SEA TO SKY TO HELL

I woke up late in Ende and ordered a second breakfast to compliment the one provided (a tiny donut). From here I packed up and started the coastal ride West, today's destination.. the mountain town, Ruteng.

Leaving Ende, sweating in the morning heat

 

Beautiful volcanic sands along the entire coast-line

A local being dropped at school by dad

The winding coast road was absolute bliss to ride

More coastal beauty to absorb that morning

The view from my cockpit, heavenly

With extreme fog, clouds and rain amongst the mountain tops my pace was slowed and it ended up taking a total of 8 hours to reach the mountain town of Ruteng - here it was cold but beautiful.

Making my way higher, occasional dirt roads

Stand back to take a photo of the pony, oops there goes the bike!

Rice fields, mountains, curvy roads... what more could I want

Rains coming in again, misting off the hot road

Beard progress selfie up in the clouds

The clouds and fog became extremely dense as the altitude increased

Lost, looking for a nuns convent to sleep... a greater power didn't want me to find it!

That night I stayed in the Rima hotel where I had one of my best sleeps yet, at 16.6 degrees C that night it was cold enough to need my sleeping bag for the first time on the trip. I was however woken at 345 AM by the ritual call to prayer from the local mosque. With Indonesia being the most populous-Muslim country in the world these mosques are everywhere with hour long prayers held 5 times a day. Well now I was up, so I went down for an early breakfast and made a start to the day.

Stunning rice fields expand as far as the eye can see

School children every morning and afternoon

More luscious fields

Typical small town in Flores

Drying my boots after the days ride in the rain

By leaving early I was able to enjoy the beautiful Flores roads before the afternoon rains and arrived in the coastal port city of Labuan Bajo around 1 PM. Beer, food, relaxation and meeting other travelers before an early night in preparation for the ferry to Sumbawa the following day.

Labuan Bajo sunset

I woke up Thursday morning feeling like I’d been hit by a train, still I prepared the bike for the ferry and almost made my way down to the port before deciding to take a rest day instead (the ferries now go daily). I walked to the pharmacy and in my best Indonesian ordered some drugs to ‘fix’ me. I lasted a few hours in the hotel room before I caved and walked down to the local emergency room. I walked in saying ‘fever... pain’ and was given a small bed to wait on. Here I lay for the rest of the day until at night they took my temperature, 39.7 degrees C. I was in quite a bad state being hardly capable of walking, talking or moving... but I later found out they weren't doing any tests or giving me any treatment because it was Chinese new year, a public holiday!

Fever, pain and rudimentary basic care

Friday blood test and Typhoid diagnosis, I started antibiotic injections and was given ibuprofen every few hours. I was delirious with pain, all I could do was stare at the neon lights and try my hardest not to go insane. Saturday and Sunday were more of the same.

By Monday I was well and truly over this ‘hospital’ and to top it off the doctors now made a new diagnosis... dengue fever. The hospital was far from any Western establishment with a filthy, flooded toilet, people sleeping on the floors, the occasional stray dog entering, it was definitely not hygienic by any stretch.

Tuesday I was told the risks if my blood count decreased further, uncontrollable bleeding from my nose, eyes and internally... awesome! Alone in a third world country and I get this explained in a mixture of Indonesian and English. Luckily by now I had made contact with my parents and they had called my travel insurance by that night, it was all about to turn around!

It has to be said that World Nomads have been outstanding so far, I was called multiple times on the Wednesday by doctors and nurses in Sydney to check on my condition and they even organised to fly me to Bali for better treatment in an international hospital. It’s now Friday and I’m laying in the hospital bed in Bali. As I type this with my mum next to me, tv, wifi, running water, food... there are too many things to list that make this a far better healing environment. The blood tests continue and I’m awaiting a new diagnosis, but I've been told my blood has started to improve. Fingers crossed I’m back with my bike in the next few days!

The Bali international hospital feels like home

Last trip, now I'm in Bali with the bike back in Flores

FROM TIMOR TO INDONESIA

Wednesday morning I ran straight down to the shipyard at 8 AM and miraculously got my bike! So from here I managed to leave Dili at 11 AM covering approximately 100 KM of construction sites to the Indonesian border, seriously these ‘roads’ were more like a motocross track – which was freakin’ awesome!

Dili shipyard, the adventure truly begins!

Dirt roads with stunning views and cliffs to make you think twice.

Traditional homes lined the road to the border, seconds before I was surrounded by on-lookers.

