A well deserved rest..

Did the 160 k's day ending our 5 days of 680 something's bloc today. And it was great! Started out with John and a tailwind. Both good for my speed. John is 69 and a super consistent and fast rider. When I follow him I tend to speed up - good for my average - which beat it's record with 30. After lunch I first wanted to go a little slower on my own but ended up in a peloton with Shirly, Dan, John and Jody - also very good!

A crest..

Came in at Tennant Creek around 1pm and "moved into" the nice little "gypsy" wagon that I already reserved in August before going away (when I still thought that I only should take rooms on rest days).. There's a swimming pool just next to it - not bad.. Many people from the group wanted rooms but had to go to the hotel at the other side of the road as our campground only have limited accommodation.  Unfortunately there is no wifi there so now I am at Paul, Paul + David's room at the hotel doing my internet stuff. We will go for dinner shortly at the "Tennant Creek Memorial Club". Should be the best place in town to eat. And as we have a rest day tomorrow we are in the mood for good food - and surprise, surprise - some Australian wine - not bad!

Now it's Saturday. Had a nice dinner and quite some wine last night - it was Halloween and it was packed at "the club". Woke up at 6 (long sleep in!). Did some washing and got stuff sorted out from my permanent bag. Inflated my thermo rest fully - first used my little pump and finished blowing as much air into it as I could by mouth - will check if it holds the air shortly when I come back.. After Alice Springs we have 4 days of bush camping - so there will be no cabins to rent. So I MUST organize my camping!
 Just came back from a huge breakfast at a local greek restaurant - feel stuffed - nice! Tennant Creek is a very strange 3000 inhabitants place. Again in the middle of nowhere - empty streets on a Saturday morning - except for a few white and aboriginal people. All houses are one story - it reminds me of an american movie going on in the far west.. Wonder if/why people choose to live here!?
 Just counted the left riding days on my TDA sheet - 36 more of them. That means we have done nearly 2/3 of our trip.. Have done EFI in Australia so far - 1000 k's altogether..  Very happy about that!
 Paul from England came up with the idea that we should make a handicap race one of the coming days - to make a little change in our pretty monotonous riding. Everybody shall give in their normal average day speed and start according to that. Slowest first - fastest last. That might be fun..

Everyday in Australia..

We are here for 2 months - so there is an everyday - although we are on holiday.. Up at 4.30, on the bike at 6 - in camp between 10 pm and 2 am - that  has been our everyday rhythm for the last 4 days since our rest day in Kathrine.. After 93 to 169 k's of riding we have been at typical outback camps: good bars with beer and food, hot, dry campgrounds, peacocks, cooling swimming pools and excellent dinners by our TDA chef Jon.
 I have (temporarily) given up on the camping: too uncomfortable and hot - I need my sleep to cope with my cycling - that's it! Take cabins that are clean, have fridge, AC and wc+shower.
 The cycling has been good: often did the peloton in the morning reaching good speed (up to an average of 26 k's per hour). Generally I speed down a bit after lunch where it gets hotter and I am not so fresh anymore.. But an overall good feeling to bike at the Stewart Highway. The road trains pull to the right and have not been annoying us so far. Although the landscape is generally flat there are some crests that give a panoramic view of what's in front of us - and give us the chance to go faster (there are small climbs also - of course). The trees are turning into bush - the desert is approaching. We see large birds and kangaroos (most of them already killed in traffic). Have done EFI (every fucking inch) here in Australia - so far. My health is good and my mood as well - now I perform as I planned on doing..
 After tomorrow there is a rest day in Tennant Creek - then 4 more riding days - and we arrive in Alice Springs with 3 consecutive rest days. Nearly everybody has planned a tour to see Ayer's Rock - Ursula has organized it for us all - that's great!

Riding the Stuart Highway..

My blog is very intuitive and personal - and I often forget to tell about more general things. But finally a rest day with good internet connection - and time..
 So here a little update on also not so personal things..

Kathrine

We are at Katherine, 332 k's south of Darwin, at sleepy 10.000 inhabitants town "in the middle of nowhere". The Stewart Highway, that we follow all the way down to Alice Springs goes thru here. There are a lot of aboriginals hanging around on the street corners - they look very wild with big eyes set apart, curly hair and a very dark skin. Apparently they generally made some good arrangement with the government so they got most of their original land back - and make money on this thru tourism and mining..

