Flores

(abbreviated post)

We found some nice island images here: nice charts

Here’s Flores, the second island up the chain. The black and white insert map is useful. It’s an interesting location in the world, kindof not where we’d normally expect to find ourselves, I’ve been thinking

Here’s our track across the island, 3 days riding but about 10 days total, longer because of 2 things/small problems

After the ferry-trip-from-hell we headed west through the forest on a good, small road

And stopped at a huge pile of husks

Walked over to investigate

It’s the first time on this ride we’ve been comfortable taking people pictures. Somehow it’s a positive here

Chocolate, as it turns out!

They chop them, strip out the nuts inside

One of the group gets up and shows me a tree across the road. I thank him profusely for going to the trouble. We later learn there’s no end to the generosity in Indonesia

Into the mountains

Lots of water everywhere

After a few hours, down to the ocean

Hot, humid and still

The beach is entirely coral

We end up at a place on the ocean, picture postcard beautiful

The beach and a tree

Up in the mountains we started smelling gas. The back of the air box is wet. Uh oh

We know exactly what the problem is. The gas must be coming from the fuel pump. And the broken part must be the re-call part dealt with by an unnamed BMW dealer (not BM Motorcycles) we recently visited. they’ve screwed up the recall fix. I saw this coming.

So, first to test it. Photo dry

Start the engine and it leaks. Damn

So after a few quick calls we find out there’s no good fix without a new flange and the best possible thing to do is epoxy it. This is unlikely to work as the flange is under 3bar/50 psi of pressure. But we go into the small town, buy some supplies, clean and sand the parts, cross our fingers and cover the area in epoxy. Much to our surprise we find there’s a BMW shop in Bali, just a couple of weeks away and organize new parts.

In the interim we take the opportunity to extend our visa to 60 days, which is a huge nightmare. Five days, five visits, a new sponsor, fingerprints, photographs, unbelievable. But anyway.

Then we’re off again. Twisties through the mountains

Nice crags

Stop for lunch here because

Across the street there’s a guy doing haircuts. You sit on the chair, or in this case on a rock, pull on a pair of silver pants, yup, and he gives you a quick trim. They both smoke ciggies while this is happening

Back into the mountains

It looks like the Indonesia in travel books, lovely

The villages are tightly clustered, tin-roofed homes

Here’s a guy filling up with a liter bottle street side. Rack of gas behind. Haven’t done this yet, but looking forward to it

Later, construction and chaos, also fun

Back at the ocean after staying in Ende

The mountains today are covered in bamboo forests

A local bus

Fields and one of Indonesia’s billion volcanoes, most of which are always going off

…

Here’s another thing. In the country when you stop, kids on motos also stop to chat in whatever english they know, to ask for photos and to look at Lucinda

Later we pass through a small village

Where men are dressed in what we guess are traditional warrior outfits, and they whip each other, hard, like here

Two guys about to start, with their whips

Back into the mountains

Another kid stops when we stop. He’s a bit crazy, but cool

…

Hey, wild Datura!

Into the town of Rutang

Gassing up the regular way. This is a mid-sized line up. There are 65 million motorcycles and scooters, now growing by 7 million bikes a year on these Indonesian islands. The population is 250 million

This is maybe the typical Flores scene. You ride through hours of this, very nice

Road to the left and right

While we’re here, passing kids

And a passing family. The little kids rarely wear helmets and often they’re 4 on a scooter. More on this later

Another hillside

Through small villages

And over the last mountain to famous little Labuan Bajo

The town, well-known for one thing in particular

Off we go to see the famous resident

Pass local ships

This gorgeous old thing, wow, nice veranda

We ride out for about 40 minutes

…

Past fishing villages

To here, Rinca

Across dry flats. It’s stupendously hot

There’s something asleep in the shadow there. About 8 feet long

We go off exploring

The guide is unhinged, but great

We look in dry stream beds

Past monkeys

And here we go: a baby Komodo Dragon. About 2 feet long

And a giant. About 6 feet long

Later, at the flats, one searches for crabs

Then we’re off to an amazing place, Kanawa Island

It’s about 10 acres, with a dock and a beautiful beach

Paradise

There’s a special hotel here, cabins, a kitchen/restaurant and isolation

Guests read under trees, miles away from everything, on their own island/beach. So if you really want to get away from it all, this might be it. The downside is that it’s standard primitive by western standards, so the loos are trough-and-bucket for instance