Flores/Komodo August 2011: Bajawa to Moni- Flores overland

We are starting to think there is so much to see and lots of stop offs are possible if we had extra days/weeks to spare. Already we are discussing a return trip. The road winds on up and down and always around hairpin bends. The road works and workers are captivating, but we can't ask the driver to stop as there are no places to pull over. These road workers live under a tarpaulin and pretty much dig drenches and sort huge to small rocks. We saw fires lit under huge rocks then they pour water over the rock to try and crack it. The machine diggers were a welcome asset to these workers. There was a huge roadworks upgrade in progress all through Flores when we were on the road.

Road works delay.

We saw some of the best geographic landscape we have ever seen along this road. Along with watching the amazing use of the sarong which is so much longer than the usual one seen in Indonesia. This long Ikat sarong is kept bundled up at the waist...however as it gets cooler it creeps up to the shoulders and eventually over the head as a hoodie. The younger men just pop their arms out of their T-shirt sleeves and tuck them under the body of the T-shirt sheath (same principle). At last the Moni eco lodge where we stayed 2 nights it was a luxury. We opted to go up to the Kelimutu crater lakes at 8.30 rather that sunrise (so popular). Great decision. The walk up to lakes is daylight was divine. The lakes in full daylight took our breath away. OMG. On the way Sipriano our guide carefully choose two sticks one for himself and one for Paul, he said they were to keep the naughty monkeys away. Well there were plenty of these little monkeys scurrying through the open scrub area along the path up to the lakes and they did try to encounter us on the way. Apparently there have been several incidents of biting and scratching from these monkeys. A shame as most people like to watch monkeys however rabbies is around in Flores.