So… in classic Ro & Billie style, we didn’t finish off the blog. VERY NAUGHTY. All the blame lies with Billie, whose turn to write was next, but we’re sitting here writing it together now (though I’m at the keyboard so it appears from my perspective). We’ve now been back in London for a whopping five weeks. In that time, we’ve adopted new chickens, started our jobs and caught up with friends and family. We’ve also recovered from our injuries… but more on that later. Let’s do our best to throw our minds back to thrilling Indonesia.

Day 158 – Labuan Bajo to Ruteng

We still had our sea legs, but we were ready for our next adventure; a weeks road trip by scooter across the volcano laden island of Flores, from Labuan Bajo to Maumere, where we’d drop our scooter and fly back. We’d hired a big black beast of a scooty with multiple boxes to carry our stripped down essentials – our main backpacks would stay in Labuan Bajo and await our return.

We were following a route that some of the more intrepid travellers had driven before us, but there were few tourists to be seen along the way. Day one would take us from Labuan Bajo to Ruteng, a rural town surrounded by rice paddies. On the four hour journey, we made a few pit stops at some really beautiful sights. First up was a series of waterfalls, one of which led to a natural infinity pool. Sweaty off the bikes, we jumped in gladly after a short guided hike. As per, the guide knew all the angles and we had to reign him back from a full photoshoot.

On the way back up the hill, we stopped for delicious coconuts to power us for the next leg of the journey.

Up next was the spiderweb rice paddies. Two local kiddos, perhaps 8 years old, who were next door neighbours, accompanied us up a short set of stairs, explaining to us the local plants on the way up, each of which apparently had some medicinal use or other. They were practicing their english and were awfully sweet. They eventually led us to the viewpoint, where we were met with a pretty cool agricultural phenomenon! The locals here divide their rice paddies in a very different way to elsewhere, in large circles, sliced up like pizza OR spiderwebs. Each big circle counts for a village, and then each piece within belongs to a certain family. It was a bit misty, but a lovely view nonetheless.

Finally, we arrived in Ruteng, bums a bit sore, the sun nearly setting, but with high spirits. We checked into a lovely small homestay where we all sat on the floor for dinner together in a big circle with the rest of the guests. We were all semi-forced to wear traditional skirts but the food was delicious and there were a few other tourists to share stories with. We had an early night in preparation for our sunrise tour of the local countryside.

Day 159 – Ruteng to Bajawa

It was indeed an early start but despite the excitement for the sunrise tour, the homestay was abuzz with other news of a more worrying nature. A large volcano on the island had erupted in the night and spewed 11 kilometers of ash into the sky, making global news and prompting worried mothers to call their travelling children in the middle of the night. The good news was it was a good 200 miles+ from where we resided, so we were in no immediate danger. The bad news was that last time this happened, flights to and from the island were halted for many weeks, disrupting travel plans and causing huge strain on local tourist providers. Our host was really worried and had received ten booking cancellations by breakfast.

Despite this, he had us up and out while it was still dark, and was delivering a top notch walking tour among the stunning landscapes surrounding his homestay. He was another photographer extraordinaire and had us and our french tourmates marching up and down and posing cheesily in traditional headgear in front of the rising sun. It was clearly a big part of his tour so we all obliged him and to his credit, he got some nice shots.

Our next stop was a very exciting and unique destination. We umm’d and ahh’d about whether we should go, with it being in the opposite direction from our destination by about an hour, adding two hours to an already gruelling five hour scoot journey. HOWEVER, one does not simply miss out on the Hobbit Caves… A long, windy and treacherous scoot – mainly treacherous because children would purposefully jump in front of us in the road only to leap away at the last minute (or not as we swerved around them) shouting “give money!” – we arrived at the Hobbit Caves. We’d been pre-warned that we would undergo a traditional ceremony whereby a village elder would essentially bless our arrival and charge us some dosh, so we sat patiently as this happened at a snail’s pace.

I had to save the day at one point when the younger, english-speaking guide asked if anyone would say anything back to the village elder. He held out the ceremonial speaking stick, offering it to the men sat around, studiously ignoring the women. One man had it forced upon him and in a truly awkward moment, and with a terrified expression, spluttered for a few seconds before giving up entirely. I grabbed it from him and told the village elder we were thankful for his hospitality and welcome, for which I received a very black-toothed smile from the elder, and a sigh of relief from the rest of the group.

