Yes. With a little break, it’s time for another video – probably my second to last one.. Indonesia and Timor Leste are beautiful. A fantastic end to the trip before the last leg in Australia. I hope you like the video!
Posts Tagged ‘Indonesia’
New Video: Cycling from Tawau (Indonesia) – Dili (Timor Leste)
Posted: July 18, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia, Timor LesteTags: Bromo, Cycling, Ijen, Indonesia, Kelimutu, Timor Leste
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Day 407. 90km. Boas – Palaca
Posted: July 4, 2016 in Cycling, Indonesia, Timor LesteTags: Boas, Cycling, Indonesia, Palaca, Timor, Timor Leste
‘We have wine.’
The priest opened up the cabinet and moved the camoflage to the side.
‘God has brought us together tonight to share food, wine and each other’s company.’
Out came a big cask of wine from Portugal. Welcome to Timor Leste.
From the coastal road
Today was an easy day – a non-steep road, mostly good, down to the coast. We had a long internet stop to catch up with our friends and family, and an easy crossing (visa free) into country number 33 – Timor Leste.
We are sleeping in a catholic school on the beach, after being welcomed in by the head-priest. Yes, there are crocodiles here too – so no swimming.. ☺
Day 406. 79km. Lopon – Boas
Posted: July 3, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Boas, Cycling, Indonesia, Lopon, Timor
I stood there on the muddy slope, my sandles brown and slimy from the mud, stationary with the bike. Trying to move forward my feet would slip in the sandles, the sandles would slip on the slope, and the wheels would slide back to whence they came. So I was stuck there. Then came a bus from above. I was in its way but couldn’t move. Out jumped two strapping lads and pushed me up and forward, out of the bus’s way. This road was meant to be ‘bagus’ (great). It was a mud-bath.
The beach
Our lovely hosts last night
The crocodile beach
Our day started as yesterday’s had ended. Pushing our bikes up rocky steep roads to amazing viewpoints before bumping our way down again. A short interlude of nice road allowed us to make more kilometres than yesterday before a short 3km stretch of slime took 1.5 hours.
We arrived, slimy and muddy, at a church, and were welcomed by the people there, and taken to the pastor’s house which is being built. We were given food to eat and water and coffee to drink. Again, such lovely people!
The church family
Day 405. 56km. Kualin – Lopon
Posted: July 2, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Cycling, Indonesia, Kualin, Lopon, Timor
‘Dorong! Dorong!’ (push)
I scream at the top of my voice as the kids push me and my bike up the super-steep hill.
‘Dorong! Dorong!’ cries Clement as his kids push him up. We are neck and neck, like jockeys in a horse race.
Today was steep. Today was drenching rain. Today was spectacular views over the most amazing turquoise water. Oh – and did I mention – it was steep!
It was steep!
We didn’t really get going today – stopping every 5km when the rain got too heavy. I tried my first betel nut that everyone has been chewing. With the rain pouring down outside, the whole village gathered around as we bit off some of the fruit, took some of the white powder, and chewed. The taste was intense, and bitter. I couldn’t take it for too long.
Our friends during the rain shower
We arrived at the only town in the area to see the most amazing coloured sea. There were areas of brown, areas of bright turquoise, areas of normal blue, and areas of the deepest blue – all to the backdrop of dense dark clouds. It was beautiful.
The amazing blue water
The blue sea
The blue sea
Then the road climbed, and my goodness it was steep. Up 300m into the heavens, and down 300m. Up 600m then down 600m. Up another 500m then down. At the top we could gasp in awe at the magic coast of beautiful water and steep mountains dropping to the sea.
The view from above
Steep
The village kids drove me insane, following me as I crawled up the mountains. They were much faster walking that I was cycling. And others putted along on their motorbikes. None wanted to be photographed but followed doggedly. We were the most interesting thing that had happened all week. Then Clement had the brilliant idea of putting them to work. So they pushed us up the hills, sometimes at a sprint.
