From Maumere on the island of Flores Indonesia, it was a ride to Larantuka at the far east end of the island. Then the last of my Indonesian island hopping ferries to Kupang - at the west (Indonesian) end of the island of Timor, a ride to the last border crossing and my final country before home. Timor Leste and Dili. From Dili a plane trip to Darwin my current location.
Just East of Maumere there is a stretch of beach with a few lots of cabins - lovely
Weighing the bags - they are always packed the same
I had been told by a couple of motor cycle tourers "there are some serious hills near Larantuka", but what constitutes a serious hill to someone on a BMW need not be on a bicycle. There were hills, not steep but with lots of bends. (which probably gives a motorcyclist the feeling of "serious hills") A windy road usually means the road wont be so steep. It's going straight up a hill that's a problem on a bicycle. Of course this was a pleasant surprise, although many locals had told me the road was nowhere near as hilly as the stuff I'd just done. Maumere wasn't as large as I had expected, so instead of staying an extra day there I rode just 30km up the road to some beach side cabins and spent my 2nd Maumere day there at the cabins. In fact, the cabin place was so nice that I spent 2 nights there. As I had budgeted 2 days to ride from Maumere to Larantuka (but now found it was less km than expected and could be ridden in 1 day) I decided to stay 2 nights at the cabins. I'd then still have time to spend a day exploring Larantuka before the twice a week ferry would whisk me away to Timor.
In Larantuka I made a couple of good contacts, one a guy that had worked on the Stuart Highway in Central Australia when it was being widened, and now running a cafe in Larantuka. He was able to give me information about the road that as yet didn't have.
The approach to Larantuka
The ferry from Larantuka to Kupang
The other contact was Francis, a Director of a local NGO in Kupang, who just happened to be in the same hotel in Larantuka. The NGO "Increase" has a training centre in Kupang complete with accommodation. I was offered free accommodation in Kupang on the condition that I talk to the staff in English! (Now that cant be too hard can it). As is the case everywhere I travelled, people learning English are short of other English speakers to practice conversation with. In fact it was a little harder than I thought, as I had become very accustomed to using selected Bahasa words and I tended to keep using them instead of using straight English.
My host in Kupang and his family. Francis is from a local NGO and invited me to stay at their training centre in Kupang
Sculptures outside the city offices in Atambua Indonesia near the East Timor border
I stayed a few days in Kupang then headed east toward Atambua. I found a very nice description of the Kupang to Dili bike ride on the web by a guy named macamat. When I looked a bit further I realised that Matthew McDonald, the author, was in fact from Melbourne, and was still on the road heading to Melbourne from Adelaide - just a bit ahead of me. The roads across West & East Timor were generally pretty good, they had a few very nasty steep bits but not long ones, they had there share of rough rocky bits too but no more than the other islands. In short, easier than Flores. The worst section of road would be the section from the "border town" of Atambua in Indonesian Timor to the actual border - a distance of some 30 to 40 km. On some of the really steep bits, there are corrugations in the bitumen road, and because you are using brakes quite heavily the back wheel locks up as it bounces over each corrugation. I used by brakes more, and harder, in Indonesia than any other country. (The other hilly countries generally had wider and smoother roads and you could puff out the chest and arms to catch a bit of wind and cruise down the hills with minimal braking.)
The border crossing from Indonesia to Timor Leste was a pretty easy crossing, you just have to wait a bit on the Indonesian side for them to open the Immigration office in the morning. On my morning they decided to open about 9:30am. Across the border in Timor Leste the road flattens right out for quite a distance, then gives you some really nasty short steep bits for about 10km then again flattens out for the coastal trip to Dili. As you fall then re-climb these nasty steep bits you find yourself wondering "what was in the heads of the road builders when the laid out this bit of road".
Volleyball at Atambua - almost anything goes - you can also kick or head the ball, as long as it goes over the net
The road from Atambua to the border post, very steep in places and rough
Riding into Dili the same night that I crossed the border I found myself using US Dollars for something other than FOREX. In Cambodia USD was common, but they also had their own currency. In East Timor the currency "is" US Dollars. (they do have their own coins though 5,10, 25 & 50 cents). Like in Cambodia, often things will cost "One Dollar" when really they shouldn't, they're just one dollar because it is easy for the seller.
