Flores, Moni to Labuan Bajo

With the East of Flores behind me I slowly made my to the West coast of the island, from Moni I rode to the town of Ende, I was lucky to be passing through the harbour city during market day, the markets were full of colour and people lining the street in a hive of activity. Negotiating what seemed to be a maze of one way streets was quite the challenge however it gave me the chance to explore the market place and meet some of the locals, the city seems to be surrounded by volcanoes and the ride out of town along the beach offered some spectacular views. I was becoming quite peckish and I stumbled along a small street café as I climbed into the mountains, the views from their outside eating area took me totally by surprise, it was a 180 degree panorama of the bay and its islands. I continued on through the hills until I reached the beachside town of Riung, which boasted 17 islands and promised some world class snorkelling.

I was lucky to bump into a tour operator that told me about the Tamri guesthouse, which was run by the nicest local guy and his family and only charged Rupiah 90,000 per night with food included, this was 3 times less than the other hotels in town and the accommodation was just as good. I arrived in Riung feeling a little under the weather and had planned to snorkel the next day, unfortunately I got progressively sicker until the whole night was spent either running to the toilet or moaning in pain in my bed. With zero sleep from the night before I cancelled the island cruise and spent the day recovering in bed, I declined the offers from my host to see a doctor deciding to rely on a handful of gastrostop and some stomacheze. It’s generally the case that you miss home the most when your ill and this was no exception, it was 2 days until Christmas and all I wanted from Santa was a solid bowel movement …… perhaps even a hot shower and some Banana Boat 50+ sunscreen, as sunblock was hard to find in Indonesia and often cost more than a night’s accommodation. After a day of misery I felt well enough to rebook my island cruise and spent the day soaking up some sun on white beaches and snorkelling amongst some magnificent coral reef, the gastrostop was working well although a few emergency pit stops were still required.

One thing I noticed on the beaches of Riung’s islands was the sheer amount of rubbish that is lying around everywhere, it’s not only limited to Riung, it seems to be the same at most tourist attractions I’ve visited so far. The sad thing is that it seems to be the locals that are the ones doing all the littering, I’ve watched tour guides finish a bottle of water and simply throw it on the path as they’ve kept on walking. I was relaxing on the beach while my tour guide cooked a freshly caught fish for lunch when 2 families arrived on a different boat. It was great that they had made the trip from Jakarta to Flores to see the natural beauty that this island has to offer, I was shocked that when they left they simply threw their water bottles and a used nappy on the beach with absolutely no regard for preserving the area for the future.

I’d spent 3 days recovering in Riung and was getting itchy feet so I got back on the bike and headed for Bajawa, I was still feeling a little worse for wear and road condition was some of the worst I had seen Flores, I was a bit wobbly on the bike but it was great to be moving again. I was quite motivated to get to Bajawa as it was Christmas eve and I hadn’t had WIFI for a while so I was keen to call my family for Chrissy. I managed to make all the calls and send all the messages that I needed to so I went and explored the traditional village of Bena and its surrounding hot springs. The little village showcased some of the locals doing traditional ikat weaving but for some reason it kept reminding me of the Gaul village from the Astrix and Obelix comics, I half expected the chief to be arguing with a fish monger over the quality of his fish, like in the comic books.

Bajawa is predominantly Roman Catholic so it was a nice atmosphere on Christmas morning, I wasn’t getting any presents though so I decided to spend the day riding and tackled the hilly stretch of road to Labuan Bajo. I was warned that the stretch of road would be wet but I wasn’t expecting the downpour that I was in for. The road between Bajawa and Ruteng had more switchbacks than I had ever seen, combined with the steep downhills and pouring rain meant that the road soon became dangerously slippery. More than once the bike lost traction around a corner forcing me to straighten up, only managing to stop the bike a few centimeters from a sheer cliff and wondering if anyone would even realise if I had gone over the edge. The Beemer has Automatic Stability Control which usually works fantastically, the problem was that the water rushing along the road from uphill was covering the road with dirt and debris forcing me to turn it off at times. With no end to the rain in sight I decided to push on, albeit very conservatively and kept riding to Ruteng. Ruteng is famous for being the home of “the Flores Hobbit”, 7 remains of adult skeletons the size of a 3 y/o child were found in a cave in 2003 and date back to only 12,000 years ago. Apparently there isn’t much to see in the cave and the weather was only getting worse so I decided to push on, checking out the very impressive terraced rice fields in the Ruteng area on the way.

A few Km of flat road along with a break in the rain just outside of Ruteng was a welcome sight, I gave the throttle a twist and picked up a little speed, unfortunately it was short lived and the winding roads and rain soon reappeared. These are usually the type of roads that you would go out of your way to ride but in the huge downpour of rain they were turned into a wet and slippery twisting mess that was both mentally and physically draining to ride. I was very relieved when I finally reached Labuan Bajo with no incident, the afternoon was late and I grabbed the first hotel I could find for a very solid night’s sleep.

