15 - 17 July 2008: Flores, part 2 – Kelimutu three coloured lakes

Click here to read part 1 of the story.

On day four, we got up at 4am to see the sun rise over Gunung Kelimutu and its three coloured crates lakes – one light brown, another dark green and the biggest one turquoise. The lakes were stunning and well worth the mammoth journey to get to them! We lingered on the top for a long time, waiting for the sun to light up the lakes so that we would see their full potential. Suddenly we heard two very familiar voices. It was the group of Brits that we'd met on our second trip to Rinjani (white office shirt, blue t-shirt and bobble hat).



We walked back down to Moni along the road and heard some snakes in the grass. We also saw one yellow and green snake and a dead grey one on the road. A shortcut would save us 6km, but we weren't keen to take it after the encounters with our reptile friends. Luckily we met a local man who showed us the way. The shortcut ended up being the highlight of the day. We met lots more locals and chatted with them in our broken Bahasa Indonesian. A lot of the old ladies had been chewing betel nuts most of their lives, so there wasn't much left of their teeth and their gums were bright red. However, they had the biggest grins on their faces. Just before arriving back in Moni, we saw a very nice waterfall which was a great finish for the walk.

The following day (day five), we tried to catch the public bus. The two buses were full so a helpful local man hailed a people carrier to take us to Maumere (three hours). We forgot to take the travel sickness pills soon enough so felt pretty sick the whole way.

Once in Maumere, we caught a bemo – with a great sound system and loud music thumping away – to a hotel called Sunset Cottages. Although they were full, they waited until we had eaten before telling us. However, the owner helped us book into Wodong Beach Cottages. These were pretty compact, clean and comfortable, and the menu was far superior to Sunset Cottages. .
On the last day, we said our goodbyes to Taavi and caught the flight from Maumere to Bali. There was even a scheduled stop on the island of Sumba for 30 minutes.