I arrived at the border 2.5 hours later and was welcomed by the Indonesian customs officers. After teaching them how to stamp my carnet for the bike and getting my visa checked I was placed in a room full of sniffer dogs. “Turn around” “Hands on head” “Move.. dog.. attack”, so I stood there with my hands on my head facing the wall while a big black Doberman on a thick iron chain stared at me from the side. “Empty bags” “Don’t move” “Empty bags” “Don’t move!”... it was actually kind of amusing at how bad they were at this, scare tactics mixed with getting me to comply mixed with a language barrier which I made great use of! This went on for roughly 20 minutes or so. I just responded with “Can I take a picture of the dog” ... of course “No” “Go, enjoy Indonesia”. And then with fist bumps, high fives and handshakes I was finally in the country. A mixture of emotions flowing through me, mainly confusion!

Flooded fields and magnificent mountains, the feeling was absolutely surreal.

40 KM of windy, mountainous roads and I was in the tiny town of Atambua... practically no English here so I found a modest hotel, ate some Mi Goreng (yum) on the road side and had an early night. The following day I continued along the amazing roads with only a stop for lunch. Whenever I stopped anywhere it was like I was some sort of celebrity, everyone would come and ask for photos, touch the bike and then stand around me while I ate... generally the entire village of roughly 30 people. After lunch I continued on and made it to the sea port city of Kupang. The day had been long and rainy with an average speed of 30 KM/H.

My oil leak has returned, but I'm just monitoring it for now.

Night markets, rice with fish OR noodles with fish?

Glamorous toilets in most of my accommodations

In Kupang I stayed at the Lavalon B&B for a few days, which was extremely cheap, beautiful beach location and they made wicked pancakes for breakfast! Here I met up again with an elderly British cyclist (Nigel) who was cycling though Indonesia, but first met in East Timor.

Lavalon B&B, can't beat this for $5 a night!

My most common meal, Nasi Campur.

Got my bike ready to go early in the morning, did grocery shopping for the long ferry ride ahead and had Mi Goreng for lunch (Fried rice, or fried noodles are pretty much the only items on the menu). I rode the 8 KM to the port through the bustling city traffic, fuelled up, checked out the coastline and then bought my ticket at the port. Oops, turns out I bought a ticket for the passenger ferry and not the bike ferry... no worries, so I rode another 3 KM to the next port and bought myself another ticket there, this one being $35 instead of $1 haha! I was the centre of attention here, people sitting on my bike, trying on my boots, playing around with my helmet. ‘Look with your eyes’ is not something Indonesians know. I even got to pose with a group of school girls whom it had taken about 15 minutes to work up the courage to ask if they could have a photo with ‘Mister Austrahly’. I was actually quite enjoying myself although my patience was being tested, this had been going on for about 6 hours when they finally called boarding for my delayed ship. As I approach the ship I realised that they had not lowered the front ramp where trucks and bikes can ride on, the few scooters with me were quickly lifted through the ships windows and then someone yelled “sorry try again tomorrow” and the ferry left without me, WHAT! I was fuming, and could not even vent... the language barrier made that extremely difficult.

Lunch stop before the ferry.

Wild cheeky monkeys and dopey goats.

No swimming signs everywhere due to crocs...

Getting my ticket in the storm.

Awaiting the ferry, super excited still at this point!

The next morning I rocked up at 9 AM and road straight onto a different ferry, destination Larantuka... one days ride East from Ende. The ferry departed around 2 PM and was scheduled to arrive the following morning, mixed sources told me 5 AM or 7 AM or 9 AM... anyway after a sleepless night with many passengers waking me to ask me questions we arrived at 3 AM (“Where you from? Where you going?”). So I rode off the ferry and started my 320 KM journey for the day to Ende, the roads were slow, windy, uphill, downhill, cliff here, pot hole there.. so it took roughly 9 hours to get there with few stops in-between. I still haven’t found anywhere that sells breakfast so for now it’s always been the free ‘breakfast’ (more like a snack) and then an early lunch. I’ll let the pictures tell the rest of the story, the riding here is epic!

Success!

The evening sunset from atop the ships deck.

3 AM arrival meant 3 AM start to my day.

The morning fog, for the first time I was cold in Indonesia.

So foggy, still at-least one selfie was necessary!

The roads were indeed very fun.

Impossible to capture the moment, high in the mountains.

Local cooking fires mixed with dense fog.

In came the afternoon rains!

What a view for lunch.

I had never seen so many palm trees, a palm tree forest!

From here I plan to continue my island hopping through Sumbawa, Lombok, Bali, Java and Sumatra... with a rest stop in Bali for sure!

Trip from this blog entry.

Australia to East Timor Shipping

SHIPPING THE BIKE FROM DARWIN TO TIMOR-LESTE

The next 3 weeks were spent in Darwin organising logistics for the months to come, motorbike repairs and chasing up visas. The city was strangely dry for the first week I was there with humid 32 degree days, the only relief being the pool in the backyard or the air-con inside.

