Sape - to Labuhan Badjo

The ride to Sape was awesome, as expected, even if I had to hurry in the end, as there were really dark clouds in the mountains, close to Sape. Luckily I only felt some drops, here and there, and as soon as the road led back to the shore, the weather was nice, again.
As I took a huge detour, to follow the shoreline and to have a nice view on Pulau Sangeang, a tiny round volcanic island northeast of Sumbawa, I mostly rode on smaller (but all in all quite well-kept) roads, going through the mountains in the beginning and in the end of my trip.
Going through Sumbawa's small, rural towns and villages reminded me a lot on Sumatra, as this area still was very traditional (and less developed) and people were amazingly friendly, kind and curious, meeting a western traveller. But nature here was very different, in the valleys inside the country was a lot of agriculture visible, in the mountains close to coastline lot of woods were dominant, but due to Sumbawa's dry climate no jungle, but more dry, lighter woods, sometimes close to drylands.
Arrival in Sape gave me another surprise, as I was informed that the ferry schedule was changed and I had to wait for one more day, to catch the ferry to Flores.
Looking out for another, more nice accommodation (one night at any place close to harbor would have been fine, but for two nights I wanted to have a nicer area around). As usual on that island, booking platforms were useless, as there were literally only 1-3 accommodations available, extremely expensive or obviously not nice. Asking locals led only to these places, too, so going through any "accommodation"-tagged places on google maps brought me to one of the best homestays I've been in Indonesia. Built far away from the city on a cliff in a neighbouring bay to the city, literally no another housings around, with an awesome view out onto the bay, a family had built a few bungalows. I immediately loved the place. Erna was so welcoming and kind, her 3 kids were so cute and lovely, and everything was so nice and cozy! Her cooking was awesome, I had amazing Indonesian food, she even served me homegrown vegetables, and their hospitality was so original and felt like coming from their heart, it so much felt like being a family guest, instead a customer. Playing with the kids in the afternoon, sitting together and talking (with hands and feet, and improving my knowledge of Indonesian language) in the evening, drinking palm wine and singing karaoke in the night. 🥰
During my unplanned day at Sape I explored the surroundings a little bit, discovered an island you can reach by walking over sandbanks during low tide only, visited a new built huge dam, not even being filled yet, and visited some nice, very quiet and remote beaches.
So in the end I felt very lucky, that fate forced me to explore Sumbawa for one more day, meeting Erna and her family, and to experience some more of the original Indonesia, far away from any tourism. After saying goodbye to Erna at the port my scooter and me entered the ferry, which was quite crowded, probably due to the changed schedule and due to Christmas holidays in Indonesia had started. After not seeing any western person, since I've left Lombok, there were 2 couples of travellers on the ferry, with Gileam and Morina from Spain I quickly connected and we started to plan sharing a Komodo Tour at Flores.
As the ferry passed Lombok and the whole national park, I already got a glimpse on the beauty of that area, and after being alone for a week, it was nice to have some nice company, again, so arrival in Labuhan Badjo was a promising start of exploring another amazing Indonesian island! 😍Read more