Our time on Lombok is over and we are in Bali. Once again, of course, we crossed over on a ferry and stayed in the first town before traveling on to Denpasar in a few days. From there, our flight to Australia, more precisely to Darwin, departs on November 6. The next big stage.
We have recovered, become more relaxed and are now sitting in Padang Bai. A small town that serves as a transfer point for the streams of tourists heading to and from the islands. During the day, there is a lot of hustle and bustle. Especially on arrival. Then when nobody knows exactly what to do next and every cab driver tries to pick up a tourist.
We dawdle around, stroll to the beach, meet a few other tourists there, exchange our travel plans, arrange to meet for dinner and everyone goes their separate ways again. We sit on the beach and stare at the sea, take a walk or two and then sit on the beach again and stare at the sea again. A bit of swimming and more food. I think they call it a HOLIDAY.
But of course I also want to see a bit more of Bali, so we rent a scooter again. We spend 2 days driving around the island again. It’s impossible not to see rice fields and the odd rice terrace, but above all we drive through small villages, stop here and there for breakfast or a coffee, enjoy the views, but are also a little shocked by the extreme dryness in places.
These are probably the most relaxed days we’ve ever had on this trip. No destination, no highlight, no temple, just letting everything pass us by.
And of course, we avoided to see the most popular spots like Kuta, the Ballermann of Bali, like people say. About why you should not come to Bali, you can find some informations here. We only had this small stopover and it was a perfect time.
Just two more days before we leave for Australia
We have now arrived in Denpasar, the bicycles are in the bike store being cleaned and packed for the flight to Australia and we are also getting ready.
We will stay with a small Warmshowers family for the first few days and get the things we need for our onward journey to Brisbane. 3500km lie ahead of us.
I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t already worrying about what’s in store for us. We won’t have any more great little food stalls. We’ll have to stock up on food and water for several days at a time for large parts of the route. Will it be so lonely that it might hurt? I will definitely miss the smiles. The smile that has been with us for 10 months. The constant questions about whether we need help, the dinner invitations, the selfie requests. All of that will probably be gone in an instant, right?
The stores will be filled again with pretty much everything we can imagine and more. And it will be expensive. A 1.5-liter bottle of water should cost around EUR 1.50. Oh dear.
But you can probably drink the water from the tap again, right?
If our plans work out, we should arrive on the east coast of Australia, in Brisbane, in December. We have found a Rohloff specialist there who is already waiting for us.Before we continue, he will check them for us and maybe Klaus will finally get his new front wheel (rim), which is a bit bent since the accident in the Emirates. I’m happy, excited and tingling: a whole new chapter of our journey is about to begin.
But before we leave, we took a little look at the famous Kuta on Bali after all and of course it has some funny surprises. We took a short trip there. Interesting. Very interesting. Maybe not for us, but looks like to be an area with clear priorities 🙂
Bali somehow went by far too quickly, but we were also ready for a new chapter to begin: Australia.
