Labuan Bajo, Flores - Scooter adventures!!!!

We quickly researched as much as we possibly could about Flores:

- We would not be able to hire a car; the option just does not exist
- Private cars and drivers replace the above in Flores and will cost a LOT
- Buses would be very slow but were cheap and available via many towns
- There were a couple of airports over to the Eastern end of the island
- Finding your own way around on a scooter (short distances around towns) would be the only cheap option for getting out and about.

We thought it best to head further afield and then head back instead of heading further east and potentially getting stranded, so here was the plan:

We booked a flight to Ende in the east and would then use the local buses to travel from town to town until we were back to Labuan Bajo in time for a flight back to Bali at the end.  Perfect.

After booking these flights we had one more full day left in Labuan Bajo, plenty to do near by and absolutely no experience of riding scooters between us.  Not even as passengers...

So, the day we handed over a discounted hire fee (due to only having a single wing mirror and no lights), filled out barely any paperwork and asked the man politely to show us how every part of the scooter might work.

That done, Bex and I warily climbed aboard and we jolted very vigorously into action, Bex holding onto me for dear life as we very gingerly and slowly rode out of town and on to the "Flores highway"...

It was taking a while for me to get the hang of the machine.  I'd recount how slow we were going but it turned out the speedo didn't function either.  I was just getting up to speed when we found out more about the Flores highway.

First up, roadworks, the "re-laying the entire road surface" kind.  This is very common place on the highway apparently.  Slow down, take it easy and you'll pass through in no time.  Back on course.

Second, single carriageway. Ok, so not the end of the world, the road is actually very quiet by English standards.  I soon got used to all the other scooter and occasional car traffic passing us (we were passing no one ourselves at this point).

The third thing we learnt was probably the biggest challenge; Flores is a huge volcanic mountain range.  Ok, so I had actually learnt that in my research, but it hadn't occurred to me what that would mean in regards to the roads... I'd read "Flores highway" and just thought, "nice and simple".

Both the scooter and I were soon struggling up endless switchbacks and utterly blind bends, the dockside (and sea level) a distant memory.  This fully explained the proposed outrageously long bus journeys.  It was like "Worlds most dangerous roads"... But two-up on a broken scooter.  Bex was surprisingly relaxed and reassuring, clearly the safety dad approach I was erring towards was the way to go.  Well for the most part it was anyway...

Our proposed destination for the day was a huge volcanic crater lake.  After (literally) summiting a couple of mountains on the scooter we checked the watch and GPS and realised we probably couldn't make it out and back before dusk... You'll recall we had no lights, balls.

We quickly readjusted our destination to a waterfall which should also be worth seeing.  This was actually back a distance from where we had already traveled too and then off quite a long looking side road.  Turns out it was quite long.  Also, it was mentally steep, rocky and generally not where you'd take anything aside from a 4x4 or dirt bike.

I was warming to the challenges by now and we made out down to a nearby village without incident.  From here it was a race against time.  A local guide rushed us through the forests to the falls we took a look around and before you knew it we were heading back to the village, up the mental track and onto the highway.

By now I was getting well accustomed to the scooter and we rocked up back to the hire place in half the time we had estimated.  Safety dad was soon getting berated for not allowing more time to enjoy the falls as it appeared there was probably a fair few hours of light left, oops.  No loss, the day's travel had been a great adventure in itself, I'd got to grips with the scooter (without incident!) and I'd already fallen in love with some of the epic landscapes that made up Flores!