In 2012, having retired a few years earlier, I had the wherewithal for an extended stay in a Balinese village. However the common sight of local boat building had died out, so I decided to commission my own Jukung.

Were is a boat building village. This year we again visited while sailing a non-wooden yacht through the Indonesian archipelago. This time with a camera, on the beach we found numerous smaller craft, dugouts, small fishing boats with outriggers, and larger planked boats…

Traditional wooden boatbuilding and seafaring are integral to the long history of an archipelago of islands that became Indonesia. This is Australia’s northern neighbour that we sadly ignore except when making a holiday dash to Denpasar.