Leaving for Labuan Bajo via Sape...
On the streets of Bima at 4.30am, feeling vulnerable weighted down with a backpack. Thankfully though Dara the bus station is just a 10 minute hike from here - a dry run yesterday proved that. So, unless I am really unlucky I should be rolling away from Bima by 5am. So far, Indonesian public transport timekeeping has been 'not good' is a polite phrase to use, and today is no exception but rather than being late the bus rolls out 10 minutes early!
On the move then, this time to Sape, a village on the extreme east coast from where the Ferry leaves for Labuan Bajo on Flores. The Ferry go's at 8 and the bus should take around 2 hours according to research. Nothing to see in the dark but I can imagine the place full of rice paddies and terraced fields surrounded by mountains as the bus climbs steadily into the hills. It's a good road, wide enough for overtaking - just have to,watch out for free range goats!
Dawn just begins to brake providing a spectacular array of morning colours and an outline of those distant hills and mountains stars to form the picture of all that missed scenery, oh we'll, another time perhaps. But I do know there will be some other pretty spectacular scenery very soon.
The bus rolls into Sape, a typical Indonesian mix of the very rustic to just rustic and then what would pass as acceptable. Clearly investment around here isn't great, but that road connection remains good. Next stop, the ferry ad the bus rumbles onto a road leading towards an estuary, and the scenes here something quite unique. One long straight road filled with horse-drawn carts, mopeds and goats. Houses either side of a very rustic nature, on stilts. Even the local mosque is on stilts, glistening in the bright morning sunshine. The ferry leaves at 9am so plenty of time to wander round, get food and coffee and of course buy the ticket - 54,000 rp, about £2.25 for the 6-9 hour ride across to Labuan Bajo.
On the streets of Bima at 4.30am, feeling vulnerable weighted down with a backpack. Thankfully though Dara the bus station is just a 10 minute hike from here - a dry run yesterday proved that. So, unless I am really unlucky I should be rolling away from Bima by 5am. So far, Indonesian public transport timekeeping has been 'not good' is a polite phrase to use, and today is no exception but rather than being late the bus rolls out 10 minutes early!
On the move then, this time to Sape, a village on the extreme east coast from where the Ferry leaves for Labuan Bajo on Flores. The Ferry go's at 8 and the bus should take around 2 hours according to research. Nothing to see in the dark but I can imagine the place full of rice paddies and terraced fields surrounded by mountains as the bus climbs steadily into the hills. It's a good road, wide enough for overtaking - just have to,watch out for free range goats!
Dawn just begins to brake providing a spectacular array of morning colours and an outline of those distant hills and mountains stars to form the picture of all that missed scenery, oh we'll, another time perhaps. But I do know there will be some other pretty spectacular scenery very soon.
The bus rolls into Sape, a typical Indonesian mix of the very rustic to just rustic and then what would pass as acceptable. Clearly investment around here isn't great, but that road connection remains good. Next stop, the ferry ad the bus rumbles onto a road leading towards an estuary, and the scenes here something quite unique. One long straight road filled with horse-drawn carts, mopeds and goats. Houses either side of a very rustic nature, on stilts. Even the local mosque is on stilts, glistening in the bright morning sunshine. The ferry leaves at 9am so plenty of time to wander round, get food and coffee and of course buy the ticket - 54,000 rp, about £2.25 for the 6-9 hour ride across to Labuan Bajo.
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