Hubert (Bertie) is our new sweetheart on Angel Island;o) who could have guessed;o)

Sept 2011.

He was spotted at the bottom of one of our small cliffs by Hubert (Guest) while he was kayaking around the island, that’s Hubert not Bertie;o))) after a very strange conversation between Eloise and me, I finally understood there was a cow on the island!!!!!!!!!! Guests were trying to explain to the staff with hand signals and noises what they’d found as they didn’t know the English for Cow, with the gestures and ‘Beef’ ‘ Beef’ the staff just looked on amused at the crazy guests and had no clue what was going on;o))) So anyway off we go in the boat to find him and see how we could get the rescue started. luckily he was in an area where we could walk him in shallow water to reach our red beach, Nius was to be head ‘cow wrangler’ and Bertie just followed along quietly till we made it to the beach, where he drank liters of water and we found him a comfy place to sleep and get some grass;o) we don’t know how long he was there! But the story doesn’t end there! for the next night, Bertie got loose of his rope and disappeared, we hunted high and low, how on earth could you lose a baby water buffalo on such a small island?? Heartbroken I thought he must have fallen off a cliff as we found where he had slept that night which was in a very precarious place;o( But, the next day whilst Paul was picking rubbish from the beach he looked out across the water to see Bertie walking along the beach on the opposite uninhabited island, (maybe 1km away) so off they go in the boat with a plank of wood and just walked Bertie up onto the boat and back to the safety of Angel Island, he  was still crying for his Mum, but he’s getting used to us all now and seems very happy to have found us, probably the only place in Indonesia where the owner is a vegetarian;o)))) All our guests love him and Bertie is now probably more photographed than the komodo dragons on Rinca;o)) So how did he come to be on the island? Packed Boats from Labuanbajo take water buffalo to Sulawesi to sell, he must have jumped ship and swam to shore, goodness knows how long or far he swam to reach us! We’ve already had a contingent of people trying to claim him, but I won’t give him up without a fight and will see them in court first, Bertie is here to stay!!

November 2011

Bertie is doing well, eating us out of grass and leaves, we’re having to get grass sent down from Ruteng which is a 4 hour drive away in the mountains;o)))))  He’s growing quickly, but still just a big softy, all of our guests love him
A crow has started sitting on his back and catching any insects off him, hope to get a picture soon!