We were funnelled into an initial cave which was to do with fertility because the shapes in the rock apparently resembled a penis and a vulva, which the guide delivered with many a wink and knowing elbow to the ribs of the men present. We were impatient to be out of this one, with the hobbits being in another cave, and the day slipping away. We hurried it on despite one woman who kept asking very uninteresting questions, and walked up the road to the one and only Hobbit Cave.

This cave, officially named Liang Bua, is a very important archeological site, famous for the discovery of Homo Florensiensis in 2003. Dubbed a “hobbit” by the modern world at large for it’s small height (3ft 6inches), this species related to the human possibly over 100,000 years ago, used tools, seemingly lived in these caves, and were very good at climbing. We were super lucky that we were visiting during the 6 weeks per year that scientists come to complete further excavations. The place was abuzz with activity and people in hazmat suits, bagging up finds before our very eyes. A nice scientist man gave us a very detailed explanation of what was going on and answered all our silly questions like “how did you know it’s not a child?”, “how did it get here?” – the answer to which was possibly carried by a pterodactyl – cool!

We loved this, but were shocked to find out it was after midday and still had at least five hours driving ahead of us. We set off for Bajawa, any other stops now off the menu.

Days 160 & 161 – Bajawa

Bajawa was not our favourite place, but it’s a bit unfair on Bajawa, really – as the cause was mostly my food poisoning, almost certainly from a dodgy lunch the previous day. I was up in the (shared) bathroom in the night, throwing things up. Not pretty. Our room was not what you’d call luxurious, and a shared bathroom is not what you’d call ideal. Luckily, we’d booked in two nights, so treated ourselves to a full rest day, mostly dedicated to watching ‘America’s Sweethearts’ on Netflix. The following day, we tried some gentle sightseeing. First, we headed off to a local traditional village.

It was really impressive. Unfortunately, due to the mist, we couldn’t see the enormous volcano it sat at the base of, and that the original dwellers worshipped as a sort of side-deity. The village isn’t inhabited today, but local women sell their woven goods from the beautiful huts. As far as traditional villages go, this was one of the more impressive examples we’ve seen.

We then travelled on to a hot spring. This was particularly cool, because it was the meeting point of two rivers – one, boiling hot. The other, nice and cold. The idea was to sit in the bit where they mixed, trying to get a nice mixture of the two. It was fairly busy with locals and a couple of other tourists gave us the confidence to jump in too.

That evening, I was back on solid food and feeling positive about the day ahead. We should probably update, at this point, that the volcano situation was still a bit of a worry. Nobody was sure what would happen, airports were still closed. Should we turn around now or forge forward and hope for the best? We chose the latter, fearless explorers that we are.

Day 162 – Bajawa to Moni

So it’s worth mentioning just how beautiful Flores is. It was really nothing like what we expected – very mountainous and hilly, with lush jungle and volcanoes silhouetted against the sky whichever way you looked. The road was well made, but the way was very remote. We’d drive an entire day and not see another tourist on the roads, but usually find some in the homestay we ended up in. People would point or wave or smile. We were a novelty for sure, not something seen often! Other than the food poisoning, we were loving the experience. We weren’t sure we had more adventures in us, but this was proving to be a brilliant one.

We awoke to heavy rain. This isn’t something we’d particularly planned for. In fact, I hadn’t even brought a JUMPER, let alone a raincoat. Billie had forced me to bring trainers, for which I was very quickly grateful. I ran down the road and grabbed us some ponchos, and we decided we’d get on the road and drive slowly.

It was not particularly fun, driving in the heavy rain. We were also low on petrol and the very rare stations we passed were closed. At one point, a bike overtook us, went round a bend too quickly and slammed to the ground heavily right in front of us. Two lads gingerly limped to the side of the road, one holding a poor chicken who was along for the ride. We pulled over, but many other locals had too and we weren’t any help. It was a fairly shocking cautionary tale, and as you will later read, a portentous omen. We stopped at a blue stone beach for lunch.

