Thursday 5th May 2022 – (Wodong) Road trip to see the Kelimutu volcano and the three coloured lakes

I got up at 05:00 to get prepared for the long road trip. Luke decided that he didn’t want to go, so he dropped me off at the resort jetty and went back to bed. After breakfast and a nice strong coffee at the resort, my driver turned up right on time and we headed off for the long trip to Kelimutu National Park high up in the centre of the Island.

The car & driver cost me IRP1,200,000 (AUD$120) and Kelimutu National Park is around four hours drive away. On the way back we plan on going to Koka Beach, which is controlled by the land owners Mafia who charge an AUD$10 entry fee.

About 40 minutes from the resort was one of the largest towns on Flores called Maumere where we stopped for a short time to admire a lovely Christian church. Most of the people are Christians in the Eastern parts of Indonesia.

The road was very good with light traffic and after about an hour on the low coastal flats, we started to climb up high into the cool cloud covered mountains and the road became narrow and twisty.

There were lots of bananas growing down in the coastal flats, but high up in the mountains there was cocoa beans laying out to dry everywhere along the sides of the roads.

 

We stopped at a small village to admire the view and I had a close look at all the cocoa beans drying and my driver brought back some fresh cocoa for me to try. It was quite tasty and even in the flashy state it had a distinctive chocolate flavour. The most amazing thing about cocoa bean is how it grows on the trunks of the trees and not on the branches. It always reminds me of the old-style party lights we used to have in our back yards. 

The drive was quite pleasant and it wasn’t long before we reached the gates of the Kelimutu National Park where the driver got out to pay for the park entry fee. It was a short drive to the main car park from where I had to walk the remaining couple of kilometers up the volcano to the crater lakes.

The first lake I came to was black and there were monkey's all over the place. I never trust those basteds. There are three lakes in total and they often change colour when ever there is volcanic activity when hot sulphur gas and other chemical enter the lakes. 

If you are really lucky, sometimes the lakes will turn blood red, but today one of the lakes was black and the other two lakes were a beautiful turquoise green colour. 

There were a lot of tourists at the lakes, mostly taking selfies of themselves, but I was the only Buley that I noticed. The lakes were very rugged and spectacular, but once I had climbed all around them and taken a few snaps, it was time to head off for the long walk back to the car. 

We took a slightly different route on the way back and stopped at a small village for a bit of a look around and a bite to eat. There was plenty of fresh produce around and no one was going hungry here.

 

Eventually we wound our way back down out of the cool mountains and down to the hot and humid tropical coastal plains once again. We followed the coast road passing lots of small towns and fishing villages till we came across the rough bush track leading towards Koka Beach where we came to the first check point Charlie where some thugs sat around a boom gate waiting to collect the entry fee. 

We slowly made our way down this atrocious rocky track that could have been sealed by now with all the entrance fees collected over the years and came across another check point Charlie with more thugs sitting around a boom gate. They looked us up and down and eventually lifted the boom. 

I think we went through two more of these check points where scary looking kids sat smoking cigarettes. It looked like they were going to ask for more money or even worse, smash the car windows and rob us, but each time after looking us over one of them would nod and up went the boom gate. 

The last part of the drive was through cocoa plantations which looked really cool, then the trees opened up and we came to the end of the road at a really magnificent beach with people everywhere.

After a long walk down to the end of the beach and back, I settled up under the coconut palms and knocked off a couple of Kimberley cool long neck Bintang’s and watched the world go by for an hour or so.

 Eventually it was time to hit the road once again and we rocked and bumped our way back up that shitty road once again, but this time at each check point the thugs didn’t even look at us, they just lifted the boom as we got close and continued talking and smoking without taking any notice of us, or me I should say.

 

Yes, that's an eyeball

Once we got back on the main road there was nothing more to see so we headed back home. On the way back I wanted to stop in Maumere to buy some sate kambing for Luke to try as it’s one of my favourites in Bali. The town was very large and quite clean and I got to see how the people live here as we had to drive around a bit to find some street food.

Some of the housing was very primitive and basic compared to our standards, but the people were very happy and content and very proud of their homes keeping them clean and tidy.

This grain pounding pot looks to be made from a WW1 bomb casing.

 My sate is almost ready

Like a lot of South East Asia, the drug of choice here is betel nut. Coming from the areca palm, it is chewed into a pulp, mixed with musk or cardamom to reduce the bitterness and then lime is added to activate the chemical reaction to produce a mild stimulant effect. 

Long term use of betel nut turns your mouth red and rots your gums while the lime, often made from crushed coral grinds the teeth down to stumps and it’s a common cause of mouth cancer which can rot bit holes in your cheeks and cause large throat and mouth tumors.  Do you still want to try it?

 

I arrived back at the Ankermi Dive Resort around sunset after an awesome day out. Another yacht had arrived today and I noticed Claudia had put flags out all along the jetty and cushions were on the outside deck chairs. The resort was now officially open. 

I was tired and hungry after the long road trip and Claudia had cooked a lovely dinner for us which we washed down with probably too many beers as we chatted late into the night. This time we had brought a torch with us and I had remembered to switch on the anchor light, so finding Sirocco was not an issue.

  Track Sirocco’s progress

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