Day6
Well this day will never leave my memory I can tell you !!
It started all wrong in a small way but ended up good in a painful way !!
We were waiting at reception at 8.30 as Wayan had asked, we had requested him to organise this for us as you need a driver to get there, we obviously thought this is how you did your day trips.
Well by 8.45 we decided to ring him, as it is unusual for Bali people to be late. Unbeknown to us he was not coming himself, but had booked us all on to a tour company which I was not at all happy about as we had already decided that we did not want to be stuck to other peoples itinerary and stuck on a huge bus with a bunch of loud Germans or Americans or whatever.
Sorry to sound so horrible and racist - far from it - but it had happened to us many years previously on our last Bali trip when we had to cut short our day excursion as one lady had a fight with her partner and demanded to be returned to her hotel, and so the driver had rounded us all up and gave in to her wishes. Also, others on the tour were loud and not pleasant to be with.
Anyway Wayan explained that the bus must be waiting at the main hotel lobby not our residence lobby so we had to walk down there and sure enough there was a bus waiting. Not happy Jan !!
But lucky enough it only had one Aussie family on it - ma & pa and two tin lids about our kid's ages from Kalgoorlie. So the Gods were smiling on us after all, and the bus was a dream in comfort and great A/C so we were all happy again.
It turns out the other family (really nice group) were a bit concerned as to who they were waiting for due to a previous bad tour bus experience as well and were quite happy to see us all, and were not too mad at the delay thank goodness.
We drove for about 2 hours up to Kintamani volcano area. It was great, the scenes were fantastic and I was really disorientated and had no memories of this road even though I had done it twice before. The teens were snapping photos thru the windows like mad and of course the views were even better the higher we drove.
Now I really must add in here that we had 3 17yr olds on board, 2 of who had just got their drivers license and 1 was booked in for it after our return. The expressions on their faces and the Balinese driving methods were priceless. The gasps and ‘oh my gods' that they kept saying were keeping us all entertained as it had done on other days when we did the zoo trip, but this was far more ‘hairy' driving thru smaller villages and up a mountain!! We can only hope that none of them have picked up any of these driving habits for back home.
We arrived at a restaurant about 10.30 (I've no idea which one), the views into the volcano were magnificent so we spent about 15 mins happy snapping and had a few cold drinks and then we were told to go outside where we discovered a heap of pushbikes and men waiting to kit us all out. They did a good job and were very nice and chatty and fitted the younger kids out to the right sized bikes and me cause I am one very short and oversized lady (over 100kgs) so I am sure they died when they saw me coming !! Now I am big but had been exercising and preparing for this trip and had the previous month done a bike jaunt around Rottnest Island here off Perth so I knew I would do ok because all the reports said this was a downhill bike tour right - WRONG!!
Now I had decided on this tour rather than the Bali Baik tour that was greatly recommended for several reasons. Firstly, it finished at the elephant park so we could incorporate 2 trips out in one day and secondly most of the kids didn't eat Bali/ Indo type food so I didn't see the point in doing the Baik tour that finished at the house with traditional lunch when no one would eat it anyway.
Was this a good choice, not really as I found the ride totally terrifying but the teens and Pa totally loved it of course.
I did hear that the Sobek bike ride was a much tamer experience so I would like to hear about that one if anyone has that experience to tell me about.
Ok so we are all kitted out and on bikes and off we go, ridding flat past the restaurants and then we were pointed downhill and told to follow the guide.
Well my god I thought I was going to die !! I just was envisioning all amounts of blood and skin being coated on the road from both my kids and myself.
We are talking STEEP here !! By the time I finished squealing and getting down this first hill amazed that I was still in once piece my hands were killing me from the extra tight force I was squeezing those brake handles!!
I can tell you that after 2 and half hours of this ride my butt was the least of my pain problems, my thumb and palm were alternating between numb and thumping cause boy was I holding tight!!
I have to admit that I just left my kids to the care of ‘Pa' and the guides as it was all I could do to keep myself on two wheels, I certainly had no spare attention for them.
