Scenes from my scooter ride.
My little Honda.
Great big tree that they put the road around.
Up into the hills.
Sunset back to Ciao.
Friday, June 8th.
I did nothing. I didn’t even take a photo. I was lethargic
and lazy. I worked on the computer some, I got into one of my new books “The Shortest
History of Europe” and finished about half it, I napped, I ate and that’s about
it. On to the next day.
Saturday, June 9th.
I guess I needed the rest day, but I still felt like I
had wasted the day, so I got up early and went to the lobby and rented a
scooter for the day. It cost less than $10 for the day. There is a map in the
lobby of the hostel with highlighted places of interest on the island of Flores.
However, the island is huge and somethings are a full day’s drive away, and the
roads aren’t great, but I went exploring. I was looking for a road to a cave
that is on an island offshore and/or a road to a waterfall. I immediately found
that riding here is unlike home. From the hostel to the main road is down a
steep bumpy concrete/dirt road and then you have to turn right because it is
one way. I didn’t know that and turned left. No one beeped at me, or told me I
was wrong, they just worked around me until I figured it out. When you go the
correct direction the road takes you in a circle through town and then out the other
side. I took a road that was paved for about three kilometres and then turned
to gravel and then rutted dirt. I finally gave up and turned around. Another
road was the same. I found there were no road markers or directions anywhere.
Finally, after a couple of hours I managed to find a road that led out of the
Lubuan Bajo area and followed that. It turned out to be the main road out of town
and across the island. It was paved and in pretty good shape. About ten kilometres
out it became switchbacks up and over and around a number of hills. I followed
it for about thirty kilometres before giving up because I could not find either
the road to the cave or the road to the waterfall.
It was a great ride though. I enjoyed being out and
about and on two wheels. The island is quite lush and green even though it is
the dry season. And it is interesting watching the local people, the traffic,
the farmers and the people working in the roadside shops. I returned to the
hotel about three and hung around trying to avoid the heat.
Shortly after, two 50-year old female cousins from Brazil
arrived in my room. I got talking to them for a bit and then went up to watch the
sunset at 5:30. There I met a young Irishman, Tom, that I had talked to the day
before. We had a couple of beers and watched the sun set and the harbour light
up as it got dark. Then he went to town to meet another friend and I went to
the restaurant for dinner. Back to the room to sort photos and go to sleep. Except
that at 8:30 eight Indonesian people joined our room too, and they were noisy
and took forever to unpack and settle for bed. I finally got to sleep about
10:00 and they woke me up again about midnight.
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