After an exhausting day flying from Miri via KL to Jakarta, we had to endure two delayed flights, a long walk in the new KLIA2 terminal to get to our Jakarta flight and arriving to late to meet with Graham Hancock and Danny Hillman before they boarded their flight to Palu.  Bob Effendi met us at the airport and in the 2 hour drive to our hotel we were able to bond with Bob our new and very capable ally here in Jakarta.  With Bob on our side we are hoping to advance our agenda here in Indonesia.

The meeting that Bob set up with the Vice-minister of culture went better than we could have hoped.  Everyone was on the same page and with the support from the Indonesian government we can expect to begin surveys of the Java Sea some time in the near future.  A symposium on how to proceed is being set up for next month with all the relevant players to discuss what needs to be done and who is responsible for what.  Now all that remains is for us to bring the Australian government to the party in the spirit of international cooperation. 

Last weekend there was a three day deep-sea fishing tournament here at Miri Marina.  Below are some photos of the catch they brought in.

Captain Hans Berekoven and I, Clifford Terry, will be making a trip to Indonesia to connect with a few colleagues over there.  Bob Effendi, the director of Greentech Indonesia, is organizing our itinerary and setting up the interviews we will be conducting.  Some of the people we hope to be connecting with are Ali Akbar, the lead archaeologist on the Gunung Padang excavation and some the Indonesia Marine Geological Research Institute team.  We are also hoping to connect with Dr. Danny Hillman Natawidjaja, the lead geologist working on Gunung Padang.

Since the internet has been down for a number of weeks now, there have been a few things we wanted to say about what we were up to but were not able to.  One of the early successes we had was the connect of the Simrad equipment to the monitor.  We had just set up the Structure Scan and the Broadband sonar monitor and we were tired of checking out the bottom of the marina under the boat, so we decided to check out a wreck off the coast of Miri that was marked and we knew the location.  It was a quick trip out to the wreck and set out scanning the sea floor to get an image of the wreck on our scanner.  After numerous passes for over an hour we finally located the wreck and the images we got were amazing in their detail.  Pleased with this success, we headed back under sail for a leisurely cruise.  Unfortunately, we were running the batteries down without the engine on and the starter batteries would not start the engine, so we started the generator.  This highlighted the problem with the heat exchanger, which was the beginning of our problems with the generator.  A squall descended upon us before we could get the engines started so we had to ride out the storm outside before limping back into the marina on the port engine.

Today we finally got the starboard engine purring like a kitten with a new fuel pump, so now we just have to get the generator squared away.

I have just finish painting under the forward cabins but we are still a little ways off from leaving.  Still problems with the generator and the starboard engine still after working on them the last week.  The Captain is getting increasingly frustrated not being able to figure out what the problem is.  To make matters worse the weather has been perfect and we are all anxious to try out the new sonar scanner out at the Luconia shoals.  Hopefully we will be posting some good news soon.

You can see what we have been dealing with.  One good thing, I have my bunk back again and we are putting the forward head back together again.  Also, we had success installing the scanner equipment, so it is not all bad.  Thanks to Simrad and their support.

The Maritime Mysteries Explorers are back in action and heading to Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia in Borneo.  They will be returning to their vessel, the Southern Sun and will be soon heading off for new expeditions in the South China Sea.  You can keep abreast of their exploits by checking this blog, Facebook page, Twitter and Google + page.

There have been a number of articles written about the megalithic site at Gunung Padang and the scientist there that are conducting the surveys.  One of the leading scientists there and perhaps the one most associated with the site is geologist, Danny Hilman Natawidjaja.  He has taken one the world's most well-known authority on unexplained phenomenon, Graham Hancock, on a tour of the site and the resulting article gave an in-depth analysis on the work being done there.  Now he has invited a fellow geologist to take a tour of the site, Robert M. Schoch Ph.D. and the article that he wrote on his tour of the site and his assessment of the work being done there is the most comprehensive exposition on the surveys being conducted there and how the results can be interpreted.  While there can still be a certain amount of controversy surrounding these interpretations, he uses his expertise in geology and comparisons to  similar finding in other parts of the world to bring a legitimacy to the statements he is make.  Have a read of his article and draw your own conclusions.  I am sure you will find it illuminating.
Journey to Gunung Padang
The case for a lost ice-aged civilization in Indonesia
by Robert M. Schoch Ph.D.

