, we ploughed on with our intention of having a good time and in the light of two months very excited build-up to this trip, I wasn't about to give up easily. So we battened down the hatches and set sail as a family.

However, disaster struck when four days into the trip my son Esteban became sea-sick and more than this, it became apparent that there was no one on board I could film. And despite being given the impression that we would be stopping in national parks where I could shoot my beloved time-lapse we were infact on a diving trip, stopping only in areas where the true beauty is beneath the water. This would have been fine if I was a diver, but I am not. Not yet anyway!

All of these elements combined seemed to be pointing very much toward our imminent departure from the boat, so on the morning of the 5th day it was decided that we disembark at our current location of Alor, a large island off the coast of which there are various smaller islands & volcanos.

The realisation that our trip was over already was a tough one to move on from. Our expectations had not been met and from the sea Alor did not look like the kind of place we wanted to be. Yet we had little choice at that point, so we turned our sights back to having fun and upon doing so, we immediatly stumbled upon the perfect place for us.

Kepa Island doesn't have much going on due to its small size and lack of electricity & fresh water access. But it does have a small French run eco community for divers & snorkellers.

La P'tite Kepa was the kind of resort you would never think to visit if you didn't already know about it and the kind of place I feel certain we will one day return to.

Perfection doesn't even come close to desribing what we found there. As a person who appreciates the need for change on this planet I couldn't have been more at home. The basic bamboo huts all had solar panels and the roof design made rain water collection possible.

I did have my own solar panels with me (compliments of Sundaya) which I needed to charge the array of electronic devices I travel with.

Esteban looked like a christmas tree at night :)

And without these panels I would not have been able to produce the power hungry film (DSLR, Gopro, DJI drone & motion control time-lapse) you can see at the top of this article.

The snorkelling was out of this world and so too were the stars at night.

Look carefully at the long exposure lightning shot beneath and you will see the green intermittent flashing light of a passing fire-fly.

If you don't feel like watching the full film at least skip to the closing sequence where you will find some time-lapse results from my brief stay on Kepa Island.

The lesson I learned from this experience is simple: When the haze of perception is lifted, only beauty remains.

...and always get a contract for every job!

Hope you have enjoyed this small chapter of our ongoing journey around the world.

Keep following for more :)