Nusa Penida

After taking a scooter taxi each with our backpacks from Seminyak to the south pier, we took a short boat ride to Nusa Penida, a small island off Bali. Dan's taxi scooter rider was keen to get moving however Jess’ was not. Since we'd asked them to keep together, this evidently wound up Dan's driver and his many attempts to speed up the other guy failed. We did arrive together mind you. As usual the boat was late so we arrived later than planned and walked to our accommodation from the beach. We'd booked a bungalow, more in keeping with the type of typical accommodation found on the island as few hotels exist. After checking in to our hotel and having a chat with the owner, we rented a scooter and left to explore the west side of the island. Nusa Penida is known as an untouched island with stunning landscapes and minimal infrastructure. It has very few roads so whilst getting from one place to another may at first appear straightforward on a map, the route is often convoluted. The roads are very narrow, bumpy and twisted where oncoming cars only leave scooters less than a meter between them and the edge of the road, hence the need for even more cautious riding. The ride was surrounded by miles and miles of jungle and commonly banana trees alongside incredible views overlooking the glistening blue ocean.

Our first stop was Crystal Bay - we had a quick dip, although the waves and current were pretty strong. We then ventured out to Kelingking beach (also known as T-Rex beach). A steep path of stairs followed down the tall, jagged cliffs towards the beach. The waves were huge crashing against the cliff face and were quite mesmerising to watch. We didn’t manage to get all the way down to the beach as 1) it would've taken an hour to walk down and it was already getting late and 2) Jess unfortunately started to feel unwell. We climbed about half way down but still had an amazing view of the sunset. On our way up, Jess still wasn’t feeling particularly good - very nauseous and dizzy so we took our time getting back up. Eventually we made it back to the bungalow and Jess went straight to bed hoping to feel better in the morning.Read more