Flores Island, Indonesia

Wow, been here nearly a week but seems a lot longer, couple of days in Bali where we organized our flight to Flores Island, wandered around in the heat & managed a Bintang ( beer) at Kuta beach. Flew to Flores on Tuesday morning via West Timor. All thoughts of putting our bikes together at the airport in Maumere went out with the midday heat so got a lift to accommodation, a lovely beach bungalow. Great place. Coconut on arrival then fresh fish lunch with the neighbours. Had a swim. Put our bikes together then got a lift to town to see a local fishing village & market. The people are so friendly, most obviously very poor & lots of rubbish about. There is just no where to put it, some burn what they can but the beaches at this spot are full of plastic. But all wanted us to take their photo & giggled when we showed it to them. Back to the beach for Fresh & fried tuna, eggplant & rice for dinner, table & chairs by the beach. We were told this was the best place on the island so stayed another day, great watching the fishermen early in the morning catching sardines and other  fish right off the beach. Lots of leaping fish flying over the nets.  Biked around the city, it was incredibly hot, survived the traffic & got ready to go. Plan to leave 6.45 am Thursday. A little daunting... It is light about 5 am and dark at 6 pm, no twilight just goes from light to dark really quickly. First day cycling, off early, passing all the kids on there way to school, they start at 7 am. Out the other side of the city & a steady climb up then undulating for a couple of hours. Hot hot hot !! Over the top & a nice down to Pago beach, 54 km took about 5 hours. Lunch at the only restaurant, nasi gorang plus shared a fried barracuda with a guide/taxi driver. We had planned to get a ride up the next 30 km hill so stayed at the beach for a couple of hours until he dropped off his tourists & came back for us. Had a swim. Great call getting the car, no way I could have ridden that! Trevor was wavering... but I made him stick to the plan! Windy switchback & very steep up. Took nearly 2 hours in the car. Moni is the town at the top, about 1200 metres up & cooler. Tourist spot near kelemutu national park. Great first day, traffic awesome, I really felt just a part of it, people walking along, motorbikes, cars, small trucks, the roads are narrow and windy, everyone has to go fairly slow & everyone slowed down & then tooted before they passed. Less stressful than riding in Taupo! So, so far so good. Climb up to kelimutu (without panniers)  tomorrow.