This is not a continuous riding blog. It is just a riding story from last year.

I live here in Indonesia and have for about 20 years or so. I have always ridden a motorcycle here and always will, until I am crippled. Cars just don’t cut it here (or anywhere!). I have always been a rider and have done some major trips all around the world, mostly by myself. It’s hard to explain how great it is to decide to hang a left and have no one question you no matter how bad the choice was.

Anyway, I recently had an epic ride out to one of the more unknown islands in the archipelago, that being Sumba island. I was looking at the prospect of working out there and decided that I must SEE this place and get a feel before taking a job there. I had heard a lot about the island over the years and as I was blissfully unemployed at the time I made the decision to head out. Its 4 islands and 3 ferry rides to get out there. I had a quiver of several bikes at the time and had to make the choice of which one to take. I had a Honda CRF250 rally, a Honda CRF 150L and a bunch of Kawasaki KLX 150’s. It was basically a choice between the 250 and the 150 Hondas. I didn’t actually make up my mind until the night before I left. I’m 58 years old, 6’3” and 180lbs. I chose the Honda CRF 150. A fateful decision that most people would think is weird but one I will never regret. So I strapped on my MINIMAL gear and took off. It was a 4 day trip out to Sumba if all goes well. 2 of the islands, Bali and Lombok that am very familiar with so I kind of blew through those 2 and got a quick connection on the ferry between the 2. Next day I broke into some new territory by crossing to Sumbawa. I got there in the evening and there was pretty much no hotel or anything, so I blasted on through the night and found a little field to sleep in. I don’t carry sleeping gear. Its warm and it was the dry season, so just hunker down and wait for the sun to come up. Sumbawa is a gorgeous island and one well worth exploring in the future, roads are perfectly fine with some broken bits. There are lots of smaller roads to go off on and explore, but I was making a B line to the end of the island. Sumbawa is mostly agricultural and mostly Muslim in religion, I state that because I was traveling through the island right during Idul Fitre which is one of the biggest celebrations in Islam. So it added a twist to some things besides just everyone in really good spirits! There is no booze on the island at all though, different spirit. So I actually spent the next night in a dump hotel and then headed out to the next ferry port in the town of Sapi at the farthest end of the island, I also checked out another port city called Bima, pretty busy prosperous little town, but who cares, move on.

Now by this time I was getting very well acquainted with the 150. I was wondering if I made a mistake but so far so good. I had ridden it a lot on Bali so was comfortable already with the bike being basically too small for my body. But you know what? You GET USED TO STUFF! After a while it felt perfect, I took it off road in Sumbawa and smashed through some rough roads and always felt in control because it’s basically  lightweight bike and if I got in a shitty situation I could always yard the thing out of trouble easily by myself. I put Pirelli Scorpion AT tires on and had no regrets about them on or off road especially on road. Great tires.

So, I arrive in Sapi and started to look into the ferry ride to Sumba. It was actually the main day of idul fitre so the town was sort of shut down, just local markets selling food furiously to everyone. One strange thing was that for some reason a toy salesman or 2 came into town and all they were selling was toy guns and rifles. All the parents decided it would be a great idea to buy their kids a plastic AK 47 for one of the most peaceful holidays in the calendar. So every other kid, and there are a lot of them, was happily pointing their guns at me the whole time I was there! I don’t know what you can read into that but it was interesting. Some other Americans arrived on a bus to catch a different ferry and they were absolutely appalled about the plastic gun thing. I am very happy they got on another boat. Anyway after being promised for 2 days that the ferry was leaving and it never did, the ticket man came to my hotel and told me I could buy a ticket. So I did, and we left. It was a 9 hour ride and the weather was a bit rough at times but ok overall. Slept on some plywood platforms. The bike was lashed to a bulkhead.

