Tag Archives: pool

Day 154 – Action time! (5th Month-i-versary)

Carrying your own paddle

Carrying your own paddle

Two more days in Thailand. When we realized this, we actually got our lazy bums to do some of the activities that are offered here. Klaus and Silvia had already been kayaking and recommended it. Flo was very keen and I was persuaded to actually do some physical activity.

Because of the tide, we started at 2pm which is right in the afternoon heat. Our group consisted of four two-men kayaks and a guide. So in the end, it was a proper tour.

From the Discovery Resort, we walked the 50m to the pier where we all hopped onto our kayaks. The tour would be 6km long and take about 2 1/2 hours. Despite my initial reluctance, I enjoyed it very much and Flo started teasing me about being way too keen to paddle. :p

Passing through there was very cool

Passing through there was very cool

We moved along the limestone coast for a bit before turning into a small passageway which lead us thorough channels into the mangroves. Here, we realized why the tide was important as some of the spots we went through were so shallow that we scrapped over the ground.

On the way back to the pier, one had to move back out into the open on a wide river which has the most beautiful backdrop. One of the other couples was nice enough to take some pictures of us and send them. 🙂

Arriving back at the resort, we hopped into the pool to cool off. Since we still had Klaus’ waterproof camera with us, you also get some pool pictures.

 

Day 113 – Jalan-Jalan

Jalan-jalan in bahasa indonesia means to walk or to go for a walk. In this case, to wander around without a concrete destination.

I had a terrible night due to being bitten by mosquitoes many, many times. Around 5am, I briefly considered to stay awake but managed some more sleep with episodes of startled awakening when I could hear the stupid things at my ear.

Breakfast made it better (Flo thinks I had a bad night because I was hangry) and we even got Balinese cake to try, courtesy of our lovely hosts. It was basically a small plate filled with sweet things including black rice pudding which many places offer.

Our first view of the caldera (including a bird)

Our first view of the caldera (including a bird)

We took our time this morning; Flo to get his credit card out of bank custody (YAY!) and I to catch up with the blog. Check out time was noon which enabled us to have a nice lazy start into the day. We then rode to Danau Batur which is a caldera lake. Basically, the landscape forms a crater with a 700meter “mountain” in the middle and a lake next to it on one side. It is supposedly a big tourist attraction, which is why I wasn’t especially keen to go. Flo continued by telling me about aggressive hawkers there and the monopoly one group has over tours up on the mountain…and I was more than sceptical after yesterday’s experience.

Already the road there was at least 10km of tourist shop next to tourist shop selling all the bric-a-bracs you could ever want. Or not.

My helmet also likes the view from the warung

My helmet also likes the view from the warung

Getting there, I had to revise my pre-made opinion: It is a beautiful spot. From up top on the rim of the caldera, you have a lovely view. Many restaurants line this street, all with the view as their main selling point. But we decided for a warung to save our wallets a bit. The lady in the warung was very nice, opening all the windows so we could enjoy the same view after all. Flo even instagram’d it…which is reserved for the most beautiful spots.

After lunch we decided to head down to the lake. The road led through an old lava flow field from 1969. The black rocks were pretty…the hawkers not so much. Reading that the hot springs “are the only ones in Bali with healing powers”, we finally turned around. Though not until Flo got pissy with a guy trying to sell us the hot springs or a bed for the night. Coming back up the road, Flo stopped for a couple of nice shots with Rocinante and the mountain; just to be swarmed before I could even take a single picture. They graciously gave us some space…but not enough that I could use my camera without zoom. *grin*

Nice windy road through lush forest. We even had a bit of rain

Nice windy road through lush forest. We even had a bit of rain

From here, the plan was to head to the north coast of Bali. It was a very nice afternoon for riding, almost a little too cool up in the mountains with heavy clouds above and through lush forest. Having had such a bad night, I was really tired so Flo looked for accommodation along our route. The closest one was about three kilometres from the main road through an impoverished looking village into a narrow driveway. We nearly missed it because the sign was so tiny. However, the name was “Villa Manuk” in the village of Manuksesa and Flo already told me to not get too excited as we might not be able to afford the “villa”. How right he was.

Testing the pool. Result: Well worth it!

Testing the pool. Result: Well worth it!

The villa turned out to be a three star hotel with only four rooms, all costing much more than we wanted to pay. But we got super lucky and were offered a room with 50% discount as it is low season and no customer was around. With the 50% discount, it was still the most expensive room yet but too good an offer to not take it. Flo had checked out the place and called it “a gem”.

That’s pretty much how it turned out to be. Once we accepted the offer, we were led to the dining area by the spring-fed pool without any chlorine in it to wait until staff had prepared our room. To make the wait less long, we got a complimentary welcome fruit juice while fresh flowers were cut for our porch. You’d think the service might be less awesome if you get a 50% discount but not here. We were pampered all the way around.

After dropping our luggage in our now ready room, we jumped into the pool. Staff rushed out to prepare two sun beds for us including two pool towels so we wouldn’t have to use our shower towels.

The location is great. From our room, as well as from the pool actually, you look out towards the mountains clad in rain forest. It only got prettier when the sun set.

 

 

Day 67 – Quiet days

With one of our hosts gone and Celia working like the most impressive worker bee, not much was going on in the house. Before disappearing for the rest of the day to work though, Celia managed to convince me to join in one more time for a walk through the mangrove to the beach. Nina was supremely captivated by her newest book that she passed on the opportunity.