This part of Indonesia is one of the poorest places I’ve seen. The lean-tos made of grass must get blown over regularly. People just sit on the side of the road watching time pass by. We finished today with another 10km of steep road left, staying the night next to the sea (with the crocodiles) in a little house with a lovely family.
They are beautiful people and desperately poor. I brought out the biscuits which they only accepted for the children. I cooked some pasta that Clement had on a fire they had made in an outhouse. Again, they only accepted some of it for the children.
They brought a chicken in from outside. Later, by the fire, it had had its neck broken. It is going to be fried. I fear they are giving us almost the last food they have. I will give them some money tomorrow. They can buy some food – this time for the whole family.
Today was an amazing and intense day. This is what cycle touring is all about.
Day 404. 102km. Oesao – Kualin
Posted: July 1, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Cycling, Indonesia, Kualin, Oesao, Timor
‘Bisa bernang?’ (Can we swim?)
‘Tidak!’
Snapping the arms together, we understood there are crocodiles here.
Ouch.
The plains in Timor
The countryside in Timor feels more like Australia. It looks drier, and the vegetation less rich. I think Timor soil has the same root as Australia’s, and it makes for a more familiar feeling. Timor is also very poor. People say it when they talk to us. There is no industry and they see little help from Jakarta. We cycled through flat plains before the coast lined with little straw huts and road shaped straw huts at the back. I asked what the round huts were for – food storage – corn.
Today it is Clement’s turn to be sick and not bursting with energy. I think his race across Flores gave it to him, and he just needs a bit of time to recover. We stopped earlyish and are staying in a police station. They offered us the local wine to try, but we just collapsed into bed.
Hut between the trees
A watery environment
Huts
Day 403. 40km. Kupang – Oesao
Posted: June 30, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Cycling, Indonesia, Kupang, Oesao, Timor
I didn’t sleep well on the boat, and spent most of the day procrastinating before stopping at 3 to have an afternoon sleep before an evening sleep. Then Clement wrote. His boat arrived at 5 in the evening – not 5 in the morning. We had an evening of catching up and preparing for the cycle through Timor.
Resting place
After eating two meals and fixing my flat tyre in front of a large audience at the harbour, I cycled, stopped and ate, cycled, stopped and had my hair cut. I then cycled, stopped and ate, and stopped to sleep. I was not ready for the hills ahead. Time for a rest.
Tomorrow Clement and I will start our cycle in Timor proper.
Day 402. 15km. Lebolewa – Kupang
Posted: June 28, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Cycling, Indonesia, Lambata, Lewoleba, Timor
‘It was that hole that did it!’ I said as we raced past it on the motorbike, loaded with my luggage on the way to the port. When I woke up this morning I didn’t think I would be taking a ferry to Kupang this afternoon, but so it has come to be. With a flat tyre near the harbour, my unloaded bike is being walked to the harbour while I return with my host to his house to collect my luggage. All to get to the boat in time.
On the boat to Kupang
We were planning to go for a swim, and left home in the afternoon with the whole family for this. I cycled, and the father, mother and 2 sons were on the motorbike. On the way we passed by the small harbour to check the departure time of my ferry in a few days to Atapupu on Timor near the Timor Leste border. The ferry doesn’t go to Timor, but stops at Alor Island. There was a boat to Kupang on the southern tip of the Timor island leaving in 90 minutes from a different harbour. In order to leave Indonesia in time, I had to take that boat, so the race was on. I didn’t realise how far the other harbour was, and we started off there to check all this information. Seven kilometres later, and we were almost at the harbour, bumping down the bad road, I got a flat tyre, riding over a hole in the road I didn’t see in time. Then action was taken. Friends of my friends on the side of the road helped take the disabled bike to the harbour while I zoomed back with my host on the motorbike to collect my luggage. We made it to the boat just as it was leaving, and I now find myself in Kupang.
