Tag Archives: All Blacks

Day 82 – Back to Dili for…RUGBY

We got up and had more bananas for breakfast. Packing was tough because Flo was so sun burnt and also many school kids passed us and they all wanted to talk.

A beach just out of Com.

A beach just out of Com.

We were quite glad to be back on the road. The scenery was still incredibly pretty, driving along the water front. In the beginning, we took our time taking some pictures of the livestock around us. Every animal seems to be a smaller version here. The pigs are quite small and the brown cows are comparatively tiny. They look more like deer than cows in some cases.

At 10.30am, we stopped at a roadside food vendor. Most of these tiny stalls sell rice soaked in coconut milk wrapped in banana leaves with a grilled fish of the day. Flo felt it was still too early for grilled fish, thus we had the rice on its own. It is quite tasty. While having our food, the lady’s kids had a look (and a touch) of our bike again while a little pig cleaned the ground underneath our table in case we’d dropped anything.

Spring fed pool, looks a bit out of place.

Spring fed pool, looks a bit out of place.

Around lunch time, we were back in Baucau. This time, we didn’t have the money to go to a restaurant so we had another banana break and a look around. The pool, which was empty when we had passed it on Thursday, was filled now and in good use. With our sun burn, we weren’t tempted in the slightest to join them…

The trip from Baucau to Dili is estimated to take another 3 hours. At another roadside eatery, Flo got his grilled fish in the end. 🙂

In one of the nooks of a hillside, there is a blessed spring. Not due to the blessedness but due to the water, the surroundings are very green and sheltered so a village with shops to both sides of the road has sprung up. This is a feat in and of itself as the road was built right on the edge so that half the houses have to be on stilts to reach the same level as the road. This village is quite busy during the day as overland city to city buses, mikrolets and tourists stop for a refreshment. I managed to buy chocolate cookies for 50c which compensated for Flo’s grilled fish.

Green only where there are springs. The road is below.

Green only where there are springs. The road is below.

The last bit of the road back to Dili was in excellent condition as it was just finished. It kept confusing our GPS which told us to turn around and go back to the road a couple of times because it didn’t know that this road existed.

Back in Dili we had a nap (longish) to prepare ourselves (or rather me) for the rugby game at midnight. The kiwi volunteers have a place in town where they go to watch the rugby world cup and we planned to go as well. After a late and yummy dinner at 9pm, I had another hour of sleep before Herman picked us up again, half an hour before the kick off.

The spirits were high as there were many more All Blacks supporters than Springbok ones. The game itself was way too close for my taste and I nearly suffered a heart attack a couple of times. BUT the All Blacks made it into the final now.