Lombok ❤️ family fun time

After a busy 5 months ⛵️ indo, exploring the Lombok area has been super chill... lazy days with lots of laughter, swimming, eating out & most exciting, FAMILY!!!
I have summarised our adventures into pre fam & with fam 😆
PRE FAM. With our special guests due in a few weeks & a mile long list of jobs, we planed a quick passage down west lombok to Gili Gede 🏝/Marina Del Ray (MDR), which is where OtD will live for a bit.
Well, our "wont" power def needs some work as a 1 night stopover at the top Gili islands became 3 @ discovery of friendly turtles, cosy beach bungalows & long happy hour(s) 😉.
We eventually got to MDR mid-May in time to pick up our allotted mooring, chug back an arrival 🍺 & book a sea taxi to Bali for the following day....Ted needing to see a Doktor Gigi (dentist) for his mud 🦀 tooth injury.
Our 1st impressions of Marina are positive, but admit we a little bit horrified at the amount of passing rubbish washed down from Lombok after a big rain 😞. With boat jobs done & a few days to kill, we motored across to the southwest corner of Lombok, home of 🌊 Deserts. We found a nice anchorage nearby but 🏄‍♂️ was super busy ( 40+). Returning to MDR, we left OtD shipshape & 🚗 to Kuta Lombok... via Matteran village for essential visitor supplies (🍺🥂🍾🧈🥓🧀🍞🍍🍉🥑🍏).
WITH FAM. As a birthday surprise for my sister Vicki, we booked into a stunning villa overlooking the coast & filled it to the brim with family, which made for lots of good times, 🤣 &❤️. It was a perfect way to celebrate 🥳 50 yrs of Vicki.
After 3 days, Ted & I & the grandies set off back to the boat to enjoy some special catch-up time. Teeka, Vicki & Andrew joined us 2 days later & with everyone onboard, we were off to explore the southern Gili 🏝 before heading north to Gili Air (our fav). Here we had an amazing week together... nothing was planned, the weather was perfect & everyone chilled. Our adventures wrapped up with a bit of Lombok exploring, a waterfall hike (piggybacking for kiddies) & more delicious food.
On the 5th, waving teary goodbyes, we felt both super sad & blessed.
🙌 as it was wonderful to have had OtD full of family again, but 😔 as it made us extra homesick. How do we remedy this??? Get our butts back to the boat & book our ✈️ home 😆.Read more