OK Renting a motorbike probably wasn't my best idea - but we are starting to recover!

One of the things I like about writing this blog is the ability to look at the statistics and see how many people are actually having a look at what I write - it is very encouraging that some people are  in fact taking the time to log on to see what Sandra and I are up to. However I am disappointed, although not in the least surprised, that readership traffic consistently varies in direct proportion to the level of crises in which we find ourselves. Postings that cover our many disasters such as Sandra re-attaching my ear; bogged down in a croc-infested swamp; marooned for over a week on a water-logged Oodnadatta track etc etc have been very "popular" i.e. the viewing stats have been high with over 500 viewings a day. However posts relating to more pleasant, enjoyable times with no obvious danger to life or limb have proved to be far less "popular".

Whilst viewing figures may have recently dropped off slightly it did not cross my mind for one instant to spice things up to increase readership by hiring a motorbike! My motor biking days are well behind me,  in fact if I am honest they weren't "days" but part of an afternoon which ended with me and a Norton Commando in a ditch. I have never ridden a motorbike since - until yesterday! I now know why motorcyclists wear leathers - it allows them to hang onto their skin when they crash. 

Part of the problem is where we are staying on the east coast of Bali.

Blue Moon Villa is quite idyllic perched on a headland with panoramic sea views, the obligatory massive bed, private gardens and private infinity pool - far beyond what a couple of pensioners should be spending their pennies on - although as Sandra says "It's only the once". Trouble is she keeps on saying it! Life here has become very relaxed lounging round the pool doing bugger all but eating, drinking and watching the local fishing fleet coming and going - so yesterday we decided to go snorkelling - it seemed sensible as we had lugged all our snorkelling gear from Scotland. Trouble was the best snorkelling beach was about 5k away, too far to walk in the sweltering heat, so we decided to rent a motorbike for a couple of days.

We had watched the locals on their motorbikes - dad driving, one youngster in front of dad, one youngster behind dad and mother bringing up the rear hanging onto the baby, a weeks shopping and a few crates of chickens - surely this must be a doddle? Personally I blame the bike for its inherent lack of stability - with my 16 stone, Sandra's not insubstantial tonnage and a backpack full of snorkels we teetered off to our fate - which hit us as I attempted a u-turn on a sandy road. At this point Sandra insists that I include that she did warn me by shouting in my ear to "Watch out for the sand". An over-enthusiastic touch on the throttle, a bit of injudicious brake work and Sandra disappeared somewhere behind me and I ended up underneath the bike - bloodied, scraped, bruised with the bike on top of me, engine running, and the ignominity off an instant crowd to the rescue. A second, and I suspect final, chapter in my motorbikng career!

All this and I'm afraid the snorkelling wasn't even all that good - pretty poor coral although not a bad turn out from the local fish.

Back to the mundane next time with holiday snaps of our tropical idyll and no dramas.

Arrival in Bali

We arrived at Darwin airport for our trip to Bali along with a squad of men uniformly dressed in black singlets, black shorts, thongs and covered in tattoos - they were going for a week end works outing to the fleshpots. One of the group stood out as he was younger than the rest, had hardly any tats and was the son of a friend of ours from Humpty Doo - this was Billy, Vicki's wee laddie. When I somewhat tongue in cheek suggested that he stayed sober one of the more severely tattooed older men said there was no chance of that and Billy would soon be downing tequilas whilst getting his tattoos extended - this was Billy's boss. Gill / Vicki you'll have to let us know how he got on.

After an uneventful flight we arrived in Denpasar which was heaving with traffic and flashing blue lights - the president if Indonesia was in town and the police were taking no chances.

The Watergarden in Candidasa is very pleasant and we are now ensconced in our water bungalow which is very private and, as the name suggests, surrounded by water and an amazing amount of tropical greenery. Needless to say Sandra has discovered the Spa and, before we have even started to explore the local area, she has disappeared for a massage leaving me to be entertained by our neighbours who live a few feet away i.e. hundreds of koi carp (I think - very big goldfish at least) mind you I can't complain too much about the massage as for about $10 (about £5.50) I am getting an hour's worth of peace and she says it will relax her.

Hoards of Mozzies, Greeks and Crocodiles

Well that's two weeks in Humpty Doo and we are starting to get itchy feet again – just as well we are off to Bali for a few weeks on Friday – as I've probably said before “It's a hard life!”

We had a trip to Howard Springs which is half way between Humpty Doo and Darwin. Originally a recreation spot for WW2 troops to swim and cool off it is now a leisure complex for Darwinians to relax and have a BBQ although the water is not safe for swimming. On both of our visits there were very few visitors and I think I know why – the place is infested by mozzies the size of crows!! We did two walks, the first to the source of the springs with water flowing up through the ground and the second, longer walk following a creek for about 1.8k. It terms of mozzie swatting it could be described as a “target rich environment” - often being able to swat 3 or 4 with a single swipe. Apart from that one drawback it was a very attractive place.

Keeping a weather eye out for mozzies at the source of the springs

The main pool at Howard Springs - but no swimming

Darwin has a very large Greek population and last weekend the Esplanade saw the celebration of all things Greek – particularly food, music and dancing then even more food. This was the famous Glenti which featured some of the largest BBQ's we had ever seen. Sandra, Johann and I spent an hour or so watching, listening and eating - with octopus featuring high on the menu.

