31/12/2009 Our trek across southern Lombok

Well it’s New Years Eve and we thought we might go for a nice little drive across to the others side of the island. We were in the Mighty Suzuki Katana (Jimmy) which is a little 4WD. So we knew the roads could be a little rough so we set off in the morning thinking we would be having lunch on the west coast.
Getting over the big hill just outside of Kuta was a bit of a struggle for the little 4WD as the hill was very steep it would only just make it over the top in 1st gear. If the car stalled it was a panic as it was really hard to get it going and you faced the possibility of plummeting in reverse back down the mountain over the edge to certain doom. Once over this obstruction what could possibly be worse??? Nothing I thought, but I was mistaken. After driving along the bumpy road the road turned into something like a mini Highway so we followed this path and at the end you would not believe it!!! A fantastic beach clear water and white sand that went for miles!! This was the fishing village of Selong Blanak.
The place was deserted, just one fisherman and no hawkers!!! Unbelievable!!! After a refreshing swim we thought it can only get better than this so we headed on. Well that may have been a bit of a mistake, the road climbed into the mountains and steadily got worse and worse but we were at the point of no return. The mountains were steeper and the road turned to crap. We were managing about 5 or 10km’s an hour!!! It was getting later and when we passed a couple of locals on bikes that had guns, Well it was a bit of a panic and of course we had to go up a mountain to what we thought would be our escape from certain capture or worse!!! Of course under pressure the car stalled up the mountain
Trace was driving and the pressure was on to get us to safety, so of course near the top of the hill thinking we were doomed we had to swap drivers and try to escape before the bandidos returned with the troops!!!! With clutch burning and Suzuki screaming I managed to save the day and screamed down the mountain at a blistering 15kms an hour!! Still not being able to turn back we proceeded along the track that we thought could not get any worse. We were wrong!!! The car nearly disappeared in some of the holes. As we passed through the little jungle villages people would stare at us, obviously we were way off the beaten track and they did not see any tourists. As the day got later and later our thoughts of lunch on the other coast were a distant thought and we basically needed some food as we had set off with only ¾ bottle of water. We had to stop for supplies in the middle of nowhere in a village that had no power, so we bought hot sprite, melted chocolate and some other local snacks. The whole village came out to see us!!! Once we had made their biggest sale of the day we were off. Tracey took a bite of her chocolate thing and bit into something, there was like a plastic tube in the middle, inside this was a neatly folded but well used 1,000 rupiah note. She had won a prize. The poor little kids in that village have probably been trying to win that for months and as usual the outta towners win!!! We had to keep moving forward as it was getting late and I had visions of having to spend New Years Eve in some village in the middle of the jungle !!! Hoping the road would get better it finally did!!! In the middle of the jungle some good road with a small steamroller, We saved or so we thought it only lasted for about 5k’s and then the road was worse. We came to a mountain that the Suzuki would not go up, it was too steep and too rough. I thought shit we have to turn around and go all the way back. Then some locals came along in a little 2WD ute and I thought these guys are dreaming, but they stopped and couple of guys jumped in the back and they were off up the mountain so I followed their path and we were away again.. Thank you Lord. Well now being able to survive on hot sprite and melted chocolate things, we managed to bump our way finally to some sort of a main road, WOO HOO. .It had taken us 5 or 6 hours to do about 80k’s but we still had about and 1 ½ hours drive back on reasonable road. Great we did not have to sleep in a village on New Years Eve. I was happy and did an internal jig. On our voyage we had passed through countless villages many had little brick making factories but I don’t know why? the roads were nearly impassable and if it had of rained we would have been still there!!
Finally arrived back in Kuta after dark about 7.00pm in time to have a shower and hit the town for the last few hours of 2009. We put on our best clothes from our now downsized collection and off we went. We hooked up with our new found English and Irish friends.
We had not had any real food all day but the new friends just wanted to head off to the excitement!! Well you did not have many choices so I guess we just used our feet and headed to the bar down the road that that had live music. It was funny to see a pile of local guys dancing and drunk but no local women, apparently its only the guys that go out even on New years Eve. After many local brews we headed to the beach just across the road to a Beach restaurant and at 1.30 on New Years day we got some proper food and our new friends bought way too many Big Beers, so we ate drank, hung around on the beach and finally stumbled home.

Kuta, Lombok - Tastura Hotel