Larger group 

 In Darwin our group more than doubled it's size - we are now around 40 riders. I reckon that the average age did not go down - it must be around 60. There are quite some people in their late 60ies - and not counting Nelli, Henry's 18 years old niece, Jody who turned 40 the day before yesterday is the "baby" of the crowd. Age does not mean that people are not strong and committed!
 Of course the riders that have done the 2 months in Indonesia have adjusted to the heat and have built up extra strength - I also feel that myself.. I can cope with long hot days - and I think that I am getting faster on the bike. But I keep on dreaming of a lighter bike - I know that mine is among the most heavy ones - and it irritates me a bit..
 There ended up being a bit over 5.000 k's in Indonesia - I did the 3656 of them.. Only two, Brett and Chris did the whole thing = EFI (every fucking inch)..
 Since Darwin there are quite a few known faces from The Bamboo Road last year: Ursula and Rae from Swarmish, Vancouver, Paul from Ottawa, Matthew from England, Nola from Toronto. It's good to see them all again..

Riding the Stuart Highway

Here in Australia the riding is very much the same every day. We start already at 6-6.15 having given in our bags at the luggage truck at 5.30 and starting breakfast at 5.45. There the temperature is still pleasant - and we see the sun rising - mostly as a big red ball coming up and turning yellow - beautiful. Then it slowly gets hotter - I typically drink 11/2 liters of water before our "lunch" stop - often already between 9 and 10 after 60-75 k's of riding. The quality of our food has gone tremendously up since we arrived in Australia - and the sandwiches we have for lunch are delicious. To be hungry is a permanent condition - so no problem with an early lunch - we just take another after arrival at camp between 11.15 am and 1.15 pm in my case. The quickest riders will already be in at 10-11.30. The distances in Australia so far have been between 90 and 130 k's. Our next bloc of riding days will be of 5 - with several days over 150 k's - I wonder how that will go..
 Roads are fine with rough tar.  A bit boring just going straight - but do not miss the hills - yet.. There are quite a lot of road trains  - huge long vehicles with up to four sections behind. Traffic is fast generally. There mostly is a little shoulder - we are told to go out in the rough if two road trains are passing each other beside us - not a bad idea.. We still have trees to the sides of the roads - but not before long we will be in the desert with absolutely no shade around. It gets extremely hot from around ten in the morning. And a strong, hot headwind rises regularly. I bring an umbrella for the worst case situation that I get a flat or am forced to stop for another reason - and 3 1/2 liter of water when I leave camp. There is water at lunch - and energy drink, which I finally started taking.

Camping

Only did it once - so far.. Had a very bad sleep. I inflated my thermorest maddress too little and felt like I was "falling off" most of the time. The ground also was uneven. And my little fan could not make the extreme heat go away. Not very restful! Was more awake than asleep. Realized that it is gonna be a costly affair to get some decent sleep on this trip considering the accommodation costing 70-150 aus. dollars a day. So I give the camping another try tomorrow - but might end up not doing it so much - giving my sleep higher priority than money..

I love Australia..

Back to civilisation - and the internet is totally unreliable - and expensive.. So bought access - but just for short.. Can tell that Australia is wonderful.. Spent 2 great days in Darwin - shopping, getting groomed - and last but not least: EATING! And finally my belly problems are over - isn't it incredible - had problems for at least 75% of the time in Indonesia. Will probably never go back there - except for Bali - I really love that island. Not to say that I did not love the rest - but just too many problems..

 We are now at our second campsite - did the first camping after a 108 k's ride yesterday. A beautiful camp with a  chilling swimming pool and fantastic surroundings. Small kangaroos (wallabies), a peacock and a 5 meter crocodile in the river just next to camp.

We were told not to go there - ok, we did not.. Tried our own cook, Jon's first meal yesterday - VERY good - more than promising. And the breakfast with porridge,  müsli and fresh fruits was just as I want it. The camping I will hopefully learn to love - so far I can put my tent up and down without any problems. Bought a little lamp for the ceiling - and an electric fan - just fine. But still sweating and lying uncomfortably on my little inflatable madras - really have to adjust..

Took a little cabin for tonight - my bag was full of ants when I unpacked it - so nice to have a room and a bathroom. Also for charging my electrical devices.. Did a 130 k's ride today ending up quite hot and with a pretty strong headwind - which fortunately cooled down a bit. Started the day with a 60 k's detour away from the Stewart Highway. Nice rolling hills - and untouched nature - beautiful! Gerald saw a dingo family.. 

