Leaving Gili Air

Sadly, after 6 days it is time to leave Gili Air.

Local Ferry

The fridge section at the mini mart

Dried Fish and Veges and of course ... flies

Dried Fish - and of course ... flies

No cars on the island - local taxi

Taxi Rank

Gili Air and Gili Trawongan

We seem to have adapted to our new life of cruising.  We fill our days with snorkeling, SUPing, eating, swimming and relaxing. We have met some fun, fellow minded yachties and take turns for drinks at each others boats.  Mush of the conversation revolves around sailing experiences, travel tales, galley comparisons, water makers discussions and air-conditioner envy.

mmmm....

The village at Gili Air is quiet and traditional.  The people are very friendly and relaxed.  Our local supermarket sells food, clothing, hardware,electrical goods. Photos say it all - don't you think!

On the way to the village

Traffic Lights for the horses and carts

Seriously!

Blue plastic chook moneybox or tube of sikaflex

Decisions, decisions

One of these things is not like the other ...

Daggy hat day

Heather had a dive with some fellow yachties from 'Pamplemousse'.  We drift dive in 23m off Gili Trawongan.  Visibility is excellent with loads of bright tropical fish, turtles, octopus, sea snakes, bump fish - alas so sharks today.

Gili Air

What and excellent place to be.  The anchorage is protected and deep.  Every day a little old man rows to the boat and hands us a flyer in a plastic bottle.  It informs us that they would like us to use their moorings rather than anchor and risk destroying their coral.  The parking fee is AU$5 per day - bargain!

The island has no cars or motor bikes.  Everyone uses foot, bicycles or horse and cart.  The roads are all sand tracks and there is a relaxed vibe.  There are loads of tourists as it is a diving/snorkeling dream.  The cafes have lounges and futons on the beach and everyone is friendly. We walk the perimeter of the island in 1.5 hours.

Gili Air

All good :-)

Spiders the size of my hand - eeew

Boat building

Senggigi, Lombok

There's not much wind so after a long day of motoring, we anchor at Sengiggi and we are the only yacht in the bay.  It has a dark sandy beach with over 200 brightly painted fishing boats on the beach.  The boats head out to fish every night and in the morning there are loads of baskets of fresh fish and much activity with repairing of nets and other boat maintenance.

Fishing boats with their catch

Senggigi from the boat

Steel De Breeze from the top of the hill

We stay 2 nights and enjoy the second night at The Sheraton - doing it tough again :-)  Graeme and I stayed here 20 years ago when the Fremantle to Lombok Race finished at Senggigi in 1993.  Its great to have long showers, a lazy day by the pool and of course re-provision with ice and fruit.

Dusk at the Sheraton

We feel clean and refreshed as we leave the beach with bags of clean laundry only to get caught is torrential rain.

We see something in the water and think it may be a headless chook.  On further inspection Graeme announces that the good news is it is not a chook :-)  The bad news is its a used nappy- eeew.

We board the boat, drenched, to find that our anchor is wound around steel and concrete 20m below - sad face.  We hire a young french diver to free the anchor chain and are on our way - happy face.

Gili Nangu - an optimistic visit!

We leave Nusa Lembongan and head for Gili Nangu.  We have read that it is a lovely spot with one warung and white silky beaches.  On arrival, we find it to be exactly as described.  What we don't know is that it is not a good anchorage   A few metres from the beach, the depth drops off to 30m with a roaring current between two islands.  Alas, we have a swim and head off to Senggigi.

Kintamani

Gili Nangu

Nusa Lembongan

Nusa Lembongan is definitely in the brochure!  We pull up a mooring in a pretty bay with surf breaks 100m away.  It is a beautiful spot with restaurants, warungs, surfing, supping (stand up paddle boarding), resting,  relaxing, motor biking, massages, wining and dining.  The bays and surrounding beached are beautiful however some of the island seems dry with cacti in among the mangrove swamps.  We decide to stay 3 days.

The Anchorage

Off to dinner

Children  - don't do this at home :-)

Riding over the suspension bridge to Cenegan

Awesome surf

At the blowhole and cliff jumping

Seaweed Farming

Getting ready for our cruise - off to Serangan

We spend a week of boat maintenance, re-provisioning, re-fueling, filling water tanks, laundering bed linen, drying mattresses and carpet,cleaning the boat.  We hire a lad to do the cleaning.  The guys purchase an air conditioner to dry the inside of the boat.  Mitch organises new steering cables in Perth and Sam and Josh arrive in Bali with a bag of nuts, bolts and boat fixing stuff.

In between this time, many friends fly in for Heather's 50th birthday dinner at The Three Monkeys.  It is a brilliant week of socialising, surfing, eating, chatting, swimming and shopping.  Many thanks to fantastic friends from Perth, Melbourne and Brunei who helped celebrate.

We organise local sim's for phones and laptops.  We do our final shopping at Hardys in Sanur then fill the esky with ice and bintang before and leaving Benoa Harbour.  Our friends Kate, Lisa, Meridee and David join us for the sail to our first destination at Serangan.  We stop for a swim on the way as the heat is stifling.  We are joined by a sea snake which is a bit disconcerting.  Apparently if we don't bother them, they won't bother us ... mmm.   We don't swim at Sarangan as it is a bit grubby with lots of rubbish and weed.  Graeme runs our visitors into Sanur in the dinghy and later we dine at a warung on the beach.  Overnight there is thunder, lightning and torrential rain.  Heather sleeps through it all to the disbelief of the gang.  We leave early for Nusa Lembongan the next morning.

Dusk at Serangan