Flores and Lombok (Indonesia)

We embarked on a very exciting trip with Aimee, firstly to the island of Flores, arriving in Labuan Bajo. Here millions of tourists depart on boats to explore the famous Komodo National park. We were no exception, we had decided like the rest of the town to do a 2 night live-aboard trip.

Komodo national park is made up of dozens of islands with beautiful hills and gleaming white (and some pink) sandy beaches. The water in the tranquil bays are all the blues you could possibly imagine, it is a beautiful area of the world! Although we did feel like we had set sail as part of the Spanish Armada as a fleet of hundreds of boats all left the port.
We sailed towards a popular sunrise spot, with a few stops on the way, so it was to be another very early start!! I’m now well over sunrises, give me a sunset any day! Next morning at 5am we all piled out of the boat in darkness and we’re dropped off with the 1000s of other keen sunrise seekers at Padar island. After a long climb to the top, we nestled amongst our fellow travellers to watch the sun fill the sky with beautiful colours. It was a spectacular view but was difficult to fully appreciate with all of the crowds.
Back on the boat for breakfast and we set off to see the famous pink beach! It really was pink and here while snorkelling Freda spotted a turtle which we had the joy of watching for ages as it fed and came up for air. It was a real treat.

Otto has not grasped the art of snorkelling yet, so it was quite a logistical nightmare taking it in turns to stay with him. Like when we stopped at Manta Bay for a chance to see the Rays, I went in first with Aimee and Freda! Mitch stayed aboard, with Otto, or so I thought, turns out a load of rays swam past the boat and he was told to jump in, leaving Otto with a couple of random boat guys!!! Suppose it’s not every day you get to jump off a boats with Manta Rays!
It was a great trip, too much to bore you all with, I nearly forgot to mention the main event! Seeing the unnaturally large Komodo dragon, only place in the world it lives. Two facts for you a) they eat their own young and b) if they bite you their bacterial will slowly kill you! Charming things!
Now I could just lie, but the reality of doing a trip like this isn’t all plain sailing!!!! Our cabin was so grim, next to the engine and the generator, so either it was full of fumes or was so noisy, sleep was problematic. It didn’t help when I found a ton of cockroaches tucking into a packet of crackers carelessly left open next to my pillow!!!
Things also got a little desperate on the boat as they slowly ran out of ice, losing the capability to chill our Bintang! Can’t have it all I suppose we had to suck it up and make do with some under chilled beer!

With our feet finally back on dry land, we traveled into Flores to stay in a mountain town called Ruteng. Unfortunately it was a 4 hour drive, We arrived late, weary and feeling very dirty, still rocking from the boat. We stayed in a hostel Aimee and I got the top bunks and it made us slightly nostalgic about our round the world trip we did together back in our 20s! Felt like the good old days. Until we realised the hostel didn’t have hot water!!! Normally this is manageable, but add very cold mountain town and 2 nights on a grubby boat into the mix! Not the best! However, the owners turned out to be maybe the nicest hosts in the world and great cooks! So we made do, rented a couple of scooters the next day and set out to explore the area, which was beautiful, very local and very very friendly. We visited a traditional village and tried our hand at being traditional Mangarrai people. The outfits were mandatory before any one starts getting upset about cultural appropriation. We also checked out the crazy Spiderweb Rice fields, a method of dividing up land.

Then on to Lombok, for our last week in Indonesia. This week has been hugely anticipated, as we were meeting my family. I swear Freda has been counting down the days for the whole time we’ve been away. It was finally here and the kids could not contain their excitement.

We booked a lovely villa on the south Lombok coast, which is just beautiful. For now largely unspoiled, allthough dotted around the hills are large developments and I don’t think it will be long until it is filled with resorts. But we kicked back and had the whole valley to ourselves.
The kids had such a great time, it was great for them all to stop and relax! Of course where there are kids there are also colds, so they all started coming down with something one of them had probably licked off the aircraft! Dirty buggers!
After some beautiful days by the sea we had to say goodbye to Aimee and nervously waved her off on the back of a small scooter with her massive rucksack! She made it to the airport I’m pleased to report. We headed up to north Lombok, which is not so picturesque but stayed in another lovely place.

After an amazing few weeks with my best friend and my wonderful family we had to part ways! Tears and sadness, but great memories forever.Read more