Riding Timor Leste

Still back problems.. Did/could not carry my bag from the room to the van in the morning - but could sit on the bike - hurrah! Enjoyed the last little hilly part of West Timor and after 20 k we came to the border and crossed it without any problems - again somebody helped me taking the bags thru security check - happy about that!
 Timor Leste is like the rest of the island - just poorer - and more expensive (currency: us dollar). And something that I might not have mentioned: the islands tend to get less and less densely populated the further to the east we get. Now we have longer stretches without any people - something non-existing in Sumatra and Java..
The road we rode on is getting built - with most parts still under construction, somme parts just with fine gravel or sand/earth and a few parts already done with new tarmac. Wonder if it is ever gonna get finished? Anyway at times we went thru a dust hell - going up and down along the most beautiful hilly northern coastline, waugh! Arrived at the lunch stop just by the beach - happy about a good day riding with just 70 k. Did stand in the surf for quite a while - the ocean was refreshing - and I ended up lying in the sand - listening to the waves coming in - very relaxing.. Everybody seemed quite stressed just upon arrival at the hotel: having the bikes high pressure washed and packed into the cartoon boxes that had been brought all the way from Medan. The full ride yesterday was an approx. 130 k's hard one - so reason to be a bit tired for the people that accomplished it.. Anyway we were a whole group going to a quite nice restaurant built out over the surf coming in to the beach - had great sashimi.. Fish is fresh as ever here. We have 3 riders leaving us - also a little farewell party for them. Sterling is the only one that has done the full trip. He will go back to Cairnes, Australia. Ruth is going back to Victoria, Vancouver and Darrel to Sydney. They only did Ubud to Timor Leste.
 So today is Australia day - bike and bags packed - just checking out of the room - more than ready to get back to civilization..

Wish for a big kangaroo jump down under..

Indonesia was not meant to be easy for me.
Now I have the second day with a painful back - did ride yesterday - but had problems just stepping off the bike.. Maybe a bit too ignoring the day before where I might have provoked it to worsen.. Anyway no riding today where I took the van to our last hotel in West Timor.
 Just did rider's meeting where all details about border crossing to Timor Leste were discussed. We arrive at the border after 20 k's ride and will do another 90 k after. Hopefully all will go smoothly - we already prepared the paperwork. I plan to ride until midday - I prefer to sit on the bike in stead of in the van - and hopefully I feel better when I wake up tomorrow.. In Dili (the capital of Timor Leste) we have to wash (the aussie authorities do not accept any dirt from abroad) and pack our bikes, repack our luggage minimizing overweight costs ready to leave for Darwin on Monday.. I would not mind being there already..
 Anyway tomorrow awaits us another first (and probably last) time experience: the little young country of Timor Este - one of the world's poorest nations - but just for 24 hours..

Getting nostalgic about this beautiful country and it's people..

Today we had a 108 k 1500 m something climb ride. Time to make stops not only for the cokes - but for the people, landscapes and beauty of this fantastic place.. West Timor holds a lot of what we already saw along our long route through Sumatra, Java, Bali, Lombok, Subawa and Flores - and something quite different and special for this place. Out in the country the people seem more "tribal".. that means that they live in thatched huts and have a more "primitive" appearance.. The women look as if they wear a bright red lipstick - but it is just because the chew the ? root. But again, super friendly - and today I felt really well on my bike so I just gave them all the big smile and wave with my arm - which as always pays back hundredfolds. Hallo, good morning, good afternoon, goodbye - I like to get this shout or response from them all.. It really makes me happy!
 Came to the town of Soe after 1.30 pm - hungry as I cannot get down the white bread for lunch anymore. But went to my room to shower, wash and do my stretching - have a small issue with my back since I did a wrong movement yesterday - but I know that my back is strong and it will only get better by being used.. Now I sit at a little restaurant next to the reception - had a noodle soup, a beer (big Bintang) and some banana chips - all good.. Tomorrow we only have a 85 k's ride - will stop even more and enjoy the moment of still being here in Timor - but just for short..

Timor - last island before Australia..

