Returning to Bali via Sumbawa and Lombok

We left Labuanbajo, Flores after having another days diving for a very cheap price, due to all of the problems on our Liveaboard. The 3 dives that we did were amazing, especially the one at Manta Point. We saw huge Manta Rays being cleaned by fish at the 'cleaning stations' and one huge one swam right over our heads, so close that you could have touched it - incredible. On the same dive Nic lost his wedding ring and when I got back to the boat I burst our crying. We've decided that it was a gift to the sea and payment for such an amazing dive!

We then started our epic journey back to our bikes. We had another 8 hour ferry crossing back to Sape, Sumbawa and then a 2 hour bus journey to Bima. We stayed the night in Bima and the following day we got the 8am bus to Sumbawa Besar. Last time the bus took 10 hours and this time it took an incredible 12 hours. The bus was also much more packed, so we were pretty uncomfortable, the driver played the same terrible music over and over again and he kept stopping to chat to the other bus drivers and to eat regularly. We also got another puncture but this time it took 20 minutes to repair and not 1 hour. Thank God we don't have to do it again and it was heaven to get back on the bikes.

Starting in Bima, on our Executive Class bus!:

Already quite full:


Stopping for a puncture, bus bursting with people and goods:


We had 2 nights at Kancana Beach to recover and then we cycled to Poto Tano to get the ferry over to Labuhan Lombok. On the way we saw this chap taking a bath:


We love the size of the satellite dishes compared to the size of the houses:


When we arrived back in Lombok we stayed the night in a really basic room in Labuhan Lombok. This place had the noisiest mosque we've ever heard. The loudspeakers dished out almost constant 'babble' from before dawn to after dusk. How any one gets any sleep and doesn't go mad from the constant noise is beyond me!

Anyway, we got up at 6am to cycle 90km to Kuta. We had a wonderful ride. The scenery was beautiful and we even saw the top of Ringani without clouds for the first time. Every one had huge smiles for us and when we stopped we ended up with a small fan club.

The top of Ringani:


The beautiful people of Lombok:

This is a lady who was selling Yakult, she was over the moon about meeting us and gave me a massive hug:


When we arrived in Kuta we had 2 days off relaxing. Our friends Tenne and Axel contacted TV9, who wanted to interview us. Anyway, we ended up being interviewed by them in Kuta for 2 hours. They were the loveliest people and asked us about cycling in Lombok and why we love cycling so much. We might appear on the news at some point.

Here's me with the crew:


We also met up the following day for lunch with Tenne, Axel and Ekki. It was so lovely to see them again. They've been wonderful friends to us.

We then set off for our final days riding in Lombok and we took the following photos.

Ploughing the fields Lombok-style:


Working hard in the paddie fields:


We arrived in Lembar and got the 4 hour ferry back to Padangabai in Bali, which we left 5 weeks ago.

The following morning we cycled up hill to Tirta Gangga where they have a wonderful Water Temple. We spent a lovely hour there wandering about with the other tourists:




Today we cycled to Tulumben, where the Liberty wreck is located. Today we had rain but the views were still gorgeous.

This is looking back to the place that we stayed at last night:


Amazing paddie fields:


We're going to dive the wreck and then head west. We're planning to get to Java in a few days time so we can spend a week seeing Java's highlights and then we'll fly to Singapore.