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Indonesian language lesson – the numbers. Exercise number one: count the number of ‘Hello mister’ in 30 minutes. Answer: 62 ‘Hello mister’ in 30 minutes. Also 34 ‘Hello mister’ in 17 minutes before Clement got a flat tyre. Exercise number two – people counting: I counted 27 people watching Clement fixing the tyre – all in Indonesian!

Some spectators

Today we descended on a bumpy road through the dense forest to the sound of tropical birds hooting and monkeys screaming. It was beautiful and so peaceful.

Rainforest

Rainforest

Our quest of reaching 100km each day to make it to Jakarta in time will be difficult. In the mountains we had constant steep roads. On the eastern plains we had heat. Today we had a torrential downpour for a few hours, which I think is quite normal on the west coast.

Shower

Our strategy from now on is to cycle when it’s dry, only stopping for water and thrusting some food down our throats with great haste. We will cycle until the torrential downpour actually starts (not just when the sky turns black – we may still be able to cycle another 15 minutes) and stop at the next restaurant (which is invariably within 500 metres). Our days will consist of an early start with a two hour torrential downpour break sometime in the afternoon. The elements will dictate our day – the ultimate in going with the flow.

We stopped at a school today to camp, and were invited in by the headmaster to eat and stay at his house. Again, such lovely people!