May 14th: Kuta to Denpassar Airport – 9 km; Flight to Darwin, Australia
Day 213
Arriving in Indonesia by water was a hassle but leaving by plane was a breeze. We left at 9am for our 2pm flight to give us plenty of time to pack our trikes into our bags. Accessing the airport is quite straightforward and we were allowed to ride our trikes right up to check-in without so much as a cross look from security. Although our trikes do resemble wheelchairs. Our bags were originally made to carry 2 crash pads for bouldering and fitting our trikes requires advanced 3 dimensional Tetris skills. It took us a solid hour to pack our trikes. We take off all the wheels and remove the rear derailleurs, attaching them to the frame.
Air Asia allows you to pay for your baggage before you leave so we guessed at our weight and paid for 20 kg each of checked baggage and 25 kg each for “sporting equipment.” Our baggage fees were quite low – about 30 USD each. We have sent a fair amount of things home, so we weighed all of our baggage at check in. Cher’s luggage is around 16 kg and mine is 23 kg. Our trikes weigh in at 24 kg each.
Our flight arrived in Darwin around 6:30 pm local time and our trikes were some of the first luggage out on the baggage carousel. Since we declared our bamboo pannier frames, we were sent to an inspection station. The inspector was surprised at how clean our trikes were and examined the bamboo and sent us on our way. We were both impressed at how sensible the customs officers were. Bamboo is usually not allowed, but since it didn’t show any evidence of infestation he let us keep them.
We signed up for Warm Showers, a hosting site for touring cyclists and sent a message to a home in the area. Many of the RV and camping sites in Darwin are outrageously expensive. 50 AUD for a hotel room was not in our budget. Since our contact on Warm Showers didn’t get back to us I gave him a ring and he said he could take us.
Within ten minutes while we were assembling the trikes at the airport, we were offered another place to stay once we reached Townsville. We’ve heard repeatedly about Australian hospitality and were happy to learn it wasn’t just rumor.
More than two hours after we arrived we set off into the dark to our host’s. Since McDonalds was on the way we stopped to grab some food and were both shocked at the cost. Our budget would definitely need a readjustment. Fast food was no longer a luxury, only affordable for wealthy locals and tourists. 9 kms later we arrived in a residential neighborhood and although it was 11pm we found our host and Marco we met in Indonesia still up drinking beer. We set up a tent behind a rustic dwelling complete with a tireless car on blocks in front and were happy to have cold hose shower.
