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..