Our plane just after landing in Kupang, West Timor

Yesterday we flew from Ende, Flores to Kupang, West Timor. One hours flight with a local airline not generally recognized in our part of the world - but all fine (the plane was nearly brand new)..
 Just landing here this place seemed a bit different from the last many islands - more dry and less hot - a pleasant change. And - guess what - more flat.. But time will show if this is true in the days to come.. The university town of Kupang is the largest (300.000 inhabitants) of West Timor. Our hotel is a very run down faded glory kind of place - and we almost all decided to listen to Gerald (he left Ende one day earlier than the rest of us and made a little research about this place) and go for the new "Bottles and Barrels" restaurant last night. That turned out to be a good idea. Up scale kind of Bali style place with great food, drinks and least but not last some good live music. I think we were around 10 of us dancing like mad for quite some time - ending with 4 of the guys jumping in the pool. Enough of beer, wine and drinks to make everybody very relaxed and happy.. A good change in our everyday rhythm.. - thank you Gerald.. The next party is already planned for Darwin, Australia where we start celebrating Jodie's 40 years birthday a couple of days before it actually is.. And of course the reunion with many known faces from the Bamboo Road last year that will join us there.
 Well it is not all partying.. We still have 4 riding days here at our last island. Actually we leave Indonesia to go to Timor Leste before. This is the youngest nation of the world grounded in 2002 after many years of political conflicts between the two ends of the island of Timor. The splitting up of this place originates from the colonial period where the Portuguese were in the east and the Dutch in the west. Our local guide here, a great woman called Yayan, told me that she is still very connected to the east thru family and friends and goes over there regularly..
 Next Monday on the 20th of October we fly the short distance from Dili, East Timor to Australia's most northern town of Darwin. I think even the most mountain fanatic riders are looking forward to this. Personally I can't wait to get normal food on a daily basis (the rumor goes that the TDA cook who is going to make our food at camp is a real chef - no complaints about that..). And although I generally see myself more like a climber and fan of challenging surfaces I can't wait to ride the flat roads that are awaiting us down under. BUT this is a TDA trip so there will be a new thing to cope with: tenting (which will be a first time experience for me).. And apparently many bugs, insect, snakes and crocodiles.. NEVER A DULL MOMENT!

More challenges on the beautiful island of Flores..

Another bit of our trip absolved - some challenging rides on the island of Flores. After our rest day at the western tourist departure point of Labuanbajo the BIG climb had to do without me.. Did around half - and lost motivation for the afternoon's hot climb. It seemed to go on forever - at least seeing it from the bus.. Stayed at the town of Ruteng - and decided to upgrade from our pretty basic youth hostile kind of place. Wrong decision: logistics to solve, cold shower and not much better than the pretty charming alpine hut style place where the group was staying..
 Was kind of unsatisfied with my lack of accomplishment the day before at decided that the 130 something k's 2200 m's climb distance to Bajawa SHOULD  be done! And I did it.. Letting my coke obsession go to unknown heights with 1 in the morning, 2 before the climb and 2 more after reaching goal. Not to mention the 2 Sprites and 1 energy gel. Well it seemed to help - I rode all the way. In the afternoon Brett paced down and went together with Jodi and me for nearly the whole climb - a good motivation also.. AND one of our drivers came back to us with big bottles COLD water midway of the long gentle climb. Enough for full body shower!

WATER! (Andreas, Brett and Jodie)

I was cold when I arrived and was desperate for food but there was NO food around - somebody just left for take away burgers - no more orders could be given in. Lost my temper a bit in front of Cristiano, our tour leader.  We are talking 4000+ deficit of calories - and I am SO fed up with the lunch white bread that I just snack on fruits, nuts and cookies. Luckily Gerald had ordered 5 burgers or something - so luckily I had one of them + french fries. Can you imagine me on a diet of burger+coke - yes, that is reality!! 
 Well, I also would like to tell you about the beautiful island of Flores. Mountains high - river deep - a special island that holds the dry landscape from Lombok and Sumbawa - but also the green rice terraces of Bali. And SO many big bamboo trees. They are just amazing with a quite special sound to them when the wind goes thru the top. And I just love the mountains here: they are often like a child's drawing and we even saw one where the volcano was smoking. Our route has been the generally  well asphalted Trans Flores Highway going inland most of the time. 80% of the islanders here are catholics and they were in their best clothes going to church yesterday, Sunday. It has another feel to it when the beautiful women are not wearing ji habs but smart short dresses with their often curly hair coiffed in a nice style  - not to forget the singing from the churches..

