#swithback

Getting there is half the fun. We snorkelers from Riung needed to get to Ende, Swiss to catch a plane, me to Moni for volcanoe clinmbing. Sam tried to get us on the bus but someone had chartered it, and there was no bus Monday so  he charteredus a Bemo. A Bemo is a van converted to benches to stuff in as many people and  produce/cargoe as possible. We could go to the nex town where transport to Ende would be plentiful(sic). The lovely Indonesian girl travelling with the Swiss guy chatered  with the driver and we chartered all the way to Ende(5 hours) for $12 each. Good thing  as the only thing moving in the next town were some dogs, no transport. We were the only Bemo on the road, as evidenced by  shouting waving women trying to stop us for a ride. We squeezed onr Muslim hijabbed lady in, though she was repelled by the sight pf us heathens Up over the Spine of Flores, a mountain road that alternated  switchbach jungle  with surprisingly large flat valley bottoms filled with verdant green rice paddys. Former lava troughs from the surrounding volcanoes?

  Descending to the sea the road was blasted and hacked out of the  nearly vertical hillsides , and snaked around bare bluffs and  sharp turns in gullys. Al lthis with zooming motorcycles and transport trucks on both sides of the narrow road.  Our country bumpkin driver put  down his cell phone and stopped texting long enough to smoke another cigarette. Everybody smokes, cigarettes are $1 a pack, and banners advertising them read, “ Are you strong enough? Never quit!”

 In Ende, a steamy port town, where the ferrys ( think BC ferry rejects from 1960) leave for more remote islands, our driver was lost and nervous in traffic, and he tried to dump us at the nearest bus station. Nope, we had him hire a local on a motorcycle to guide us th the Moni bus stop, a thatched  shelter beside the roaring road. Here the German couple anounced they needed an ATM. and retreated into town. I was hussled by the bus wrangler(I hate it when someone grabs my pack and trots off), but bought him a coke and he got friendly, put my big bag up in a secure place on the roof rack, and me in the back of the bus behind the chattering ladys, little kids, and a short climb over bags of groceries, beside the Egyptian faced smoker and the Muslim lady barfing into a bag. Prime seating!

 Off we clattered up a sheer sided rock valley on another chopped from the hillside road, where a pretty little stream foamed among big rocks. Presumably the foam from laundry being pounded on the rocks by local ladys living in bamboo huts perched on any flat spot. When, in the dry season, did the first people venture away from the sea and go up this 10 mile canyon, which would have been wall to wall water in the rains? Were they fleeing sea raiders? Needing room for agriculture?  There is only oral history and it does not go fat back.

     2  hours of climbing into cooler altitudes, leaving the bamboo for full sized forest trees, and  passing a few side valleys filled with tiny towns. There are people everywhere, and they are cutting all the accessible trees, milling them with chain saws, and using the off cuts for cooking firewood. We stopped for no discenible reasons here and there, rolled a drunk out the door, and gotto the big valley of Moni town. Here the bus offloadedme  on a side road, where the nicelady from Palm bungalows hd her brothe rin law  take me to  my reccomende guest house. I think the Swiss guy who reccomended it  stayed in the more expensive bungalows. I got a bamboo sweat box, for $20, an outrageous price, but I had prepaid online with my credit card ,so... I stayed. Walked back to Palm for a ggod lunch and booked a room for the next night, 3 times the size, private bath, windows and porch. off the road, all for $5 more. there were cute bamboo cabins for $5, but I chose the deluxe. Sometimes it is best to buck up and enjoy. Some people try to travel for as little as possible, eating crap food and sleeping in mosquitoe haunted rooms. With my daily budget of $50 all in, I can usually travel and stay for $30, using the surplus for upgrdes and tours.

 Next day I rented a m.c. from Palm and moved there. The Honda automatic had 200,000 k, but ran well. I used it to ride up Kelimutu volcanoe on a switchbacked but well paved road with no traffic. Tough to drive on the left! Tougher to power up the sharp corners, leaning the bike, and watching the spectacular views unfold.  Hey, you did’nt think I hiked  5 miles up to 10000 feet?! The vegetation changed abruptly when I paid and entered the park. Big trees, masses of roadside ferns, natural cover, uncut. Topping the last ridge, I parkd and hiked the final mile on a paved path, up 1000 steps to the summit of the inactive volcanoe. The calderas, are filled with lakes, chemically coloured, black(#1), Blue(#2) and brilliant tourqoise. They are perhaps 200 meters across, in sheer sided cliffs.