Our epic journey cont...

More roof travellers passing us on Sumbawa

Lucky as we are, Charly and I ended up with back seats on the bus, 3 seats wedged in where there should be 2 and right next to the toilet. Isa was nice enough to donate me a sleeping tablet, Charly, well she can sleep anywhere, this, was going to be easy.
The locals on the bus all must have been saving up for the trip, as they ALL decided to go to the toilet just after departure. The problem was my big legs were in front of the door, so everytime someone wanted to get in, or out, I had to move. I was not happy! Anyway, I soon settled into a slumber, the pill working its magic before being awoken by boxes of crisps, drinks etc, being shoved in our face and shouts of “Buy Mister”. I politely (well maybe not) declined, ushered them out of the back door and closed it in their faces. A few minutes later, the door opened again and I was about to kick off when I saw a scooter being lifted in. They kindly wedged it in front of us and tied it around some seats and the door handle, nice fellas.
We started underway and I started to dose off as the scooter started to roll back and forth, trapping Charly’s legs and banging about. I considered this for a moment, knowing that sleep was impossible until this problem was solved. Option 1 – I quietly untie it, open the back door and on a sharp bend re-inact a scene from the Italian Job; or, Option 2 – secure it better, thus ensuring it didn’t crush us and avoiding arrest. I took the latter and using my noggin, something the previous fellas had not done, decided to tie the brakes on. It worked a treat and sleep was back on the agenda. Shortly after we stopped for dinner, or was it breakfast – 3am?!
After floating into the reststop, eating and making it back to our cosy back seats we finally slept until reaching the ferry at Poto Tano.

Inside the ferry

A short trip of 1.5 hours entertained by some locals singing 1 verse badly then coming around with their hats, they really need to think about their audience more. I woke Rod up as we approached Lombok, to show him sunrise and the Rinjani mountain, that he and Isa were planning to climb. Good luck guys.

Our fine ferry to Bali

After hugs etc, we boarded the bus again and after 30 mins the guys jumped off to make their way up to Base Camp. They were great travelling friends who pushed us hard and we had some amazing times. Hopefully see you in Oz!

Sitting on the last ferry

We continued across Lombok to Lembar for our final ferry journey to Padang Bai, Bali. No seats on the ferry meant we sat on hard metal deck for the last 4 hours of our epic 36 hour jouney. All in all not that bad really!!

written by  chrischarly on June 21, 2011 from Lombok, Indonesia
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
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