Tag Archives: Baucau

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.

Day 80 – Back on the roa-wooha-d

The road was still good and lorries just honk politely to let you know that they are passing

The road was still good and lorries just honk politely to let you know that they are passing

This is it, I think this is what we came for. Everything is packed, devices charged, breakfast had, and we are back on the road. Still feels right, though as always it took me a moment to fully come to grips with how heavy this behemoth that is us in travel model really is.

Dili was crossed without incident and we left familiar roads on the eastern beach to climb up and across the hill to come down on the other side and the beach road. The potholes don’t hide for long, but on this section they are mere backbreakers anyway (compared to the “rip your panniers off”-craters in the road after Baucau). Better still, traffic is calm and everyone from motorcycle to lorry driver is relaxed and respectful.

We were taking it very slow: to get a feel for the road, to acclimatise and to look out for whatever wonder may lay on the road side. Thus, we made it to Baucau by 12:30, in time for lunch. We went to a Portuguese restaurant recommended by Joris. The food was good if not maybe a bit uptown for us.

When we came back from lunch Rocinante had company. They were all sitting politely next to the bike but the seat was covered in tiny barefoot footprints that are not Flo's...

When we came back from lunch Rocinante had company. They were all sitting politely next to the bike but the seat was covered in tiny barefoot footprints that are not Flo’s…

The restaurant was down from the road a bit on a terrace overlooking the school below. As we came back, a little group of boys was hard at work inspecting our bike. One of them was frantically trying to remove dusty footprints from the seat with a comically small tissue 🙂

This should become a theme though. The bike with the two of us on it is about as inconspicuous as an ice cream truck playing heavy metal. Shouts of “malae” and “mister, mister” plus a hundred things unrecognised follow our every footstep. Wherever we stop, the bike is like a magnet sucking in everyone within 10m. It turns out the world map is a great conversation starter.

View from "our" mansion onto the mountains

View from “our” mansion onto the mountains

The road further east was substantially worse, but still manageable. Sometimes whole sections were missing or had potholes the size of cars. So 60km/h is the absolute maximum, because at any moment there could be a 10 cm drop in the tarmac. My brand new rear tyre has so much thread left that it touched the crossbar of the luggage rack a couple of time in particularly deep drops.

We pushed on through many villages and ended up at the “end of the road” in Tutuala, 8km from our final destination in the east, Jaco Island. I would not dare to try the road from the plateau to the beach fully loaded and tired after hearing many horror stories about it. Thus, we ended up in the colonial mansion turned hotel on top of the village. It is a little above our price range, but it is the only option up here it seems. At least we have power, reception and a shower. Oh, and marvellous views over the town and the east to west seaside cliffs.