Bajawa, Flores

We'd spent the previous evening utilising limited internet to research accommodation and attractions at our next stop heading back east, the town of Bajawa.  This was, frankly, less than fruitful, but we had managed to have far better results with face to face communications; we had a semi-private minibus fully booked to pick us up and take us directly there!

We had just enough time to pack and eat before our driver bounded in to greet us!  I forgot his name as soon as he'd told us, both Bex and I were, instead, preoccupied with gauging the effect on depth perception, and therefore the ability to safely drive the hazardous mountain roads with a single working eye...

Unfazed(?), we loaded our bags on board and jumped in.  We spent 30mins picking up various packages around town and also another three passengers, and then we were finally off, journey time estimated at 4-5 hours.

Our driver spent a scary amount of time using his one good eye to operate his MP3 player, loading up one odd and horrific track after another... Well to our ears anyway.  A cheery rotund lady helping Bex with her Indonesian, would break out into tune quite often, the fella day behind me knew, and happily sang along with every track!!

An hour in and all was going swimmingly, that is, of course when the bus shuddered to a halt.  Just overheating was the diagnosis, so we waited 10mins for it to cool down and set off again.  An hour after that, the same again.  A dread fear set in at this point, but amazingly the bus didn't falter again, the other 3 passengers were dropped at various points, packages were collected and dropped regularly and soon Bajawa was upon us.

The driver dropped us at our hotel, "Jonny's" (chosen at random en route), we grabbed lunch and resolved to grab a scooter and for a trip out and about before dinner.  Obviously, as we had previously learned, this was a little optimistic and, after visiting pretty much every hotel in town, the best we could muster was collecting an automatic model from the other side of town the next morning.

This process took a fair few hours and most of the afternoon was gone anyway.  Dinner was much the same, and equally as excellent, as lunch.  We visited what we would from then on refer to as "proper" warungs; true open house restaurants, where the food is cooked in the morning and customers come and go any time of day, usually alone, as is the normal Indonesian way of life.  Upon entry we would get a few odd looks, but once Bex pulled out a bit of basic and broken Indonesian, they would smile broadly, correct our pronunciations and make us extremely welcome.

We had the internet but, in regards to central Flores, this wasn't much use for travel research, luckily, for the rare occurrence when tourists might pass through, the hotel had a (very) roughly drawn map with local sights marked out, even journey times too!!  Thus it was we trotted off early next morning, grabbed our granny scooter and cruised out for a day of adventure.

The scooter proffered for this task was a lot newer and nicer than any we had ridden previously, a shame it was then (and rather guiltily later) that the first trip we took it on turned out to be up a mountain.  Off road.

The destination was a crater lake north of Bajawa, the route, we were assured traversable by scooter.  Once we had passed through a small village, it became little more than a walking track which headed up hill steeply.  We soon came to sections I'd tackle alone while Bex followed on foot.  After grounding it twice and hilariously (apparently) pretty much crashing it into a ditch, we gave up on the scooter, heading ever upwards on foot.

We were soon rewarded with a completed summit, which we had not envisaged, and an entirely dry and empty crater lake... oh well, the views of the mountain range and back over to Bajawa weren't a bad substitute, and there was still plenty to see, it's was only 10am!

Slightly mental locals met along the way...

Dried up lake. "epic"

We fought the scooter back down to the roads and headed on to our second destination, some epic 30m falls to the west.  After a few wrong turns we eventually reached destination, and disappointment, number two of the day.  Both online and in person the directions had stated "next to the new hydro electric plant", neither happened to mention "ALL water from the falls diverted to the hydro electric plant".  Mega sigh.

Roadside rest time; never a dull view in Flores!

We mounted up again and headed to the final destination with our hopes flagging a little.  It was a fairly long journey through the mountains south, dropping deep into the shadow of a colossal volcano, then finally arriving at the traditional village of Bena.

There are a few traditional villages scattered about and this was rumoured to be the best, I visited no others but it was pretty spectacular!  Nestled on a huge outcrop, overseeing the grandest of valleys and still within the shadow of the aforementioned volcano, the site itself took some beating, the views from the chapel at its furthest reach are some of the finest, and most breathtaking, I've yet encountered.

The village itself should not be dismissed either.  The traditional villages are not tourist attractions, maintained for financial gain, they are true examples of Indonesian history and culture, who's people willingly and lovingly continue about their ancient ways to preserve that heritage.  Tourism will, I'm sure, eventually pollute this.  A couple of shops have already sprung up at the front of the village, and we were skeptical of both the recipient of, and need for a donation box for the working, self sufficient village... Nevertheless, it was both an interesting and visually stunning location which easily remedied the day's disappointments!