Cycling to Tual

We have now been in Indonesia nearly two weeks so it was definitely time to get on the bikes and go exploring. We are anchored off a beautiful coral fringed beach on the island of Kai Kecil and the main town of Tual is only about twenty kilometers away through the forest and over the hill.

We took the bikes to shore with absolutely no wind. The water was like glass and we could see every detail of all the beautiful coral as we passed over them. What a way to start a bike ride.

All the maps agree that there is no track from our beach through the forest but luckily they are all wrong and a road took us in to the first village from where we meandered past farms and through villages towards Tual.

We greeted everyone we met with Selamat Pagi and received a Pagi in reply. Occasionally we received a Hello Mister or Hello Misses and even one Goedemorgen from Jan who was dutch. Pedestrians or scooter passengers made photos or video clips as we passed to show their friends that they had seen real europeans in the street.

We took a shortcut through the backstreets and ended up lost as the road had disappeared but a young mother gathered up her baby and went ahead to show us the way. She explained the route we should follow in Indonesian so we smiled and thanked her with a Terima Kasih and continued to follow the GPS.

We rode to the bridge that connects the towns of Langgur to Tual where we were extras for the passing schoolgirls selfies. We looked at the rubbish filled water of the bay and decided that we were better on our coral beach. A coffee was followed by amazing street food. Heidi ordered by pointing at stuff and after we had finished the seller came to take pictures with her international clientele.

We visited the biggest supermarket on the island and filled our rucsacs with supplies then, on the way home, bought vegetables from a roadside stall and tied them to the outside in an Aldi bag. Later we found a banana seller so tied those on as well. After 45 kilometers we were glad to be home but had enjoyed a fantastic trip through the backwoods of the island.

Our route is at Alltrails.

Some of our photos are in our Indonesia album.