Taking the scenic route (Mar. 16/09 - Senggigi, Lombok, Indonesia)

As usual, a new island means another motorbike trip, so today we ventured north along the coast of Lombok to see the sights and hopefully make it all the way to Senaru, which is a village on the northern slope of Gunung Rinjani. The guidebook was right when it described the coastal drive as "stunningly beautiful" - the road winds its way up and over multiple headlands formed by lava flows to give a panoramic view down onto the black sand below, fringed with coconut palms and turquoise water so clear that reef fish were visible from hundreds of feet away. There were seven or eight of these beaches, side by side but separated by lava flows. As we rounded the northwest corner of Lombok, the three tiny "Gili" islands came into view. These are the popular destination for most of Lombok's visitors, as all three are tiny, surrounded by white sand beaches, and all offer varying combinations of snorkelling, partying, and relaxing. If we had more time, we would definitely be making the hop over to check them out!

The road continued along the north coast, through rice fields and a couple towns, with occasional views of Gunung Rinjani. Generally following the shoreline, we maneuvered around horse-drawn carts (poor lame ponies being forced to canter down the pavement) and trucks loaded with everything from chickens to school kids. Now that Ken is a seasoned Indonesian motorbike driver, it was a pretty stress free drive. After a couple hours, the road curved south and began to climb the volcano's lower slopes, giving beautiful views out over the terraced rice fields and the ocean far below. At the end of the road, a park office stood where people begin the 3-day trek up the volcano in the dry season. It's out of the question at this time of the year, and as a result, the town was deserted. Since it was too far to continue back to Senggigi via the south side of the volcano, we turned around and headed back the way we came. A dark storm cloud ahead made us a little nervous, and before we had time to find shelter, someone turned on the tap and the torrential downpour began. It was raining so hard that we could barely see the road, so we pulled over and huddled under a tree, trying to divert the rain with a sarong I had in the pack, trying to keep our cameras dry. After ten minutes, we were drenched at it seemed to be easing up a bit, so we jumped back on the bike and kept going, hoping to find proper cover to wait it out. It wasn't far to the next town, so we hid under a bus stop for a while until the cloud had pretty much passed. Less than two minutes down the road, the pavement was completely dry! Between the wind and the sun, we were dry again by the time we rounded the corner onto the west coast. Since there were a couple of hours of afternoon sun left, we decided to try and find a way down to one of the beaches we passed on the way up to swim and watch the sun go down. It seemed they were all fenced off or obviously were private property, so we ended up driving into a beachfront hotel and asking if we could access the beach through their property. It turned out that the hotel was still under construction, a retirement project for a nice Australian guy who is fixing it up to sell as timeshare bungalows. It was a very nice place, too, but when we got down to the beach, we found that the surf was too high for swimming and the beach too littered to lie down, so we headed home instead. It made for a fun day of exploring the island, and tomorrow we hope to head south and find some of the rumoured deserted white sand beaches that they put on all the postcards!