Adventure Time

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What. A. Day! Wow. Talk about being action packed! Started the day early with our pick up time at 7:30am, and straight up met a lovely newly married couple from Cairo in the backseats of our van. The trip up to the volcano and the valleys was the only downfall I guess... Typical Balinese drivers racing their rattly manual vans in and out of traffic, between cars, across from bikes, stop start stop start. Needless to say I got fair sick in the back after nearly 2 hours of travel and was stoked to get out - nearly kissed the ground. First up we stopped off at a volcano look out to sign a few forms (death forms basically...), take plenty of photos and go to the bathroom before heading back into the car to drive back down the valley for cycling. Unfortunately though, when we got down to the bottom - which was a 5 or so minute bumpy ride downhill through crater sized potholes due to the water/lava - I realised that my iPhone wasnt actually with me and that it had disappeared from my pocket. Hollllllly shit. Never been so worried in my life. One moment I'm taking photos of it and buying a sand picture from a local, next minute the phone is gone and the tour is ready to start... Looked everywhere, no joke. Bag, pockets, makeup bag, smaller bag, in my book, under the seat, on the seat, in other people's bags, drove back up to the shop, looked everywhere there, nothing in the bathrooms, nothing up the top, no ones seen it. What the hell? Fluster and panic central. Had everyone looking for it, felt so so bad. Eventually found the damn thing wedged between the seats which were folded down in the car by the driver when he let the couple out. SWEET RELIEF MUCH?! And with that we got the tour started, chose our decrepit bikes which changed gear by themselves, and went for our bike ride through the villages. That was so fun, mostly downhill mountain biking over massive potholes, waving to the local kids who all waved to us and screamed out 'Hello!' every time we passed by. So cute! Got to see a few temples, wild fruit and herbs growing, and more. After about an hour we rode our bikes down to the Elephant Safari Park and swapped bikes for elephants 😉 Not a bad swap! Much like Phuket last year, the elephants were AMAZING. We had a 21 year old girl called Party who was just a gem and it was with her that we went on a beautiful ride with our Balinese equivalent of a mahout through the glorious and lush jungle. It was a short lived trip though, even after we took the elephant through the water where they bathe, and in no time we were back up in the restaurant for a traditional buffet lunch. Lunch was lunch I guess, filling and we both regretted eating so much because then we had to drive off in a shuttle bus to the creek down the bottom the valley for white water rafting! With a paddle in hand, a bloody stupid helmet on my head and a decent life jacket we were escorted down to the boats (about 600 steps down through the humid jungle) and began our 2 hour journey through the rapids. We shared our raft with 2 boys from a farm in the inner part of Adelaide who were travelling with their parents and 2 other brothers. Overall I have to say that the rafting was amazing, and although it was apparently one meter more shallow than usual, it was still just as exciting. Try stay IN the damn raft haha 😊 The other two boys and I were offered with a swim in the river and were told to float rather than swim as the current was so strong and there were many boulders and rocks all over the place. Sooo refreshing and clean too! What else, hrmm. We saw heaps of riverside hotels, saw some amazing over 100 year old stone carvings on the rocks at the bottom of the river, saw how volcanic sand is taken from the bottom of the river, sucked out and dried, and then taken up the top to the houses via a dangerous looking pulley system to make strong bricks etc, and much much more. 2 hours went by in the blink of an eye and before we knew it we were finishing up and heading out back to the hut to pick up our bags, shower, watch the DVD and buy a photo before heading back to our hotel in a van. To add to our Cairo couple, we had 2 girls from Melbourne in our van also which was a nice surprise 😊 By the evening (about 7pm) we were exhausted and pretty much went straight to bed! Relaxing day by the pool tomorrow 😊 YES xoxo

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