‘Can I say I love you?’
The little Ema pulled us away from the main road and into the village to visit her school.
‘You are very sexy. Can I hug you?’
Clement hugged her. So did I. She held her gloved hand up to her mouth to hide her giggle. At her school, we greeted the teachers and played chasee with the kids. Our first day in Sulawesi was amazing.
Clement and Ema
Mountains loomed just behind Tolitoli, and after 10km of flat and good road surface, the road degraded and started its up and down through the most beautiful landscape. The hills were covered with a tree we didn’t recognize until we looked closely. Yes! They are cloves. I ate one – an explosion of flavour. In each village the cloves were drying in the sun, and the air was perfumed by the lovely aroma.
Cloves
The road passed through the mountains, and past flat plains – I think covered in water half of the time. The road was tiny with almost no traffic. When we stopped, the sound of silence was deafening. We were alone in this beautiful tropical paradise.
Clement
Water fields
The evening saw the rain come, and we struggled up and down through the forest in the rain before retiring in a little collection of huts near the sea. We talked with everyone from the village in the light of the kerosene lamp inside the tin roofed wooden hut on stilts.
arctic-cycler.com 
I look forward to learning more about Sulawesi, and what new adventures come your way. Cloves – that’s a change from the palm oil plantations. Interested to see what route you take.
Silence is such a rare thing in the world today – it must have been wonderful! And the scent of cloves, too. I like this place already!
It’s a beautiful place!