CC-BY-SA 3.0 by Peter Ellis

CC-BY-SA 3.0 by Peter Ellis

The beach was again teaming with life, but to my astonishment, a whole different set of critters showed up this time around. Maybe it was about the different point in the tidal cycle or the progressing buildup towards the wet. Whatever it was, I thoroughly enjoyed watching thousands of soldier crabs give the beach these flecks of bluish purple. I even dared to join the others in exploring barefoot, after covering me head to tow with mud flung up from my jandals the last time around.

To get everything ready for the post office in the afternoon, I spend the afternoon copying. We took about 2500 photos in Australia, coming to roughly 64 GB of data (I want to keep the RAWs

Cooling down every once in a while

Cooling down every once in a while

for later use). There was no internet connection fast enough in sight to upload this in any way quick enough to our Amazon Cloud storage, so I chose a different tactic for the backup this time. We carry a 1TB hard drive as the primary storage, and usually whatever gets uploaded into the cloud then gets deleted from our active 64 GB SD card. With uploading out of the question, we chose to use cheap USB flash drives and mail the backup to Germany for uploading there.

Beyond the flash drives and some post cards, we needed to send another box home. Since Nina’s Companero suit is finally complete, her old pants needed to go. Some paperwork and even the much treasured Coleman Sleeping bag fitted in as well. The price would be the same, so I was quite happy that we were able to keep the sleeping bag – it for me symbolized a much needed turning point for the better on our trip and I feared that we had to just give it away.

Day 54 – Too hot

Our second day in the Kakadu National Park began and it immediately showed us that it would be hot and humid today.

While packing, the tent turned into a sauna. I simply couldn’t finish packing the sleeping bags. Flo laughed quite hard when I stormed out of the tent to cool off, completely covered in sweat. Due to the heat we needed to take our time and were late on the road.

Lookout on the Nourlangie art walk

Lookout on the Nourlangie art walk

Nourlangie, a region in the park, was our destination for the morning. When we arrived at the first walk it was already unbearable in the sunshine. We did the walk anyway, hopping from art site to art site and shade to shade.

Getting back into our biking gear was close to torture. Flo and I quickly agreed to skip the next walk and have lunch in Jabiru instead. Jabiru is the biggest town within the national park (due to the local uranium mine of all things). Luckily, a real bakery could be found and we had a lovely lunch with cold drinks and pizza pieces. Another motorcyclist joined us in the shade so we had nice lunch time company as well.

For dessert, I had one of the apricot rolls which was too sweet for Flo so I had the whole thing and then felt like rolling into a camp and sleep in the shade. Which is almost exactly what we ended up doing even if Flo was slightly frustrated with us doing so little today.

Jabiru, black-necked storch

Jabiru, black-necked storch

So we rode onto the campground in Jabiru. After a half-hearted attempt to put up the tent, we just jumped into the pool. Water is the only relief to cool down at least a little bit.

After an hour, Flo wanted to use the time to do some of our internet things. Three steps out of the pool area, we were covered in sweat again and agreed that we can check emails in the pool area.

Grabbing the laptop, a camper van with Frederike and Lars in it came our way. They also felt the heat this day and joined us in the pool for most of the rest of the day.

We promised ourselves to do better tomorrow and went to bed good and early that night.

Day 53 – Tornadoes and cathedrals

Yes, they are that big now

Yes, they are that big now

Ok, hands down, I think we are at peak termite mound now. I have mentioned before that the mounds have been constantly rising in height coming north. They are now up to 3m high fortresses. I am not sure if these actually are the famed cathedral termites building those, but the title sure would fit.

The day started earlier smooth as can be for us. We got everything packed by 9am and were ready to go explore the swimming holes of the area. Although early, by the time we reached the upper pool and waterfall, it was sure warm enough for the first swim. Splashing around in the first pool, we meet Frederike and Lars again and got talking some more. We were good around the same time and hiked the 1 km back down together. The lower pool was crowded enough to evoke images of public swimming pools during the summer break back home, so all of us skipped the second swim and headed straight for the car park.

We parted with them exchanging the remaining route, which is pretty similar for both of us. Maybe we would meet again?

Ok, was that 35°C or 36°C in the shade again?

Ok, was that 35°C or 36°C in the shade again?

Off into Kakadu National Park we went, after a brief but nice lunch stop in Pine Creek. The savannah around us is very different and now at the end of the dry scorched brown like parchment, if not blackened and scarred by bushfires. The thermometer rose to 36°C in the shade and there was very little wind going.

Except for Nina’s pants, which are waiting for us in Darwin, we are in full summer gear now. One base layer and summer suit. The Compañero is holding up well, I’d say, at least as good as can be expected. The last escalation layer left is soaking our base layers in water before starting.

The Kakadu Highway is the first nice curvy road since we left the Flinders, but other than that there are not many roadside attractions. Brown grass, some trees, termites and … oh, and the occasional mini tornado. No kidding here: maybe every half an hour we see a wind hose / mini tornado blowing up leaves and dust in a nice little whirlwind.

The campgrounds are either out of reach behind heavily corrugated roads or hellish dustbowls. When we saw Frederike and Lars just coming out of campground #3, we gave in to the lure of a pool and facilities and joined them on their way to Cooinda Resort and Campground. The $36 we had to fork off to the toll troll bought us a nice cool afternoon in one of the two pools with even nicer company.

The killer at the end: We even got invited to dinner – thanks heaps to our benevolent Kiel’ensians.