Day 160 Makassar to Rantepaeo

We asked the hotel to ring the bus to confirm times and our seat but their English wasn't great & our Bahasa Indonesian was much worse so communication was frustrating but basically no bus till 1pm today. While we waited we did another walk through town took a pic outside Fort Rotterdam which was done in the same way as the letters in a park in Amsterdam. The bus left at one as promised and the scenery was lovely. There were some of the limestone karsts the same as Halong bay in Vietnam and Yangshuo in China. We got dropped at our hotel just before 11pm - a few bangs on the gate woke the night worker and we settled in to a cottage with the Toraja style roof.

Day 159 Maumere, Flores to Makassar, Sulawesi

The Tide was in and our canoe wasn't there so with one of the staff we walked back to the restaurant. A track went through some scrub & unused land out to the road. It took a bit longer than the paddle and was definitely not as nice. When we arrived the owner had just sent the canoe to collect us. We hired a Bemo to drop us to the airport in Maumere 45 mins away. On arrival the main building was stripped while 50 odd construction workers banged away we were directed round the back where we found a samll building and a dozen staff who were handling the 3 flights today. Ours was the first leaving at 11.30am. The flight was fine and was 1.5hrs to Makassar. We were even served a package with water bread and a rice sweet. Makassar airport was a decent size, new and overrun with staff which was all a bit of a shock after seeing very few people anywhere on Flores.A guy at the information desk booked us seats on a bus to Rantepao tomorrow but also tried to sell us accommodation, tours and everything else. We got a taxi into town which dropped us at the hotel version of the hostel we wanted but at the 225,000 special rate since it was brand new we splurged. We had A/C, Hot Water! and Wifi in the room so were able to make some calls including a skype home to watch the all blacks give Ireland a hiding live! Even though its warm out a hot shower is a nice luxury. We went out for a short walkabout and caught the last of a nice sunset and had a look at the hundreds of small seafood restaurants stalls on the waterfront.

Day 158 Ahuwair

Much the same as the last couple of days today ate, relaxed and swam. The later tide each day finally effected us today we had to wait a while after dark for it to go out more before we could walk back to the restaurant for dinner. Off to Sulawesi tomorrow.

Day 157 Ahuwair

Another relaxing day today. We went for swims, read and did the commute in the canoe for lunch over to the restaurant. Its still a novelty paddling the leaky log there and back but 3 times a day would not be fun!

Day 156 Ahuwair 2nd day

We woke just before a Geko let out his call at 6 this morning before snoozing a bit more happy that if that had been the chickens we're used to it would have started at 4.30 and still be going!
As we got in the canoe to go for breakfast staff called out that they had our breakfast over this side. He had brought it over earlier in the morning so we didn't use the canoe until lunch. Just relaxed today and even managed to fit in a swim and a snooze!

Day 155 Ahuwair

Feeling a little lazy we got a taxi rather than two public bemos 30km out of town to Lena house which is one of a few beach spots with bamboo bungalows. On arrival the three huts by the restaurant were taken but he had 5 more 'on the peninsula a 10 minute walk away'. The catch was the walk is only possible when the tide is low. At the waters edge was a dug out tree canoe he said his staff would paddle us over in. Rachel & I both thinking it was a bit of a laugh & no less a novelty accepted. The guy loaded all our bags and Rachel into the canoe and set off while i took a few photos, ordered a coffee and watched them paddle in the distance around the corner. When he came back I offered to take the canoe myself but he came with me anyway. The 5 bamboo huts were newer and have a nice garden & another restaurant sitting area. These were on some land just along the coast a bit and didnt have access from the road. We were the only  ones here other than the staff working  the gardens. At midday we took the canoe he left us and paddled back to the main place since there was no food here due to low season it was going to be a regular trip.  The paddle took 20 minutes against the breeze & its more like paddling a log than any kayak or canoe you might have a mental picture of. The paddle back was nice in calm water & this evening we could walk back as the tide was far out. I had a nice slab of kingfish for dinner lovely. The pic of the water is an area bubbling with tuna even though the owner here said the locals don't catch much since someone did some dynamite fishing 5 years ago.

