Aimere - Kupang: to Timor island

Life proved once again, that getting up early is not good for me: I got up at 7am, aiming for an early arrival to see something from Aimere, before the ferry leaves in the morning of the next day (It didn't! 😅). Didn't work out like that, as the coastal road was blocked, due to construction works. No other route was available, without crossing the whole island, so I had to wait until noon, till the road was open, again. When arriving at Aimere, I quickly found out, that the ferry to Kupang wouldn't leave the next day, but the day after, so another unexpected stay, here. I should have slept longer... 😅🤣
The first time on my trip, I rode backwards, for a reasonable distance, with my scooter, so far. But as this route was one of my best rides and the roads were in good condition, I really enjoyed it.
Aimere is a typical small town of Indonesia, not much going on, here, the ferry port area is the central, most vibrant part of this small town, but due to the harbor, some nice accommodations were available. I've even met a German couple, going around by scooter as well, had some nice chitchatting and we're laughing a lot about similar experiences, here on Flores.
I used the unplanned day to explore the surroundings, found a beautiful steppe landscape 20km out of town, on a headland in front of some volcanic mountains. A quite tricky road there, some parts were fully destroyed and "repaired" by fillings from rocks, in the end, dirt road turned into a 2-wheelers dirt path. 😅 Fascinating landscape, amazing scenery, being the only person within a few square kilometers, watching the sun going down behind the mountains, awesome. 🤩
The ferry ride was my longest ferry trip, for now, around 20-24hrs, depending on the weather. Luckily we went quickly and had calm waters, but -as already expected- the ferry was packed, due to holidays. Way more people than seating, in the end literally any square meter was occupied by people, only a few walking paths the crew kept an eye on, were kept free. To get to my luggage, during the night, I had to step over lots of sleeping people, even if I finally was extremely lucky, being able to catch a wooden bench on the upper deck. Again my yoga mat was a great help for building a bed, but I didn't find much sleep at all. Nevertheless I've met another traveller from Italy and some locals, had intense, philosophic talks with Luigi and very nice chitchatting with some locals. In the end the Petty officer second class, who held a nice, funny speech during the ferry departure and directly was talking to me, within that speech, joined me. He was so kind and friendly and curious, gave some helpful advice and told me a lot about life as a seaman in Indonesia.
Finally the ferry arrived, but as it was already 4:30am on 31st and I had planned a 7hrs ride up to Dili, for celebrating New Year's eve in Dili, Timor Leste's capital city, I decided to directly drive into the rising sun and find a place to sleep a few hours on the way. 🙈Read more