Traditional Greek dancing at the Glenti

Talking of menus (sick link I'm afraid) the recent talk of the town in this part of the Northern Territory has been the latest croc attack. A man, his wife, son and daughter-in-law were in a boat on a billabong in Kakadu National Park when a large saltwater croc took him from the boat. The two women drove for a couple of hours over rough ground to get help (presumably leaving the son behind to keep watch) but it was too late. Armed Park Rangers eventually arrived on the scene and shot a couple of 15+ foot crocs and found some of the man's remains inside them. Crocs are a protected species and their numbers have risen from a critical 3000 some years ago to an estimated 100,000-200,000. Visitors beware – keep away from water if you want to avoid a “death roll!”

Croc attack - headlines in local paper

 

Sandra and I have been entertaining ourselves by tearing round Gill's 5 acre block on Lawrie's quad bike – all good fun.

Sandra Quadbiking

Sandra Quadbiking - me Terrified, with much justification!

Calming down in spa after quadbiking

Sandra, Stretch and Johann are taking a day trip to the Tiwi Islands tomorrow whilst I attend to getting the car to the garage for repair. The it's off to Bali for where the next blog will be posted provided I can get internet access.

Honda, Humpty Doo and Creedence Clearwater Revival

After Sandra's “near death” (sort of) experience on our rather warm walk at Edith Falls we debated whether to have a rest day to recuperate and get the body fluids back to normal or just to head off - we headed off. We were only a few hundred k's short of Sandra's sister Gill's place in Humpty Doo near Darwin so we hit the road early and arrived not long after lunchtime.

Gill and Lawrie live on a five acre block about 1k off the Arnhem Highway. The house and grounds tend towards the tropical exotic particularly around the house and spa which are surrounded by various types of palm tree. The weather in Humpty Doo can be summed up in one word - “hot” although that is a bit misleading as it can be “hot dry” or “hot wet”. It is currently “hot dry” which basically means sunny, cloudless days when the temperature seldom falls below 32C – thus the importance of the spa. When the heat gets too much you jump into the water to cool down then go on to ice cold beer therapy – it's the only way to survive!

Cooling off in Gill's garden

We have now been here a week and have been joined by Johann and Stretch, so now the three Thomson Girls – Johann, Sandra and Gillian – are together again for the first time in four years. I will refrain from my usual comment that their coming together reminds me of the opening scene from Shakespeare's Macbeth! Coincidentally it was Sandra's birthday so we had a combined reunion-cum-birthday party then it was out with the photo album for a reminiscence session.

The Birthday Girl with Big Sister

The Thomson Girls reviewing their past

As well as a bit of well earned R & R we are starting to prepare for the next leg of the trip. The car needed a service and I was still not happy about the suspension, so I put it into the Honda main dealer in Darwin. I was rather floored to be hit with a bill for over $1000 plus the unwelcome news that there was still over $700 worth of work which also needed to be done. I have owned quite a few cars over the years and have never had to replace a shock absorber, now in the four months we have been using the Honda, I have replaced SEVEN shock absorbers. I think dirt roads will have to be avoided in future – although, to be honest, we haven't really done any even moderately severe four wheel driving. We are now dumping much of our heavier gear and, where possible, replacing it with lighter versions in order to put less strain on the Honda.

Driving back along the Stuart Highway, having just been parted from $1000, I encountered a further car problem as I was being overtaken by a Road Train. For those who don't know, Road Trains are large trucks which tow up to four even larger trailers often running on 80 or so massive tyres – they are very common in this part of the world and you mess with them at your peril. The road was very busy as one of these monsters overtook me to my right when suddenly there appeared to be an explosion and I was showered with glass. I assume that the Road Train had kicked up a rock and it had shattered the drivers window. More by luck than skill I managed to control the car and pulled up off the edge of the highway – then it was off again to look for someone to repair the car – is this never ending? Luckily it was covered by the insurance, unluckily the up/down switch controlling the window was damaged and the windscreen place didn't have the spare part – so now, several days later, I can't use the window as I wait to hear if the part has arrived.

Talking of cars, and luckily this time not mine, yesterday I got a call from Gill's next door neighbour Carol asking if we had heard anything the night before - apparently a car had crashed into her property. Being a nosey bugger I hot-footed across the road with a camera where I met Carol sifting through a burnt out wreck and wondering how we, and particularly she, had not heard the crash nor seen the ensuing 20 foot high inferno. Still, good things can come from bad. Carol is an artist with a gallery in Darwin and, probably like all artists, is a little bit crazy and off-beat and she was collecting pieces of molten windscreen and aluminium to be incorporated in future artistic creations – I doubt if the car owner will object.

...and no-one heard the crash of saw the flames!

Carol salvaging wreckage for future art works

Last night Laurie, Stretch, Sandra and I went to the World Famous Humpty Doo Pub (Google it if you don't believe me) for a Creedence Clearwater Revival night performed by a group from Melbourne called Creedence Clearwater Recycled – I am not making this up! And, surprise! surprise! it was all good fun with a selection of CCR songs and other weel kent songs mainly from the 60's and 70's. The clientèle provided as much interest as the band with dress of the day being a combination of singlets, thongs, straggly beards and tattoos – and the men weren't much better! Stretch did comment that the crowd probably wouldn't have gone down too well in Sydney but, no problem, this was Humpty Doo.

Creedence Clearwater Recycled - old enough to be the originals - but good with it

And the band played on

Sandra and the girls in the Humpty Doo Pub

A "selfie" in the Humpty Doo Pub

The clientele of the Humpty Doo Pub

Sandra and I are planning a break from touring round Australia and on Friday 13 June are flying to Bali for a holiday. We have book flights and initially a few nights accommodation in The Watergarden Hotel which has been voted one of Asia's best hotels and one of the top ten romantic hotels in Bali – we shall see.