A very long journey...

Our first ferry from Flores

We woke up early yet again, seems to be a habit with our Flores adventures, to head to the ferry for our epic journey.

On our first ferry

We boarded our luxury liner fully decked out with hard metal chairs and flat screen TVs on which were shown whatever the captain felt like watching. The journey of 9 hours was fairly uneventful although I did get to spend a few hours with Rod getting many hints and tips on our further destinations.

Team Flores, on the roof of our bus

On arriving in Sape, Sumbawa, we waited for the crowds to disembark and then made our way off in search for our bus. This was a mistake. See our nice 40 seater bus, ok acceptable bus, was not here, but 2 hours away and awaiting us was a 25 seater minibus. Most people buy this trip as a package and therefore most of the 40 passengers were here for the same minibus! I peeled away the metal lid and peeked inside only to find as expected about 35 people crammed inside. In previous similar situations like this there would have been some shuffling and squeezing and we would have got in, but this was beyond full. We asked our driver if there was a second bus and he chuckled and pointed to the roof. Hmmm, options here, get on the roof, or miss our bus……

We're not scared , honest

Passing through a village from the roof of the bus

Photo from roof of our bus

We climbed the ladder and the four of us setup camp sitting on our bags on top. It all started off fine, we had great views and the locals thought it highly amusing requiring us all to wave continuously like the queen on a tour.

Charly holding on tight

From our bus roof

We weaved round the mountains and all was well before we got stuck behind a banana truck on a dusty section, we got clouded in dust and couldn’t breathe.

Passing banana truck causing lots of dust, yeh!

From our bus roof

After passing said truck we went through some villages that had some lovely trees lining the streets, only problem was that the low hanging branches had never come across big European travellers on the roof and we had to continually shout “Canard” and dive for the surface. We made it through, with only a few scratches and a nice fake tan from the dust.

View from top back seats

We waited at the bus station for 2 hours before getting underway for our night bus adventure……..To be continued.

written by  chrischarly on June 20, 2011 from Sape, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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