Yesterday we had our last 122 k riding day on this island going to Ende that lies at the middle of the south coast. Starting up high we had a lot of descent: 2270 going down compared to 1220 going up.. A nice morning ending up at the coast which we followed for the last stretch.

Now at the best hotel (does not say much) of town just opposite the airport from where we leave for West Timor tomorrow afternoon. It was first planned that we should have a 14 hours ferry ride to Kupang there but the ferry does not exist anymore so most of our luggage and bikes left on an open truck with Henry to go for a ferry leaving from the east of the Flores today.

Amalfi coast go home - Flores here we come..

Things change. As well as my attitude to a day's ride. The LONG day (192 k) started fine for me - my legs strong and good energy to keep the speed up also when climbing. Started out with Ruth, who struggled with the heat and decided to pace down. After lunch I was alone (many riders decided not to do the afternoon or just started after lunch) - still with ok energy. And going along the most beautiful coastal road (Amalfi coast go home!) gave me more.

Fisher mens village on stilts..

The stunning northern coastline of Sumbawa..

 I was seriously considering to do the full day.. Was at the back of the group and when the lunch truck passed Henry jumped out to join me.. Still felt fine - but all of a sudden the heat started to struck me - and I decided to stop at the refresh stop at 140 - still not warn out - but not having Eva to push me I took the easiest option.. And went for a swim - in my biking clothes.. That was NICE! But no more riding..

 After another day with "just" 108 k - including some 1100 m gentle climb - we had our last stop in Sumbawa at the town of Sape by the eastern coast just next to the ferry terminal to go to Flores.
 8 hours was a hell of a long time on the ferryboat.

Loading..

But starting out waiting 2 hours at the dock to load some overloaded (too high) trucks and having a sail of 6 hours couldn't make it any different.. It is a terrible mess on board the ferries here.. Locals lie all over the floors and just throw their trash around them. We went in the VIP salon - not much better - but at least some chairs. It ended up getting smelly there and I escaped to the deck where it was nice to sit in shade and enjoy the view of the ocean.

View of the Komodo island from the deck..

We saw dolphins twice and passed pretty close by  the island of Komodo where the famous dragons live. Did not see any and decided not to use my rest day today to go there. In stead I had a WONDERFUL lunch at the number one italian restaurant here at Labuanbajo where we arrived just short before sunset yesterday.  All good - except for the rumors of a 3200 m climb tomorrow - oh, Australia - look so much forward to visit your flat and straight route going down from Darwin to Alice Springs!!

!! This blog is old news - had no internet access for a long time - so stay tuned for some later updates tomorrow!!

Lombok - not all LOL

Early morning ride to the ferry today (east coast of Lombok)..

As Henry (the owner of Tours d'Afrique) puts it: I am always happy in the morning and when I come in after a day's riding - there might be some moments in between where my mood is slightly different! How right he is - happy to ride along beautiful coast lines in the early morning - pleased to reach the goal after a day on the bike. What's in between is often somewhat of a nightmare. Here in Lombok the heat has been the big problem. Yesterday the Garmin registered a max. of 46 degrees - and something similar today - that's no fun! But again - the coke stops save me. Today it included a full body shower of water from my bottle + 2 ice creams: one to eat (pop-up) and another just to cool down my head front and neck (did not unpack it).. And a coke - of course..

The lady shopowner brings me the coke = moment of pleasure..  I think I leaned how it is to be an addict!

Well - there actually was some fun in Lombok: went out with Gerald and quite a bunch of the other "boys" from the group to the best (and it really was good) restaurant in Sengiggi. They had done the full tourist night route the evening before and as usual Joachim had recorded it all on his video. Inclusive Gerald's totally over the top dancing - had LOL just watching this - and listening to Sterling tell about the evening - happy not to participate (they partied until 3 am)..
 We started out a new bloc of 5 riding days yesterday: 126, 109 - 192!!! tomorrow then 128 ending up with only 4 kilometers followed by a long ferry ride. Did the first two - including an 1 hour ferry ride today. Again - great mornings - after 10.30 it gets hot like hell and survival is on the agenda - and fortunately I tend to feel fine when I am in at the hotel! Yesterday I went swimming in the ocean for the first time on the whole trip. Stepping out through the corals is not easy - but the water was wonderful - I floated for a while letting the salty water decide the direction - very nice.. But tough to get in again over the corals.. Unfortunately the water at the Sengiggi resort was totally polluted - just full of trash - ugly!

