We arrived safely at Tanto Hotel, checked in and settled into our room.
We walked to the left of the hotel to the Sacca Reto and had lunch. Nice!
Back at the hotel we tried to sort out plane tickets. To cut a long frustrating 4 hours story shorter, we were successful. Next was easy – grandkumala in Bali and airport pick up by Nyoman.
We had a walk to the supermarket and stocked up on supplies for Tarimbang and had a coffee in a cafe just outside the market.
16 AUGUST
I had the worse sleep. I wasn’t feeling well with a very sore throat and a bit of a temperature the night before. The traffic was noisy, the room next door was noisy to midnight and the mosque called to prayer at about 4:30 am and then I didn’t get back to sleep so I was a bit of a mess.
We arrived at Kelala two hours
after leaving Waingapu. It was interesting drive – a good road, traditional
houses, a couple of towns and a multitude of school kids. The vegetation was
abundant in a sparse sort of way and in a number of places there were rice
fields flowing and glowing green.
At Kelala, we were greeted
by Sri, Johanna’s daughter and the only other guest, Chris from Australia.
We
eventually settled into our room after lunch and then Chris and I went for a
surf. The waves were right handers next the new and already abandoned pier. The
waves were good fun but the current tended to draw you into the pier.. This was
a bit of a worry but was easily avoided with constant paddling.
At dinner which was late
Jacinta and I had a few beers while we chatted we Chris and Sri. Chris had done
a lot of travelling spending years in various places around the world. Sri is
half Australian and half Sumbanese. She has been to university and achieved an
Engineering degree. Presently, she was helping out her mother run the resort.
Yohanna’s husband David died a few years ago.
There is a price to pay
for the bride in Sumba similar to a dowry. This involves items such as
chickens, cows, water buffaloes, etc. Sri's price was one hundred water buffalo.
That’s a lot of money in Sumba terms. The price was high as Johanna’s father
was a king and therefore she was a princess and so Sri was also of royal blood
with her grandfather being the king in their area.
10 AUGUST
I woke early and had a
walk along the beach and out along the pier. The sunrise was pretty and the
waves were looking promising.
We had breakfast and Chris
left for Waingapu and then Bali.
I went for a surf while
Jacinta baked on the beach. The waves weren’t as good – some good ones but the
sets were bigger and closing out so all in all I did a lot of paddling.
Near sunset Jacinta and I
had a long walk along the beach to the east. The beach was empty except for a
lone local and a couple of dogs and a pig. The sun setting over the distant
mountain range was pretty.
At dinner we met Rodney,
who is Yoyanna’s sister's husband. They live further down the beach. An
interesting fellow who now has Indonesian citizenship. He runs a number of
businesses especially in bamboo furniture.
11 AUGUST
An early morning walk to
the pier to check out the waves. The tide was high and the few waves were
breaking close to the pier. The other side of the pier had soft looking waves.
We had breakfast and then
I had a surf on the left. Some waves that were about a metre were good on the takeoff
over the reef but sort of edged along after that. Nice wall but too small to do
such more than glide across. Still, I was the only one surfing and I had fun.
Yohanna showed us her ikat
weavings and other art works which belong to her family. We talked about modern
and old ikat. The difference was the use of natural dyes verses modern cotton.
Yohanna went to a wedding
party and Sri cooked dinner which was spaghetti and meat sauce and spicy fried
chicken. It was very tasty. Jacinta and I had a few beers and Sri showed us
photos of her family and herself. A nice evening.
12 AUGUST
A warm night’s sleep.
I walked down to the pier
and had a urgent need to go to the toilet. Once satisfied and I walked over the
pier to the beach on the other side. Once there I had an even greater urge to go to
the toilet. After an explosive performance I felt deeply satisfied and wandered
over to the discarded pier-building barge. The barge was left on the sand to
rust when the pier was completed.
A man with a number of
large plastic bottles walked down the beach and onto the barge. Once on top he
lowered each plastic bottle by rope inside the hull. On closer inspection, I
realized he was gathering water that had deposited inside the hull after the
brief rain from the night before. Needless to say, I didn’t think that the
water would be safe to drink as the hull was heavily rusted.
Walking back along the
beach to Kelala, the wind had increased and large grass seeds were rolling
along the beach at breakneck speeds.
The rest of the day was
taking it easy.
Near sunset we sat on the
beach and watched the sun set over the mountains. The sea was calm. The water
reflected the light of the sinking sun in a blinding cascade of twinkling
luminosity. All was good in the world! J
Dinner was fish, rice and
vegetatbles. The fish was so tasty.
We had a few beers and
chatted with Yohanna. Manis the dog was missing and a seach mission was quickly
carried out by all thee staff. Manis had just give birth to a litter of puppies
about a week ago and tonight they were whimpering as they were hungry. Manis
was not found but in the morning she was back with her puppies. It was
suspected that Manis had gone off looking for boy dogs. When questioned at
breakfast about where she had been, she looked away guiltily.
13 AUGUST
A pleasant sleep.
After breakfast we hired a
motorbike for Yohanna for the day. Jacinta wasn’t feeling well so we drove to
the west to see the far end of the beach and a few villages.