Luckily, the weather abated, and we made good progress. The roads were the windiest roads you’ve ever seen in your life. I’m sure if we drove as the crow flies, we’d have been there in about an hour. But that wouldn’t be any fun!

And so we arrived in a small homestay in Moni, where a very cute dog adopted us to the point of sleeping on our doorstep all night. We went out for dinner a super little bar in the village, where a band played some pretty rad renditions of Radiohead, My Chemical Romance and (of course) Bryan Adams, among many others.

Day 163 – Moni to Maumere

In the morning, we were confronted with the age old dilemma… do you climb an active volcano when nearby geological activity has occurred? An unlikely yet frequent conundrum for us as of late! Dilemma number two was whether to go for sunrise, as everyone seems to insist with volcanoes, or whether to have a more chill start, but get there earlyish to avoid afternoon clouds. We decided for the latter, having scrambled up enough slopes in the dark for a lifetime.

Much nicer to hike up in the day. The sticks were for monkeys!

The Kelimutu Volcano crater lakes were one of the most stunning things we’ve seen on our whole trip. Two incredibly blue, perfect lakes glistening in the sun and with a clear sky (phew). We met another couple who’d come the day before and they said it was cloudy from sunrise til sundown, so they’d come again – so it was no guarantee. Truly one of the most beautiful sights we’ve seen, and we didn’t have to get up for it at the crack of dawn!

Apparently the lakes change colour (independently) due to their ever-changing mixture of volcanic gases and chemicals – a sign of strong volcanic activity – though I’ll say it wasn’t particularly obvious to us.

Our homestay host had given us a tip that there was a hot spring well worth a visit. We stopped at the place on the map, a bit confused by a total lack of signage or any indication of a spring. We decided to walk down through the paddy fields a bit, past some local women working in the fields who didn’t look too put off by our presence. Emboldened, we continued on to find a tiny hot pool, sitting in a cranny in the paddy fields. It was a lovely warm bath temperature, so I couldn’t resist stripping down and leaping in. Dragonflies danced around and I suddenly got a bit scared a massive snake might make a surprise entrance, so we didn’t linger too long!

Back on our scooter, and back to the lovely dinner spot from the night previous, this time for 2nd breakfast and the local delicacy – ginger coffees. They were ok but won’t be replacing good old fashioned regular coffee for me anytime soon.

It was time for the last leg of our journey. Moni to Maumere. It was another five hour slog, and we were becoming quite saddle-sore by this point. To make matters worse, it was a Christian festival – Holy Communion? – where the entire island apparently went to Maumere for either supplies, or to attend massive parties into the night. We got stuck in traffic – buses full of people full to bursting, with some even falling asleep on top of them precariously. We also started to detect ash from the eruption, roofs covered in a layer of thick grey dust. The last half hour, in particular, was gruelling, but we finally made it to the scooter drop off spot, where we dumped the bike and celebrated with an ice-cream. We’d done it! And the man told us we’d gone over 700 kilometers on the scooty. Our arses could believe it.

Days 164 & 165 – Maumere

We had two nights and one full day to recover in Maumere. We’d picked a dive ‘resort’ nearly an hour from the city. Maumere was once the diving hotspot of Flores, even much of Indonesia, reportedly until a large tsunami in the area affected a lot of the coral and marine life, though our Swiss divemaster and host believed it was due to the flight route being cancelled. She claimed it was the best kept scuba secret in Indonesia!

We had a brilliant time diving in quite unique dive sites, including one called ‘The Crack’ which was a fissure in the seabed caused by a large earthquake. We saw sharks, orangutan crabs, pygmy seahorses and many, many other remarkable sea-critters. Our divemaster was particularly good at finding the small things.

Otherwise, we relaxed in front of a beautiful sunset and raised (quite a few) beers to our successful journey across the island.

Fortunately, the airports opened up and our flight was on time. PHEW! We headed back to Labuan Bajo for one more night, before yet another flight on to the island of Lombok, where we would spend the remaining days of our travels.

We were prepared for this to have been our final adventure of the trip; Lombok to be just a relaxing couple of weeks sitting in beach bars and eating avocado on toast. HOWEVER, we still had some fight in us yet…. more on that next time, for the final edition of So Long London… for now.