Approching Sumbawa - before the day got really hot..

 The ferryboat took us to the island of Sumbawa today. This place is even less touristy than Lombok - but our hotel here is really nice. It seems as if these islands have had a really hard time building up tourism since the Bali bombings in 2002. Many places are kind of new as the business is just newly really started again.
 Back to riding: the longest day of the whole trip is tomorrow.. It will probably be impossible for me to accomplish it within daylight time.. Just the riding will take around 10 hours with an average of 20 (which I am not sure to keep with 1400 m climbing). Then comes lunch and a bunch of coke stops.. No I do not believe in it - although I acted at if I am doing it - we were asked not to ride until after lunch if we do not  think that we are able to finish the day. I HATE the riding after lunch!

Change of scene - change of people. And solid change of health!

Goodbye wonderful Bali - a place that I definitely would like to come back to! An easy day on the bike: leaving Ubud going east 35 k's to catch the ferryboat to Lombok 4 hours boat ride from there.. Apart from the early morning traffic in the city piece of cake going more or less straight all the way. Got late out of the hotel and ended up going with one of the new riders that entered the group in Ubud: Ruth from Vancouver/England.. Finally a female rider that matches my speed - may be a mate for riding days to come.. Would appreciate that after doing most of the riding alone so far. And at one of the traffic lights going out thru Ubud there was another new rider: Jodie from Anchorage that actually also was kind of our speed - may be a team? Well not that it is not fine to go alone - but after a while it sometimes gets a bit boring - and when there are many directions to follow (which there has been most of the time) it is nice that you are not alone to find your way.. I am kind of middle of the group when it comes to speed but maybe a little bit further up when it comes to climbing and going on difficult surfaces. So when you are not committed to ride with somebody particular it does not work to stay together..

On the ferryboat going from Bali to Lombok. New girls in the group from left: Ruth, Jodie and Jacqueline from South Africa/Sweden. 

Arrived at Lombok early afternoon. Surprisingly different from Bali. More dry vegetation wise, more like Sumatra and Java when it comes to the locals where again nearly everybody is saying hallo and smiling at you.. Not that Bali is not friendly - but just much more touristy.. The population here is primarily muslim again - the flash showing in which direction to pray is getting shown at the hotel room ceiling.
 Lombok and the islands further east belong to another continent - having same origin as Australia the  vegetation and bird and animal life here is much more like the latter and different from the western part of Indonesia - Brett just told me.. The change follows the Bali strait that we traversed yesterday.. After another distance like the morning we reached our destination of the day Senggigi. Apparently the biggest tourist resort of Lombok. Again at a decent beach resort hotel for our rest day today.

Sunset view from our Lombok hotel..

Our riding seems to get more gentle (for a while?). Not as much climbing and not as many days riding after each other.. And quite some days with shorter distances. Hopefully I will not get bored with my newly recaptured good health.
 Yes - I am 100% again - and that's just wonderful!

Blessed to be back on my bike in Bali..

Went for Balinese dancing - very captivating..

What a blessing - back on the bike.. After 2 weeks in the world of "normal" tourists it's like coming back home - where I belong.
 Before I left Ubud Monday morning Nellie and I went for Balinese dancing. And I ventured into the "Eat, Prey, Love"- world for at little while. Went for "Early morning flow" at the Yoga Barn here and had an ayurvedic massage afterwards. Ended up at their vegetarian restaurant - where everybody seems to include everybody. Sat next to two Australian ladies - both divorced within the last year..  The one did the class I also did and went straight on to the Sunday morning dance after breakfast - she did not do any ordinary sightseeing or anything - was happy just to be part of the Yoga Barn community..

Ganesh supervising our yoga class..

 Well, you might think I am the same - just with cycling.. The fact is that being back in the group and going from Lovina up north back to Ubud on my bike made me very happy! We had a 97 k's 1700 m something climb's trip - not too steep going up through this beautiful island..

Nice to be back in the group.. Breakfast at our beautiful Lovina  location..

I realized my total dependance on coke - but just when I ride. Had 3 coke stops - and a little visit to a danish owned gallery and hotel that I just happened to pass by shortly before ending the day..

View from our riding on the ridge of a huge volcano crater..

Some of the Balinese rice paddies became World Heritage Sight - not difficult to understand..

After approx. 90 k's ride time for snack at the danish owned galleri/hotel that I just passed by by chance..