- Left – 7.45am
- 26th & 27th April 2015
- Miles rode – 232 (371km)
My intention was to ride the short distance today to Lampung Town which was 50km short of the port where I was going to get the boat to Java tomorrow. After 3 hours we stopped for breakfast / lunch and had completed 200km and it was only a short ride to my destination, so as with previous days I cracked on..
Whilst the road wasn’t a highway it was not a local road so we suffered traffic for the first time in Sumatra! Lorries, cars, motorbikes, diesel fumes and erratic driving combined to make an unpleasant and on occasions dangerous ride.
The scenery wasn’t as good as the mountains on previous days but there were many volcanoes on the horizon which looked magical.
With about 25km to the port I stopped and thought Lyndon had continued and would meet me at the port but unknown to me he had stopped just passed me and was waiting for me. He didn’t see me shoot past and waited. As I raced to the port trying catch Lyndon up and eager to get the boat to Java I had no idea he was behind me. As I approached the port I was looking everywhere to spot him so when I arrived at the ticket booth I assumed he would be inside. I paid the £2.50 for the ferry to Java (so cheap) and couldn’t see him! To cut a long story short we had lost each other and we ended up on different ferries!
The two hour ferry journey was great, there were a group of bikers from Jakarta on board and many other people who wanted to talk. I was invited onto ‘the bridge’ and spent time discussing travel with the captain.
By 5pm I had found a hotel and shortly after Lyndon arrived.
I thought I had done well with my choice of hotel, good wifi, swimming pool, secure bike parking and beer which I haven’t had for nearly a week (this is not because I’ve not wanted beer, it’s because it’s hard to find in Indonesia) until I got to the room and looked out of the window, there’s a mosque no more than a stones throw from the room!
No lay in again!
The following day I decided I needed a days rest but was woken by the ‘call to prayer’ and the train which whizzed by not 25 metres from the room. A lazy day catching on correspondence.