The road (track) out of
Kelala was covered in obstacles – deep sand ruts, sharp bumpy rocks and deeply
gouged potholes – heaps of fun. We navigated the maze of tracks that lead here,
there and nowhere and reached the main sealed road Jalan Waingapu.
Along the road we passed
people, houses both plain and traditional, schoolkids (technically people J), large concrete and
decorative graves, dogs lying over the road with no fear of death, Brahmin cows
and massive pigs with their tiny piglets. The latter were the most dangerous as
they just walked across the road with little concern for the possibility of
traffic.
We stopped at the far end
of the beach in an area that was neatly arranged with covered decking for
seating in the shade and garbage bins. In the shallow water,the women were gathering seaweed which they
threw into very large wicker baskets that floated on the water. These were
towed to shore when they finished and spread over the ‘grassed’ area to dry in
the sun. I chatted with a two guys who told me that it was used for food.
We continued until the
road ended and became a steep, washed out and deeply rutted road. We drove part
of the way but we soon turned back.
We took a few turn offs along sealed and dirt roads. They lead through villages and pass heaps of
schools which were filled with heaps of kids. We briefly chatted with a few
people along the way. ‘Hi, where are you going, where are you from’ were the
main topics of our limited discussions.
Back at Kelala we had a
mandi shower to cool down and wash the dust off.
The rest of the day was
resting.
At dinner with had our
nightly chats with Sri and Yohanna. I told them that we met a man today who had
one arm and was riding a motorcycle. They told us that the man’s arm was bitten
off by a crocodile while snorkeling in the night for fish at the river mouth
near the far end of the beach. The stories continued with numerous crocodile
attacks at the large river at nearby Baing but all these other people were 'only' bitten.
A few years ago, a tourist while
snorkelling at Kelala had an encounter with a crocodile who took the fish that
he had speared with his spear gun.
The stories switched to
sharks. Sri said that many years ago a tourist was attacked by a shark at
Tarimbang while surfing and was air lifted to Bali for treatment.
After that it was pleasant
dreams ... maybe.
14 AUGUST
We took the motorbike
towards the east and the north today.
It wasn’t much fun on the
main road as there was large sections where they were improving the road so it
wasn’t very scenic.
We took a turn off along a
dirt road to a beach. The beach was a break in the reef and it also had a wide
sandy estuary that looked very much like crocodile territory. I walked around
the area but saw no crocodile tracks.
Another long dirt road
turn off took us nowhere and after about twenty minutes we turned around. On
the way back we took a smaller turnoff and ended up in a village compound. It
looked like no one was home.
Having enough of road
works we turned back towards Kelala. On the way, a man stopped us and pointed
out that the bike stand was still down. We stopped at a small shop and he
filled the bike with benezine and Jacinta and I had a cold drink. We chatted
with a few of the locals there. Friendly place.
We took one more turn off
that lead to a highly eroded dirt road. We turned back at that point as we had
had enough dust for one day. Along the way, we saw a man in traditional Sumba
garb.
Back at Kelala we rested
and towards sunset there was a slight increased in the wave size so I had a
surf beside the pier.
At dinner we chatted and
made arrangements for transport tomorrow to Waingapu.
15 AUGUST
We woke and I checked the
small again waves. The morning looked so pretty!
We said our goodbyes to
Yohanna who had to leave for work at 7am. We rubbed noses the Sabah-style.
After breakfast we packed,
paid our bill and were off to Waingapu. Sri joined us as she was going to the
market.
Yohanna was from Sabah and
they greet and say goodbye by rubbing noses quickly.
We stayed at Waingapu three times during our Sumba trip. Car travelling tended to be better than the truck/buses but it was still tiring because of the roads and the time it took between destinations.
8 AUGUST
We arrived in Waingapu from Tarinbang two
hours later. Marthen drove a little wildly and the roads were narrow and windy
but we made it safe and sound after dropping Peter off at the domestic airport.
We settled into a nice
clean room at the Tanto Hotel and spent the afternoon catching up on internet
and messenger.
When it cooled down we
wandered into the town and found a supermarket where we bought up on supplies
for Kelala.
We had dinner then an
aircon sleep.
9 AUGUST
I woke early and caught up
with some internet. When Jacinta awoke we had breakfast – Indonesian style and
packed our gear for Kelala, the next leg of our journey.
We still had a bit of time
before leaving so I went for a walk through town to find Venny’s Bakery. It was
a cool walk – saying hello to a few people, checking out the churches and
buildings and having a longer conversation with an Indonesian man who had hair
the same colour as mine.
Back at the hotel, We did
our final pack and boarded our car for Kelala.
We arrived at the Domestic
Airport in Bali for our Flight to Waingapu in Sumba with Nam Air.Our first problem was at check in as we had an
excess in baggage of 13 kgs. I emailed a couple of months ago and the rate for excess
was 36 000R per kg but it had changed to 100 000R per kilogram. Our excess was
now $130 instead of about $45. Next problem was at the final security where
they wouldn’t let me take my gopro stick through so I had to go back to the
check in counter and get my luggage back and put it inside my bags. A bit of a
disaster but lessons were learnt.
