bali to komodo

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with money burning a whole in my pocket and the the boredom of producing endless bottles of lucozade day and night for months i booked a one-way ticket to indonesia with a rule in mind, that any return journey must be overland and flying for any reason was out of the question.

accompanied by lottie for one month, we had a basic 5 island route, bali to lombok, lombok to sumbawa, sumbawa to flores, flores to komodo and then back to bali. in between shopping for souvenirs, finding restaurants where we could get 3 square meals a day for less than $2, we saw the sights, everything from hindu temples to waterfalls, cramming everything in, and all around daily visits to the beach.

after some tough persuasion i managed to talk lottie into a 3 day volcano climb. mt rinjani seemed to have it all apart from any easy way of getting there. from guide to guide we tracked down yunis who set the pace and within a day we had reached the 600 meter starting camp. 8 hours on, pints of sweat, and the odd mumble and complaint from 'someone' about how much they hated it, we had reached the crater rim, at 2600 meters.
the following day and an early rise we climbed down in to the crater, full of turquoise water and a smoking volcano cone, but at a price- it was 1000 meters below us. a quick dip in the hot springs and another 1000 meter accent to the next camp.
this time it was a 3am start to reach the summit and temperatures around 2 degrees. with a lack of energy, it was down to determination that pushed us the 3 steps forward- 2 steps back that we slogged through, in the soft ash for 4 hours.
fortunately the views were worth it and the feeling of being on top of the world fell into place when the curve of the earth was clearly visible.

a few days on, hours on ferries and buses and some scams we had made it to flores. it was here that we both had high expectations, lottie wanted to stay on the tropical islands, big enough or small enough to accommodate about 20 people in the 10 beach bungalows and beaches fringed with coral and all those aquarium type fish. for me, i was set on komodo island, ever since i watched a david attenborough docu on the komodo dragons when i was about 8, i was intreaged by the mystery or perhaps the danger of the 3 meter long lizards roaming freely, and yes it was on my things to do, to not only get the famous head on/ mouth open photos but to get close enough to sneak a sly touch.

it was here i met pius, someone as keen as me to get that money shot photo, although he did have a 'slightly' better camera. hours of trying and tracking down these dragons, antagonizing and tempting them in to some photo action it was within the last hour of my stay i captured the photo of all photos, or at least one to where i could leave know id got what i came for. the dodging and diving behind trees and the odd tree scramble seemed to add to the trip, even the 24 hours at sea on a half renovated fishing boat added to this unique trip.

at this point is was 1 week before lottie was to fly home and the point where we had to make pretty tough decision, do we spend 5 wasted days of travel to get back to bali for her return flight or do i break my no flying rule! and wip back to bali with in 2 hours. with limited time it would have been unfair to take the over land route, so a nerve racking flight in a tiny 20 seater light aircraft rattled its way back to the indonesian tourist capital.

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Comments

[yuda]

yuda
hiya what's up friend, great jourey isn't it ! hope u still on good condition to advebturing whole of earth side...