Gervas and me before I caught the boat
I thought Clement was catching the boat from Ende to Kupang which is scheduled to arrive two hours after my boat. As my boat pulled up next to another boat on the harbour, waiting for a berth spot, I saw the boat from Ende arrive. As he didn’t know I was on this boat, I did some boat climbing – from my boat to the neighbouring boat, to the quay and then via another boat to Clement’s boat that was also waiting for a berth. He wasn’t on it.
Clement often says he was born in the wrong year. He dreams of the days without mobile phones and being always online. His phone is almost never on, and so it was now too. I guess I will catch up with him somewhere on Timor island. Let’s see where..
Many thanks to Gervas and his family. He gave me a warm welcome on Lambata island. It is a shame that I wasn’t able to see more of it. Maybe next time.. ☺
Day 401. 55km. Larantuka – Lewoleba
Posted: June 27, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Adonara, Cycling, Flores, Indonesia, Larantuka, Lembata, Lewoleba
The island hopping has started – Adonara Island – tick. Lambata Island – tick. That’s where it’s going to stop though. There are no boats further for a while. Staying with Gervas who I met in Kelimutu, I’m going to cycle, snorkel and relax on Lembata Island before catching the ferry to Timor in a few days. A bit of R&R is going to be nice!
Volcano on Adonara
Adonara island was peaceful and quiet, and rather steep in parts. I was told to take the northern road as the southern one was completely destroyed. The northern one was too in parts, and very steep as it climbed up and down steep valleys in the middle of the small island.
Church
In the middle of the island
The boat trip to Lambata was a bit exciting. The bike was hoisted up onto the deck with all the luggage. It all worked well, and I now find myself relaxing in Lewoleba.
Boat to Lembata
Day 400. 75km. Kringa – Larantuka
Posted: June 26, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Cycling, Flores, Indonesia, Kringa, Larantuka
There is malaria here, they told me last night. Sitting bathed in chemicals this morning, the mosquitos were a-buzzing. SLAP. The grandmother killed another one on her arm. I asked why they don’t use repellent.
‘No money,’ replied the son.
When I left I gave money enough to buy plenty of repellent for the whole family.
Kringa family
I stayed with a family of subsitance farmers. Everything they gave me to eat they had grown or caught. They had grown the rice, grown the vegetables and caught the fish. They make their cash by selling the odd coconut. It hit me like a hammer – what it really means to be a subsistence farmer. They have NO money, and live from day to day. These are the people that will be hit first and hit hardest by climate change – and they are the ones that have done least to cause it.
The son would like to see the west one day. I would like to take him to a massive, air-conditioned supermarket in a shopping complex in Australia. Look how far we have removed ourselves from the source of our food in the west. The son wouldn’t know which planet he has come to.
Today I crawled up and over the last of the hills of the mountainous island of Flores. Rather than catch the boat to the next island, I flopped onto a bed in a hotel next to the harbour. Flores has worn me out!
On the way to Larantuka
Day 399. 112km. Koka Beach – Kringa
Posted: June 25, 2016 in Cycling, IndonesiaTags: Cycling, Flores, Indonesia, Koka Beach, Kringa
‘Do you want to see the new-born baby?’
We all walked in the (almost) full-moonlight down the street to the hospital to see the new baby boy. All the family seemed to be there to admire the boy, laughing and joking in a very jovial event. He is one of the next generation to live on this planet that I have cycled across. I wish him all the best!
The road to Larantuka
The appearance of the people has been changing. They are now clearly different – very dark, many with dark hair with tight curls. Passing slowly from Europe it is fascinating seeing the people change from European through to Asian and now towards Aboriginal Australian.
Hello mister kids
The road was almost flat for 30km today and it was lovely to speed through with music blaring. It can get demorilising crawling up a hill only to descend again ready for the next one. I passed little lean-tos in the palms next to the sea.
House amongst the palms
Sea
I’m climbing the last major pass before the end of Flores, and am staying in a little village in the mountains. A lovely family welcomed me into their home. The world is full of wonderful, caring people!
arctic-cycler.com 