Now the teens were just zooming off having a ball, 'J' was even turning around shooting photos and riding one handed while I was having kittens watching him do these ‘stunts'. They have done lots of bike tours with police cadet camps so they were all quite experienced on bikes. My 10yr old rides well but not that often, and the 8yr old was not at all confident as he hasn't been riding as much. 'Pa' thought he was going over a few times he told me in the bus on the way home but he managed to stay on with dads encouragement and to do ok thru most of the journey.
I have to say that the guides were wonderful men. They were always talking you thru and giving support during the hard bits and encouraging all the way.
There was always one at the front and one at the rear and he always waited and stayed with whoever was last - an no it wasn't always me !!!
Yes, for those that are wondering, there were hills that actually went UP !!
Now while the downhills were terrifying the uphills were a killer !!
But I did the whole trip without getting in the support vehicle which I was proud off and I didn't hold anyone up and the huge bag of first aide stuff, dressings and Betadine I had brought along were not used thank goodness.
The two kids from the Kalgoorlie family appeared quite in-experienced on bikes and were often slower or held up behind me so that gave me a little boost to be in front of them and managing to stay upright ... sorry guys !!
Now I am probably the wrong person to rate this trip because the boys all loved it so you need to read thru this and realise that for many this bike trip would be fine but if you're my size and age then maybe not.
Now my biggest problem apart from the downhill terrors was the fact that the road was so full of potholes and very badly crumbled (for want of a better word - it looked just like the top of an apple crumble in many places!!). This was an issue as I had looked forward to this trip to be able to see and view the villages up close and although we stopped many times I was unable to enjoy the views as they flew by (when going downhill) or you really had to concentrate so hard on missing potholes and keeping your bike under your butt that I could not at all take my eyes of the road in front of my wheel !! We did stop at one of Bali's oldest villages while the guides gave a talk and about half way, we stopped and went into a families compound to meet them and see how they lived. This was great, their were about 5 generations all living in a few huts and it was explained how this family were one of the lower ‘class' in the Balinese villages around. The grandmother was 98 yrs old and there were kids everywhere, they showed us where they cooked and slept and we gave out a whole heap of clip on Koala bears that I had brought along. Decided to steer away from lollies and chuppa chups after reading advice on the forums.
The bears were a hit and we asked our guides if it was acceptable to offer them a gift of money as thanks for letting us see their homes.
They said it was ok, and so we all dug in and gave them about 200,000 rup between all of us and the other Kalgoorlie family did too so they were very happy it appeared.
Well I was none to happy to get back on the bikes but we did anyway and the journey continued. Now it wasn't steep or hilly anymore but still you had to concentrate as the path now meandered thru rice paddies and the path was not wider than 20cm I swear !
Now that would be ok except that either side of the path were ditches half a metre deep full of water so I knew if I wobbled too much and came off that was were I was going to be sitting !! It wouldn't have been a pretty sight - entertaining maybe !
Anyway, we made it thru this part and got to a road which was a heavenly welcome sight as it was in really good condition and we road downhill thru some beautiful forests and it was all shady and cool. Our next turn off was getting close to the elephant park and this became increasingly evident as we progress by the appearance of VERY LARGE lumps of elephant poop!! We had a laugh but soon stopped laughing as we got closer to the park the poop increased in quantity and it became quite a skill to try and manouvour your bike wheel around them and stay on the path.
I just knew that if I was to come off then that wasn't going to be pretty cause what was under my feet was not looking inviting !! Once again, I wasn't in the rear there were others behind me all squealing and doing their best avoidance tactics.
However, we all survived intact and arrived to the back entrance to the elephant park and it was just wonderful.
I couldn't walk, feel my butt or move my hands and fingers but the sights at the park almost made up for that !!
I will continue the elephants later as I must go and prepare for our post-Bali BBQ get together with the boys and parents so we can swap photos and experiences.
Catch ya next instalment
Cheers Deb