Sur les terres oubliées des Petites Iles de la Sonde
Sur les terres oubliées des Petites Iles de la Sonde
July 27
Arrival around 6:30 am on the island of Besar, we dock with the zodiac on a pretty beach, the village of Lebantur is just behind.
The vegetation is beautiful, we feel that there is water on the island: no doubt the clouds are retained by the heights of an ancient volcano.
It's back to school after Ramadan. At the nursery school, there are 16 children and are in class from 7:30 am to 10 am. In primary school, for 6/10 year olds, it is day of cleaning of classes today for the resumption.
The cashew trees are here in bloom and not in fruit. Their large wingspan, with a touch of touch, does not allow the ground to be used for anything else. Besides, this soil is very stony, even rocky. Cashew production is the village's number one resource, but they also grow copra, soy, cassava and corn. The inhabitants make the round trip several times a day on the island of Florès to sell their agricultural products.
A little further out of the village, we discover another technique of climbing to the top of the coconut trees. Hands and barefoot, the man puts his feet in notches cut in the trunk, and always with great dexterity he reaches the top of the tree very quickly.
In some less stony areas there are already harvested crops of corn-soybean (Mung Bean). The association works well: in the rainy season the corn grows in three months and is harvested in April, then the soybeans arrive in May. The legume fixes nitrogen and maintains the soil. There are many goats, used only for meat, not for milk. But it is a problem for the surrounding wild vegetation as for crops because the livestock is large and grazes everything, including the bark. This is why bamboo and other barriers are very important.
Back on the beach we discover a beautiful mangrove. It is fairly clean but the concept of non-biodegradable waste is clearly not integrated.