Once across the border to Timor Leste, just about all vehicles on the road become new 4WD's with an emblem of some sort on the front doors. If it's not big "UN" letters it's one of the countless international aid agencies, foreign government supported organisations or NGO's. In Dili there's a few more other vehicles, taxi's and the like, but in the countryside, it's either a big new 4WD, or a small bus.
Eating in Dili you can do one of two things. There are a heap of restaurants around town catering for the huge numbers of foreigners. By home standards the food is still reasonably priced or cheap, but by local standards, or in comparison to the Indonesian side of the border, they are rip off places (so I avoided them). You don't find places catering to locals at local prices in town, to find them you need to head a few km out on the main road toward Atambua (near the Australian Embassy). Here there are many lining both sides of the road. Being on a bike makes it very easy to get to and eat at these places and pay what was very close to the cheap Indonesian prices. (and cheaper than the comparatively expense Indonesian prices on Flores). Of course it means that you continue to eat the same type of meals based on noodles and rice. If you were to eat in town at the places catering to the foreigners, you'd generally be eating, Indian, Italian, Japanese, or similar.
Timor Leste - the approach to Dili from the Indonesian Border.
The Government Palace, Dili
A refugee camp by the Dili waterfront being packed up - the residents gone back to home villages
One of the many remnants of wrecked buildings around the city of Dili
Dili, for me was largely a cleaning stop. I saw the local sights, the big Jesus, the waterfront, the Xanana Gusmao reading room etc, but my main concern was to get all my camping gear, bike and bags clean enough to pass an AQIS (Quarantine) inspection at Darwin airport. I had hoped to get a boat of some description to Australia, but with only one freight company that wont take passengers on their ships, it wasn't going to be easy. There was a flight out with spare seats a few days after I arrived, then 3 weeks of totally booked out flights, so the decision to fly and when to fly became easy - It would be the 26th June.
Dismantling the bike and packing - for the last time
With the bags and contents cleaned, the bike cleaned, dismantled and packed into a bike box - from the local Dili bike shop. I headed to the airport with my 40kg of luggage and 13kg baggage allowance, wondering just how much I'd be stung for excess baggage. The answer would turn out to be zero. I'm not sure just how. They weighed the bike and checked-in bag separately, the bike box (with a few extra items inside) weighed 23kg, the checked-in bag I'm not sure, but would have been around 10 to 12kg. Then there was my "way-too-big for the testing frame" hand luggage making up the difference. All I can say is a big thankyou. The $380USD air fare turned out to be $148USD using the cheapest of the discount fares offered on that particular day on the Air North On-Line Booking Website . (I never saw that price offered on other days). So I wasn't so upset about having to fly.
Even the arrival into Aus went well with the Quarantine inspector being very happy with my diligent & thorough cleaning of everything I had. He looked in one of the bags, looked into the opened bike box, checked a wooden Indonesian carving I was carrying and allowed me through.
Darwin Airport Arrivals, The Larrakia people welcome you to Darwin.
Down by the sea in town
It wasn't until getting out of the airport in Darwin that things started to go wrong. Only 1km out of the airport I had a flat rear tyre, then, when I got to town, I found that Darwin in peak tourist season (now) is impossible for finding accommodation. It's even worse if they put on AFL and V8 Supercars which they are doing over this weekend and next. If you didn't book months in advance you don't have a bed. After doing the full length of Mitchell St (lined with backpacker accommodation) and finding no vacancy anywhere I hopped back on the bike and headed back out of town, down the Stuart Highway to a caravan park. At the caravan park - same story. "Room for a one man tent?" "NO!" With this, it seemed like I would be pitching by the side of the road somewhere, but with all the gear crammed into only two instead of four pannier bags and nothing in its normal place, I knew pitching camp in the dark would be very hard. "where was the...packed..." "...was that in the checked-in bag or the hand luggage...", and buried how far under other items. I stopped in a Petrol Station to use their well lit forecourt to empty out the bags and re-arrange everything back to it's "allocated" position. Then back onto the road. I gave one more caravan park a try and, yes, for $27 I could use a tiny patch of their grass for the few hours before check out time the next morning.
The next day I managed to get a one-night-only vacancy in a dorm bed in a hotel in central Darwin. Exactly when I'll hit the road again I'm not sure, I'd like to hang around for a few more days, we'll see.
From here it's a long road south and hopefully the wind will be kind (unlikely this time of the year with the prevailing winds from the south east - but the worst should have passed)
Wish me luck...
Jeff.
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