[This was written in December 2025 and never got published, no idea why]

Gunung Api, or lewerani in the local language, is the volcano outside our window, just for this week. We are spending a week in the Banda Neira group of island in the eastern Molucca province of Indonesia.

Not surprisingly the volcano is the major landmark for the area, visible for miles around. Also prominent on the island of Banda Neira is the Dutch built fort, Benteng Belgica.

On the afternoon of our arrival we climbed up to the fort to sketch. I was fascinated by the rapidly changing late afternoon light, along with sweeping rain showers. I could only get part of the sketch completed, because I had to take cover from the rain. The white shape at the bottom of the sketch is the outline of the fort that was never completed in my sketch.

While sheltering inside the entrance to the fort. I did make another sketch of the view out through the entrance gate across the channel to the nearby island of Banda Besar.