I fixed the bike using high temp silicone to stop the oil leak around the alternator wires. 2 indicators were replaced as they’d vibrated to bits and the starter switch was replaced after a few days of trouble-shooting. Finally a functioning bike again!

The following days consisted of over 65 calls to the Iranian embassy in Canberra as they had misspelled my name in the visa, when I eventually got through to someone I was told ‘no problem no problem’... ok we’ll see.

Finally the mighty dr650 was loaded onto an SDV ship for $749 roll on (Optional $450 if I had crated it). This was relatively painless with everything packed on it and me keeping only a backpack for the following days/weeks. ETD 3^rd of February with ETA on the 4^th of February (Update: this has since been delayed until the 8^th).

Without my bike I was now forced to relax, oh damn. This meant over the following days I visited Litchfield national park and the amazing Florence falls and enjoyed the natural beauty of the Northern Territory, in particular Darwin. A huge thanks to Brenton and Ashlea who allowed me to stay with them in Darwin! On the 4^th of February I flew out to East Timor.

Timor Day 1:

At 10:30 AM I landed in Dili, the capitol city of Timor-Leste... a young country that hasn’t even celebrated its’ 13^th birthday. A quick history: Having been under Portugese rule for many years East Timor declared its independence in November of 1975 only to be invaded by Indonesia 9 days later. Indonesian rule lasted until 1999 when the UN sponsored vote took place for independence, following murder, rape and destruction the Indonesians left with the country left to rebuild by itself. The country uses the USD as its official currency.

Dili, Timor-Leste from above on arrival.

East Timor sunset on the beach whilst fisherman are returning from the days work.

My first impressions were that this country is relatively expensive, unfortunately dirty, hot and humid with a beautiful mountainous backdrop. I was staying at the East Timor Backpackers which costs $12 USD per night in a shared dorm. Here I met Moritz and Mart both travelling solo on their motorbikes in the opposite direction to me. Their amazing stories of the road were inspiring and got me even more excited for the coming months/years.

East Timor Backpackers outdoor setting.

My luxury room!

The adorable puppy that lives here.

Moritz was kind enough to give me a ride to the SDV shipping office only to be turned back and told to return a few hours later. Around 2 PM I walked the 30 minutes back to SDV and began the process of getting my bike. Heavy rains began at around 1:30 PM daily. ETA of the bike had been pushed to the following day.

Moritz and Mart preparing their bikes for shipment to Australia.

The next day began with running to the Indonesian Embassy, I wrote my name on the ‘check in’ list and got all the paperwork required. Now my standard passport photos were not acceptable, they needed a red background of course. So I hopped on the closest microlet (public transport, 25 cents) and headed for the plaza where I was told the closest photo and print shop was. I arrived at the plaza and their camera was broken, I was sent further down the road to another photo shop, again broken. So I headed back on another microlet to the hostel where I enquired about another photo/print shop. Finally I received my passport photos, with red background. I headed back to the embassy only to be told to come back tomorrow, 11 AM knock off for them today!

I then headed to the shipping company and was updated that the ship was now delayed until Sunday, nothing more to do but head back to the hostel and wait for the afternoon thunderstorm and rain, refreshing and the coolest part of the day!

Timor Day 3: Friday

I got up that morning at 6 AM and made my way down to the Indonesian Embassy for 7 AM to ‘check in’ again, sweet this time I was 12^th on the list... by around about 10 AM I was through, paid the $50 USD cost and was on my. Tuesday I’ll be back to collect my passport. Although not much has gone to plan since getting here I have actually really enjoyed great company at the backpackers and it reminded me that I can plan as much as I want, but it won’t go by that plan anyway.

There was not much to do over the weekend besides plan some routes, relax and hang out with the other backpackers in my room. Monday arrived and I managed to get my carnet stamped for the bike, but still no bike.. I was promised Tuesday afternoon it would be ready (Update: it wasn't).

2nd largest Christ statue in the world at 27m high.

So now it’s been exactly 1 month since I left Perth and I am currently still waiting for my bike to be released from the shipyard (I've been promised tomorrow morning). As soon as she’s free I’ll make for Kupang city, Indonesia and prepare for the ferry crossing to Flores island.

The ship with my bike on it, the waiting is killing me!

My flight to Dili, 1 hour... whilst the ship has taken almost a week.

A motorbike blog MUST have bike pictures, so here's a few from before I left. The next blog will have more biking pictures!

Harvey, South-West WA... off-road testing!

Checking the bike is suitable for the trip!