In a little over a month after the Maritime Mysteries Explorers visited the Megalith site at Gunung Padang, there was another distinguished visitor to the site.  None other than the world renowned adventurer, writer, and journalist, Graham Hancock.  His writings has served as an inspiration to a number of our explorations.  As it so happens, when we were discussing an anomaly that we found on the Luconia Shoals last year, I show one of the skeptics in our group what Graham had written about the structures that are found under the sea off the Japanese island of Yonaguni, which he talks about in his book, Underworld: the Mysterious Origins of Civilisation.  In this book, he talks about the possibility of an Ice-Aged civilisation just like we are searching for.  Coincidentally, when this person saw the pictures from Graham's website, he remember coming across similar structures on the South Korean country-side.  Needless to say, this open his eyes to the possibilities of what we were looking for.

Read what Graham Hancock had to say about his visit to Gunung Padang:
From Indonesia To Turkey New Archaeological Discoveries Uncover The Mysteries Of A Lost Civilisation 
By Graham Hancock

Gunung Padang  (Mountain of Enlightenment )

Gunung Padang is a Mountain in central Java that has been for years a place of special significance for the local peoples, even some from Bali coming to pay homage, but now has become the focus of the President and the team that he had set up to investigate it's sacred significance.

How do we know about this?
In 2010 we were guest speakers at a conference about Anceint Sunda Civilization in Bogor. On arrival at the Salak Hotel we were greeted by Mr Samantho who had instigated the conference and us being there. A dynamic sharp minded individual with a passion for Ancient History who is the Director at Bayt al-Hikmah Institute and Director of the Bayt al-Hikmah Institute, Research and Development Center for Philosophy, Science, Civilization and Gnostic-Spiritualism at ACAS Paramadina University. Also being keen to prove that Indonesia was once the seat of an Ancient Ice-Age Civilization has established AI ( Atlantis Indonesia) This group has grown in members at an enormous rate (some twenty six thousand members) and are a lot of fun to hang out with!

So on the 25th of October 2013 the Captain, our close Miri friend Mr Chai and I met up with our Producer Eric (Treasure Images Saba) in Java to explore the possibilities of this mountain actually being a Step Pyramid Older than 10,000 BC  It was the information that The Presidential Task Force had conclusively confirmed through  extensive surveys with electrical resistivity, ground penetrating radar and seismic tomography and having analysed drill core samples from selected areas that motivated our visit.

We wanted to include the Atlantis Indonesia group and offered to hire a bus so that the small group of students that followed us to the other  two mountains that were suspected of being Pyramids could follow on this trip. However it ended up being four buses with one hundred and seventeen ( yes you read correctly 117) otheres followed!!

It was an awesome experience to say the least.      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ImTuVI9lhc
More interesting reading can be found   http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com.au/search/label/Java


It was a FIVE hour trip from Jakarta!!!



Posted 7th December 2013 by Southern Sun

The other really good excuse to go to Europe was to visit "Dirk Eelen" our official Archaeologist. He is a very well known artist was having an Art Exhibition at the time that I was visiting the Netherlands so I "had" to pop down to see that!
Arriving after a great train trip I was well received by Dirk and his children. Dirk has dived the wreck of the "Viscount Melbourne" many times in Borneo but lives in Luven a very beautiful city in Belguim. He plans to rejoin us for another stint of salvage early next year. In the mean time he has a collection of art that if you know good art you  will want one of his on your walls!!!  www.dirkeelen.com