Labuan Bajo is the gate way to Komodo national park so I spent 5 days exploring the city and its surrounds. The area offers some of the worlds best diving, the currents were crazy but it meant that I got to do some really good drift dives and see a few Manta Rays along the way, some of the wall dives were exceptional too, they were like diving in an aquarium with all the best sea life thrown in. I was very excited about seeing the famous Komodo Dragons so a trip to Rinca island was also on the cards, once again I was totally blown away, we hiked the island and saw plenty of the HUGE lizards, along with some monkeys and buffalo, both of with are apparently a food source for the Dragons. Labuan Bajo is nestled in a beautiful harbour, filled with wooden boats and ships used for dive charters and liveaboards, it reminded me of something out of Pirates of the Caribbean, It wouldn’t of surprised me if the Black Pearl sailed around one of the many islands. I also spent a day checking out some of the waterfalls and caves that are dotted in the hills around the city. The limestone cave called Batu Cremin was my favourite, not only was it spectacular but they let me go without a guide, lucky I had a good torch because I soon found myself alone crawling through one tight cave after another until it opened into a large chamber filled with bats. I spent plenty of time alone there feeling like quite the adventurer but I was pretty happy to hear the voices and lights of a tour group eventually crawling their way into the cave.

Flores delivered everything I expected and much, much more, this has to be one of the world’s most beautiful islands and no doubt will eventually be overrun with tourists. I couldn’t think of a nicer surrounding to travel through on motorbike and the people have been exceptionally friendly, now it’s time to catch a ferry and see what the island of Sumbawa has to offer.

 

Flores, Larantuka to Moni

I was told that the ferry from Kupang to Larantuka would take 16 -18 hours, thankfully it was only a 13 hour trip and the seas were reasonably calm, the highlight was when they were topping the ferry up with fuel and I counted 4 people smoking within a few meters. I had the option of travelling on the upstairs seated section, however I chose to roll my sleeping mat out on the floor of the cargo area and sleep next to the bike, there were plenty of others doing the same thing next to their vehicles.  I was able to get a good 8 hours sleep and no doubt would have got a few more if I hadn’t consumed a pack of Kopiko extra shot coffee lollies at the start of the voyage. I rolled off the Ferry at 6am without any dramas and set out to start exploring Larantuka. The natural beauty of Flores blew me away immediately, it’s covered in thick rainforest and surrounded by picture perfect beaches overlooking tropical islands and somehow the view just kept getting better around every corner I passed.

 After a short stay in Larantuka I made my way to the city of Maumere, Once gain the road was a motorcyclists dream, one turn just rolled into the next and the scenery was spectacular, I enjoyed the ride so much I had to remind myself to slow down to enjoy the view. I stayed at a lovely place just out of town called sunset cottages, they were traditional bamboo huts with an ensuite, right on the beach with a million dollar view and only cost 90,000 Rupiah (approximately $9. AU) per night. The Owner Henderikus and his family were really friendly, the view over the beach was amazing, they cooked some delicious Indonesian food and he was also kind enough to organise a bottle of Aruk for me to drink on the beach. The main attraction in the area was mount Egon, an active volcano that vented gas and had a small coloured lake in its crater. The 2 hour hike to the top was reasonably hard but somehow my young Indonesian guide was able to spend the whole trip talking nonstop about girls and bikes. The view from the top of the crater was amazing, this was the first volcano I had seen and it was on a list of 11 volcanos in Indonesia on the highest alert level, I was suitably impressed. There were some hot springs on the way down, which was a great way to relax and wind down, especially since the cottages I was staying in didn’t have hot water. My guide Marlino was really into bikes and offered to take me to the local motocross championships, he explained that most of the guys raced slightly modified 2 stroke scooters, which I definitely had to see. This was like no racing I’d seen before, the track was located in a storm water channel in the center of town and was totally lined with people to the point where the police had to close off the block to allow for the masses of people watching. As promised there were some very basic bikes, a few guys rode newer motocross bikes but the biggest cheers from the crowd and myself went to those that raced the underpowered backyard modified scooters.

After a few days relaxing at sunset cottages it was time to head to the islands number one tourist attraction, Mount Kelimutu, near the town of Moni. As always the ride there was great, I arrived in the afternoon and organised some accommodation at the Bintang Lodge. As the name suggests there was a bit of a party atmosphere, having stayed at some very quiet places over the last week it was good to share travelling stories with the other guests over a beer, while the manager Billy did a great job of covering Bob Marely songs. Even though it meant getting up at 4am to see the sunrise, Mount Kelimutu and its 3 lakes lived up to their hype, the views were amazing and I think I racked up about 100 selfies. I spent the whole morning taking photos of the craters and checking out the monkey’s that would come out hoping to get a free feed from the tourists. I had a great couple of days at Moni, there were some other nice sights too see such as waterfalls and swimming holes, the locals were a great bunch and I was lucky to of met some genuinely nice travelers while I was there.