Betty Wanders

And now we enter a lighter stage in our travels, seeking out picturesque places, meeting new and interesting people and eating great food. 

Crossing the border into West Timor provided an immediate change of scene.  The road condition improved, the amount of traffic increased, the intensity of the traffic increased, the infrastructure more advanced, the availability of shops, fuel, restaurants greatly improved. 

We were unable to get SIM cards in the regional area’s for ‘foreign’ phones, so decided to head through to Kupang to get our affairs in order.  No SIM card makes it pretty difficult to plan and navigate!  We stopped enroute at a fantastic mountain campsite. 

It was here that we realized that our offline mapping app had a few flaws!  We picked out a natural spring that looked pretty online, but the mapping was not so up to date with the roads.  We took the turn off the main highway with the culvert only just wide enough for the Defender.  After bumping down a rocky track, the road disappeared, replaced by squiggle of intersecting motorbike tracks.  We stuck to the map and ended up on what was once a road, immediately hitting a drop off where a bridge once stood.  Backtracking, we followed the motorbike tracks and crossed a few rivers before climbing up a mountain (in low range with diff locks engaged), with the road occasionally appearing.  We made it to a village on the edge of a lake, but with no suitable camping spot, we turned back to spot we had noticed on the way up.  Beautiful views down the valley with the sun setting as a back drop.  Pretty nice first stop in Indonesia!

We then headed down to Kupang to get our SIM cards and a few items for the pantry.   With our offline maps, I pinpointed a guesthouse on the beach in Kupang and headed that way.  We arrived to find out they did not have any available rooms.  The last one had been booked that morning by a guy on a motorbike coming from East Timor.  It was Paul, who we had shipped with and crossed the border the previous day.  What are the chances?  The guesthouse owner was very obliging and let us camp in his parking lot and we booked in for the next night.  We spent a couple of lovely days in Kupang going to the night  markets and eating fresh barbecued fish, catching up with Paul, meeting a couple travelling on bike who had been on the road for two years (@vikingosobreruedas) and getting our all important SIM cards sorted. 

Affairs in order we headed out to the Bolok Ferry Port and caught a car ferry down to Rote Island. 

It rarely happens that a place exceeds the expectations set by social media and google images, but Rote did.  We camped most of the time and bumped our way around the island over 8 days.  The main roads through the centre of the island were fantastic, but as soon as you got off them, they deteriorated into hand made rocky, potholed adventures.  One stint of 40km took 3 hours! 

We started at Batu Termanu

Then headed down to Tiang Bendera

Then down to Nembarala we based ourselves for a few days.  Nembarala (and all of Rote really) had a great feel.  While there was a community of foreigners from all over the world living there, it had a different vibe to other places we have been.  There seemed a much better connection with the local community.  Most of the foreigners were focused on the surf and many had lived on the island for an extended period.  In the Nembarala area, which is the most populated spot for its surf break, they have a weekly fresh produce market.  Foreigners and locals mingled together without fuss, all just getting their supplies for the week.  It felt good. 

And there was an amazing bakery with incredibly delicious croissants, baguettes and superb coffee.  We had breakfast there a couple of days!

Of the many great things about Rote, we also met up with some fellow Australian Overlanders who had shipped to Timor two weeks before us.  Apparently there had not been any overlanders on the island for about two years and all of a sudden there were three!  We had a couple of lovely nights out for drinks at two very pretty beach side resorts.  One of the nights was Taco Tuesday and I think it attracted a big percentage of the foreigners on the island.  Was great to see a tight little community enjoying themselves.  We went on to camp with Marie and Rodney and Judith and Frank later in the stay also.

From Nembarala we stayed a couple of nights at Lifulada Beach.  One of the highlights of Rote Island, we swam, snorkeled, relaxed, met with locals and travellers on the beach.  Lovely time.

Wrenching ourselves away from Nembarala and Lifulada, we recommenced our exploration of the island, heading North East along the coast, stopping at another idyllic spot on Oesili Beach

Then dropping in to Pantai Batu Pintu.

Before heading up to Titik Nol, the most southern point in Indonesia.  Near Titik Nol we found a fantastic camping spot.  No people and above a gorgeous lagoon that led out to a bay with coral and fish for snorkeling. 

From Titik Nol, we headed right up the coast to Papela and then across to the salt lakes of the north where we camped with Maria and Rodney (@wilma_and_the_wanderers) and Frank and Judith (@gonetroopyn)for our last night on Rote. 

Rote has been an absolute highlight of all of our travels to date.  Being able to drive up to beautiful beaches, back in and camp for a night or two was just perfect.  We also met really interesting people making conscious decisions to live differently, to forge their own unique path in life, to value things differently.  Quite invigorating for life!

While we could have stayed much longer on Rote, we had really got a good feel for the place and its people and was probably time to move on with our travels (we had only planned on 3-5 days!)  Back on the ferry, we returned to Kupang to explore West Timor.  We stayed a couple of days in Kupang and lived up staying in a hotel!  Being the capital city we took advantage of the great shopping, stocking up our pantry and seeking out more unique items, like o’rings, two part glue for repairing the water filter, new cables… Vodka and other essential items. And we ate!

From Kupang we drove up to Lelogama, known as the ‘Swiss Alps’ of Timor. 

Our mapping intervened again and what should have been a mainly paved road, turned into a 25km diversion down a track that deteriorated to a pretty special 4wd expedition.  Great fun, but a little time consuming (I think it added 2 hours to the trip). 

We arrived to rolling grassy hills, with a backdrop of severe mountain peaks, cool air (we were at 2000m), wild horses and roaming cattle.  We ducked down a little track and immediately found a lovely campsite amongst the trees (and clouds).

We then had a pretty big travel day, heading north to Benteng None, a traditional village / fort.  While interesting, I think we will stay clear of this type of tourism in the future. 

We then did a big loop south, across to the east coast and then followed the coastline north to Kolbano Beach. 

We once again relied too heavily on google images and Instagram.  The beach was very pretty…. If you looked past the hundreds of people mining the decorative pebbles!  We have had pretty good success with finding campsites to date.  Once again we headed down a little track for a couple of kilometres and popped out at a lovely spot.  It was being used by the miners to store rocks, but it must have been a poorer spot, as no one was present.

From Kolbano we had another big driving day, dropping in to Oetune Beach, famous for its sand dunes.

Before heading down to Tablolong where we camped on a private beach.

We had planned to camp one more night, but with a public holiday for Ascension Day and many people out and about, a quiet campsite was not possible.  Being only 25kms from Kupang, we came back one day early and will spend the next few days getting errands completed, good food consumed and a little bit of maintenance on the equipment.