on: September 18th, 2013
Arriving at Kermas beach I found the homestay I had searched on Tripadvisor.com the Nirwala Homestay. The homestay is set amongst beautiful rice paddies and has a few bungalows with small fish ponds. They are still building a few more rooms while I was there.
You walk down a small dirt road to check the wave, the onshore wind has picks up at 1pm and the swell is about 2ft, not ideal conditions. I figure I will wait for the morning to get the glass off, so instead I do some filming of the rice paddies and beach.
Directly across from the break is the newly built Komune hotel, it also has huge spotlights to light up the break at night for some night surfing. They do limit the number of surfers in the water when this happens. The hotel looks out of place in the rural and somewhat industrial area, but the main thing is the crowds in the water. Having the hotel virtually on the break increases the numbers in the water dramatically.
The next morning I paddled out for a wave, it was about 1ft and barely beraking. No one was out so I thought I should give it ago, I paddled out and one other guy joined me. There was the odd wave, but just enough for two people. After 30min there was another 2 and then another 3 and in one hour there were at least 10 – 15 people out in 1ft surf. I caught only a few waves and headed in, waves are slim pickings whilst between swells with another swell coming on Friday. This is when I will go to Nusa Lembogan.
My last day at Kermas and the wind is up first thing in the morning, its overcast and clouds are building. I plan to head to Sanur about 17km away later in the afternoon, so I spend some time filming in the morning. Setting up shots and cycling through the frame, this is time consuming but I do have the time. I say goodbye to the staff at the guesthouse and hit the road at about 1pm. I make it to Sanur after some light rain. I turn into the tourist strip and find a money changer, I get a rate of 10 400 to 1 Australian dollar, in my eyes anything over 10 000 is great value. As I keep riding I find rates of 10 800, it pays to look around a bit.
Aries wife Cunti meets me on the main street and finds me a homestay for $15 a night. The next morning I have breakfast with Arie at his house in Sanur, it was awesome. I then meet my friend Deklan and his partner Deb at the ferry where we head to Nusa Lembogan.
We arrive at Nusa Lembogan, it’s a mission taking the bike and gear on ferries, things normally get damaged but not this time, everything seems fine. I move all the equipment to the huge concrete sea wall and slowly put the bags and tripod onto the bike, a family stop to have a chat with me, they are on holiday from Torquay with their 2 little girls. I ride on the main road and am blown away with the atmosphere; it feels like I’ve rode into a photo of bali 20 years ago. It’s a narrow road, very bumpy, there are some shirnes on the left with women carrying woven baskets on their heads. I ride about 200m and find my hotel called bungalow 7.
Its still early in the day and we decide to head out for a surf, we got Lacerations, playgrounds and then shipwrecks about 400m away. We head out to playgrounds its about 2 -3 ft but then see a few good ones breaking across the channel at lacerations. We head there with 3 other guys, it seems to be turning on. After the first wave I take it feels like a really good quality reef break, barrelling from the take off with some small sections to make through. After about 20 min boats started to show up and then we had about 15 people in the water, not ideal. The water temp had changed dramtically as well, it felt really cold about 20 degrees compared to the warmer 24 or 25 I think. I remember feeling cold and shivery and then the sun would come out and burn you. Its known that there are some strong currents around the area with a very deep channel between Bali and Lombok. Unfortunately this was our best surf session as the swell started to drop off over the next 3 days and lacertations being very tide effected, only working on the incoming and outgoing high tide. We filled the days with exploring the island, fishing and some excellent snorkling.
Gilli Trawagan is my next destination, a small cluster of 3 islands Gilli T being the furthest one west. After the really bumpy fast boat ferry ride we make it too Gilli T. It’s an amazing island, very touristy with diving the main draw card here, many many dive shops and a freediving school as well. The main strip is something out of a movie with beach shacks mixed with some fine dining as well.
I pack my gear on the bike again and set off to find palm bay bungalows where ill be staying for the next 2 nights. As much as I enjoy seeing these touristy areas, will definetaly have to come back with some friends, I am itching to do some real riding and the next stop will be the fickle desert point about 90km away.
At the ticket office in Sanur for the ferry to Nusa Lembogan.
Bike packed at the harbour / beach on Nusa Lembogan, we witnessed huge whirlpools crossing from bali.
View from Bungalow 7, not bad.
This give you an idea of what the rooms are like in Bali, $45 per night, with aircon. Thought I would live it up a bit before trekking across lombok and sumbawa.
Balcony View.
A bit of a sea view as well.
Theres a pool with the dive centre on the same premisis.
Top of the him near the panorama resturant, real island living.
Cycling along to the other island on the west side.
Thats the other Island connected via a cable bridge, also the other surf break that picks up more swell.
They farm alot os seaweed here, not sure what they use it for.
The cable bridge.
Mangrove
Many temples around, you can hear the mosque praying and the gamalan music going at the same time. Well I think it was a mosque.
I asked a old tourist lady from Califonia that seemed to be travelling by herself to take a this photo with my iphone, took a while to show her how to use it.
Deklan and Deb having a go at fishing with Aries uncle. There were no fish.
Shameless selfie on the boat.
Snorkling around Nusa Lembogan was surprisingly good, water quality was amzing and the coral was just as good as the Mentawai.
Ferry ride to Gili Trawagan, started off fine and then we hit the wind and current, was very rock and rolly.
The Italian girls in front got quite wet.
Main drag at Gili T, something out of a movie, bars resturants and hawkers everywhere.
Horse cart and bicycles only on the islands, o and no dogs as well, lots of cats.
North West side of the Island
Getting some shots from almost the highest point on the island.