May 1st: Kuta to Padangbai – 52.6km
Day 200
We each packed a small bag, and our ukulele for the trip to Gili Meno. Out hotel agreed to store our remaining luggage for free since we promised to come back to stay for another couple of days before our flight to Darwin on the 14th.
Just like that, we were back on the road again, only with much lighter loads and very well rested legs. Knowing that our vacation destination lie ahead helped a lot with our morale in the heat. More importantly the journey also improved and the road got better and better as we got further away from the major towns. For a long stretch we even had a smooth shoulder to ride on.
Nearing Bangsal we followed the shortest way into the town according to Google Maps. How Google Maps found this “road” or even decided to designate it as a “road,” we would never know. It started out as a dirt road, but soon turned into a hiking path in the woods. In the spirit of true adventure we refused to backtrack. Confronted by a steep uphill we pushed our trikes up the broken path. Once we reached the summit we found that our path turned into a steep, washed out, ravine leading to several flights of stairs dropping down into Bangsal. We were so close that we could hear the lively noise from the town, and see the port 200 meters away. Yet we were so far away, separated by an incredibly steep downhill. There was no turning back, so Chopper man-handled each trike, picking them up and carrying them down one by one, while I held the bags, watched and gave him moral support. Packing light was working in our favour.
Several liters of sweat later, we reached the bottom. A few hundred meters away we found a quirky little guesthouse to stay for the night. It was a two story house, tucked away at the back of a garden. The first floor was dedicated to a bathroom and the staircase leading up to the second floor, which was the bedroom and a porch. For such a lovely little place, with air conditioning, Wi-Fi and free breakfast, it was only 170,000 IDR. Looking out over our balcony into the tidy garden we already began to feel calmer. Everything was beginning to move just a touch slower, like a hint of a autumn when you no longer hear the buzz of insects but don’t realize it yet.
