It was a real blessing to be able to relax in Labuan Bajo as we knew that Flores would be handful to cycle. Timo, an awesome French cyclist we met in Tasmania, told us about the crazy steep roads and that Flores might have been one of the hardest bits of cycling on his way from France to Australia. Somehow we were not afraid but excited to face the challenge and right on the first day it got pretty hilly and steep. At a break close to the highest point we were dripping with sweat and left little streams of sweat where we sat on the road. At said break we also met Karin, an 18 year old high school graduate who spoke great English and invited us to stay at her house close to Lake Sano Ngoang. In order to get to that lake we had to cycle down a very little road that was in bad shape and in parts that steep that we had to walk (!!) our bikes downhill not to overheat our brakes. On the way we also visited a really nice waterfall which was a little compensation for the dreadful road. At Karin's house we were welcomed warmly and had a great time. They spoiled us with food and her dad had some great stories to share about his job as a bird watching guide in Flores, Timor and Sumba. If you ever need a guide there, feel free to get in touch with him (Sam Rabenak, Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!). 

Next day we kept going to the lake and we were not disappointed as it is a large crater lake with some sulphuric hot springs close by. A second crazy but at least less hilly road got us back to the main road and moving East again. The next bigger town on the main highway would have been Ruteng but as it is on 1800m above sea level, we decided to take a smaller road along the coast in order to avoid that hill. The scenery was very nice there, the road was not busy and we were glad about our choice. Close to Aimere we visited one of the many local distilleries that make a 50% spirit they call sopi or arak. We had to give it a try and had a fun afternoon after arriving early at a small hotel in Aimere. 

The next morning we started early as we had to climb the next hill that would take us up to 1400m above sea level and such a climb is much nicer if it is not hot yet. That night we asked at a local police station whether we could pitch our tent behind the station and we ended up having a great time with the guys there, eating some grilled fish and chatting until late. From there it was one last day of cycling before reaching the city of Ende where we planned to take the ferry to Kupang on the island of Timor. 

We were tired of cycling and decided to rent a scooter to visit Kelimutu National Park. It is the smallest National Park in Indonesia and it is famous for its three birghtly colored crater lakes. Different minerals usually color the lakes a dark red, a cyan blue and a dark blue. Even with the usually red lake being cyan blue as well it was a really cool place to visit and we had a fun day on the scooter. Luckily we decided to check the harbour for the departure times of our ferry as everyone kept telling us about different schedules. We were there at about 5pm and a guy told us that the ferry would leave at around 10pm that night, even though someone else told us it would leave 1pm next day. Luckily we still had enough time to pack our stuff and get to the harbour by 9pm just to find out that there would not be any boat that night or the next day as it was cancelled and that the next ferry would leave on Tuesday (it was Friday night :-D). We were a bit baffled and went back to our hotel to first sleep over that new information. With our visa running out soon we could not wait for the ferry and decided to book a cheap flight to get from Ende to Kupang to still be able to cycle to the border of Timor Leste before our visa expired. We caught the flight and managed to dodge that bullet that way. This story really teaches you the Indonesian way of doing things which means you cannot really plan things too much, you just have to go with the flow, be flexible and patient. 

All the best from Timor, 

Keep cycling, 

Vroni, Droni & Joni