The flight to Sumba was
okay and soon we touched down at Waingapu Airport.
Cindy, Marten’s wife was at
the airport and soon we were off to Tarimbang. We did a stop for a large bottle
of water, the supermarket and a takeaway lunch. The drive took three hours.
Most of the road was good but parts of it were massively potholed.
Next problem, the room we
asked for was not the room they had but they still wanted a high price. Very soon
though, Marten dropped the price so that we were both reasonably happy.
The room was basic with a
reasonably sized verandah, two chairs and a table. The inside had a good bed on
a wooden floor with a good mosquito net. The room itself was a bit small for
two people. The back door led to the bathroom which was outdoors but surrounded
by a high stone wall. Overall it was fine.
We wandered down to the
beach. The path to the beach was about 15/20 minutes walking past houses surrounded
by bare earth and jungle. The beach was beautiful! It was a long white sand
beach in a crescent shape with cliff headlands at each end jutting out to sea.
We sat on the beach taking
in the view and enjoying the cool sea breeze.
A local family soon joined
us on the beach and we had a chat and photo session.
Our first dinner was great
with good and tasty food. We met the other guests Peter (owner of the best
room), Ian from NZ and father and son, Stefan and Bram. Nice people.
2 AUGUST
A very cold night’s sleep.
It was so cold Jacinta put on thermals. No joke!
An early morning surf
before the wind increase. The waves were small and it was hard to get any power
out of them. I surfed until the tide became too high.
About the waves – it was
about a 15/20 minute walk to the beach followed by a 20/25 paddle out to the
waves. Very long and hard. Fortunately, the low tide was in the morning which
was when the waves are best.
After breakfast, we had a
walk down to the beach and tried to find a semi shade spot to sit on the beach.
It was nice and we had a swim.
Back at Marten’s we had
lunch and then I had a long sleep.
Later in the afternoon
when the heat started to cool down, we went for a walk around the village. We
wondered how people made a living as we chatted with them along the way.
Dinner, read and off to
bed.
3 AUGUST
A better sleep as it
wasn’t cold.
I woke and went for a
surf. The waves had increased in size to over head solid waves. There were 6 of
us out. I had a fun time catching a couple of sets and some very fast inside
smaller waves. After an hour I caught my final wave and then the long paddle
back to shore.
Back at Marten’s we had
breakfast and wandered over to the local market and down to the beach. The
market was a very threadbare affair with limited root-type food and poor
quality clothing. The beach was a nice sit in the sun with bigger waves on the
beach and an increasing wind. There were two groups of Sumbanese enjoying the
beach as well.
Back at the ranch, we
showered, rested and had a snack of cheese, apple and crackers.
After the wind decreased
we had a walk along the beach. It was pretty and the temperature was cooler and
more enjoyable.
Dinner was a late affair
so we enjoyed two beers beforehand. New people arrived – Dannii, Justin and
Connor from California.
4 AUGUST
Another very cold night.
Up for a dawn surf. I used
the bigger board and I got on the waves easier and had a fun time. The waves
were about over head height. The inside waves were a bit of race at the start –
challenging.
I paddled in over the reef
as the water was just deep enough to do so. The water was so clear and the
coral so pretty. I walked along the beach and joined Jacinta in the sun.
Back for breakfast but
late.
Later, after lunch we
drove about twenty minutes for mobile reception as there is none in Tarimbang.
We couldn’t call through but we had some success with texts.
We walked down to the
beach when we got back until the sun disappeared over the hills.
Mike the American with a
house at Ketewe left today.
5 AUGUST
A morning surf. The waves
were a bit smaller and less frequent. but still good. I had plenty of fun
waves.
Back for breakfast then
down to the beach for a snorkel. The visibility was poor so it wasn’t a good snorkel.
The afternoon was reading,
relaxing.
We had a drinks with Peter
on his deck in the ‘luxury’ accommodation.
6 AUGUST
I was having a fun surf
and plenty of good waves avoiding the bigger waves. A boat arrived and
suddenly, the surf was crowded. Not so much fun so I went in. I joined Jacinta
on the beach.
Breakfast was porridge and
fruit – different and yum.
Late in the afternoon we
sat on the beach. Jacinta in the sun and me in the shade. A group of water buffalos
grazed pass us on the fringe of the beach.
Mark and Ivy arrived. Ivy
is from Taiwan.
We also met Nico from
France who had motorbiked from West Sumatra.
7 AUGUST
An early surf in good
waves. I surfed slightly inside and caught heaps of good waves. A fun session.
On the beach, Jacinta and
I sat in the sun and chatted with Stephan, Brandt and Peter.
Back for breakfast, lunch,
chats, beers and guitar on our verandah, dinner and sleep.
Two new people arrived Matt
and Simon from Bordeaux.
8 AUGUST
An early surf with just me
and Peter out. The waves were good though a little infrequent and the
atmosphere was serene.
Back at Marten’s, I was
feeling really good so Jacinta and I thought it was a good time to go. We made
transport arrangements, had breakfast, packed, paid our bill and off we went to
Waingau. Peter was also leaving as he a flight for Bali.
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