Day 154 Moni to Maumere

A Chinese and Spanish couple were out of cash yesterday and no ATMs or much else is in Moni so we lent them money and they travelled with us to Maumere. We shared a taxi which took 3 hours which was an hour less than the public bus. There were lots of slips fallen across most or all of the narrow windy road but as with the rest of Flores therer was little traffic. In Maumere we settled at the third and final hotel available. All Indonesian hotels seem overpriced for what you pay for and like the couple we were with we are also getting tired of the dirty bathrooms with no sink but this one in the pic is a nice-ish one with a western style toilet complete with seat even but you must still bucket water from the well on the left side to flush it since they dont use the cisterns. We ate, watched a partial lunar eclipse and checked emails this afternoon which covers everything to do here in Maurmere and we will move onto a beach place tomorrow.

Day 153 Kelimutu

At 4.30 am two motorbikes were ready and took us 40 minutes up to the Kelimutu car park area. An easy 20 minute walk from the car park was inspiration point which looks over 3 colourful crater lakes. The sunrise was nice but we were really only there early to get the clear sky. It has rained here for the last 3 weeks and the area has been covered in cloud so we were lucky!
Two of the three lakes change colour occasionally and one stays turquoise. Today two were a turquoise colour (but different to each other) and the other was mirror black when the mist finally cleared off it at 8am.
While we were at the crater there was a rock fall in one of the craters creating a load noise and a big wave. When it settled the slip had made the water colour lighter. The water in all craters looked as thick as paint and the colour change in the lake is due to the different dissolving minerals in each lake.  We walked back down the mountain unable to find the so called short cuts so ended up walking 15km of steep down. The scenery was nice passing through villages and we saw a big snake sunbathing in the middle of the road which Rachel frightened off while trying to get a picture.

Day 152 Ende to Moni

Score!! lovely doughnuts sold right at our door. We got into the waiting Bemo that the hotel flagged for us. It was bright pink with heart shaped soft toys inside with love stitched on them - this guy must be a romantic.
5 minutes down the road towards the bus station we passed a group of shared taxis and words were exchanged to our driver but he continued on, all we understood was the word 'Bule'. A few seconds later a car comes up behind us tooting and flashing his lights, we pulled over and we knew it was not the other passengers he was interested in especially when he was saying Bule again which means (foreigner).
He offered us a seat in the taxi for 30,000 each to Moni which was good considering the bus would have only been slightly cheaper. We accepted cautiously thinking too good to be true but if it didn't work out we could take a later bus. It was fantastic, he already had enough people to fill the taxi and we got to Moni in comfort and fast!
In Moni we took the first room we checked. It was clean and decent with breakfast for 175,000 IDR after a discount.We met a French couple (who we had seen somewhere in Flores before) at lunch and they organised dinner at bamboo Cafe. We saw a lot of village people walking to the church and they explained that the village chief had died and this was the funeral. We went to check it out after lunch but didn't stay long as it felt a bit in appropriate even though all the locals said it was OK to go and watch.
Bamboo Cafe was in a simple bamboo hut down a back alley but the food was different and made a change from plain rice and egg.

Day 151 Riung to Ende

Breakfast was gratefully served at 5.30 am before the public bus arrived at 6 for us. It was 2 hours to Mbay where we waited till 9am to continue with more passengers. Half of the road was nice seal the other half had you hanging on to prevent being thrown from your seat across the bus. We arrived and got dropped to our hotel in Ende at 1pm. The hotel was basic, dirty and in desperate need of a paint but was the cheapest (Just) we have had in Indonesia at 100,000 IDR. We scaled the distance to town on our map at 1km but it was much further when we arrived so cancelled plans to have a look around so just got food and relaxed considering we had to get on another bus tomorrow!

Day 150 Riung

Had the usual banana pancakes, an egg and fruit for breakfast then met the other guys at the guides cafe. On the boat they showed us the fish we were having for a BBQ lunch then we went onto the first stop to see the flying foxes (fruit bats). When we arrived only a couple were flying from the nearby trees but gradually more took to the skies until tens of thousands were  flying around us. It was pretty cool.
The area has 17 islands, we cruised past a couple then got dropped off for a snorkel at one where we swan along the drop off line to the depths which had nice coral and the usual fish we are seeing snorkelling here.
While we snorkelled the snapper, skip-jack tuna and barracuda were grilled on the beach.
After lunch we snorkelled at bit further down the beach and saw some small camouflage shark. We took the boat then to another island and just chilled for a bit before the last spot which was a reef in the middle of the bay. This had some awesome coral and a school of massive bump head parrot fish which were a little too deep to get a good photo.