So I finally arrived in Sumba at the port of Wetebula. A rough and broken dock but everything got off ok.  First thing I needed fuel. Indonesia has a decent national fuel company called Pertamina. There are only 2 stations on the island and they only sell premium (very low grade petrol) and diesel. Everyday there are HUGE lines to fill up that take ages to get through so there is a budding industry of people that just sell fuel on the road right outside the station. Cost a bit more but it is faster. Fuel is subsidized in Indonesia so it’s pretty cheap on a worldwide scale, quite cheap, so I never complain. Finding fuel out in the bush was a different story. Sumba is a pretty big island, 11,000 sq kilometers or 4,200 square miles. My first business was to go to the other big town in the east, Waigapu. I wanted to check on another ferry and was supposed to meet someone. The road between Tambolaka (town near the port) and Waingapu turned out to be just excellent. New pavement mostly and weaving through all kinds of terrain form open plains, to luscious twisting forest road to dry canyons. And there is NO other traffic! OK of course there is some but for the most part just blasting away with no worries. Its about a 3.5 hour drive to Waingapu and I really enjoyed it. I named it the spine road as it goes basically on the spine of the island, clever. Waingapu is the capital and it is another sleepy, prosperous port town. Nothing to see really but a good base it would turn out. Even a Honda shop there, not that I needed it but a good place to buy quality oil. ‘Im a fanatic for changing oil and will do it whenever the bike says so. No oil filters on these bikes.

So, I decided to start exploring the east and south coast. It started as mostly straight line coastal road, near the beach a lot of the time. The north side of the island is in the lee so it doesn’t have very magical beaches with surf, so not so much to see and I was more into moving. The road would go through desolate barren stretches of limestone sloping areas then burst into small river valleys where everything is tropical green. A lot of goats, Brahma cows and buffalo to thread your way through sometimes. There are also MANY horses and everyone rides them as just normal transport.  Sumbanese people I found to be really friendly, but they are never the first ones to smile I found out. But after a smile and wave on my part they completely change. Kids go wild. Sometimes I would be so concentrated on waving and smiling I would almost crash, hehe! As I continued down the east coast it was more of the same but seemed to be getting more green. The road condition got worse also and it became a ride where you had to keep an eye out for the next shitty area or a massive dry pothole. This would become the norm. As most riders I would imagine, I tend to drive faster and more aggressively as the day gets on, but maybe that’s just me. I loved the challenge of maintain good speed on really shitty roads though.

I don’t really travel with any navigation equipment, but I really wanted to record where I was going at every minute. I ended up using an app for the phone call MAVERICK. There was hardly ever a phone signal (nice!) on the majority of the island but the app got GPS coverage everywhere, so it worked well. Chewed through power pretty fast but I had extra batteries. I could use it a little bit for route planning, but it was mostly for recording tracks. Maps of Sumba are few and far between and very poor. But Maverick had an amazingly accurate map system, it was just hard to see in the sun light. But I really was impressed with it for it just being an app for a phone. I upgraded to maverick PRO. OK enough phone stuff.

As this was my first real excursion on rougher secondary roads I wasn’t really aware of distances or fuel availability. I was also not really sure of my route either. But I started to see the amazing south coast of Sumba. I got fuel some shacks that sell it on the side of the road and thought that would be the case for the rest of the roads but it wasn’t. I continued pressing on, on sometimes non almost nonexistent roads and mostly rough broken roads that required all my attention. But it was great riding. As the sun was getting low I decided to stay on a beach for the night. Made a little camp and beach combed for awhile then slept. Once again I was hardly ever seeing any other vehicles. A few villages along the way here and there. Luckily I found some fuel the next morning and made my way back up to Waingapu the next afternoon. Now I was starting to get a handle on how far I could go on a tank which turned out to be way more than I ever thought. When that little light starts flashing on the fuel gauge I had an easy 75km left on the tank, knowing that made a difference in the future. I spent the next 2 weeks covering the east part of the island and took another jaunt over to the west end to find a job location. The interior of the island proved to be amazing. Rolling hills of brown grass and then diving into ravines. Most of the roads were continuously rough and I was pretty beat up at the end of each day. I found cheap hotels to stay in, in Waingapu and used them as daily bases.  

I decided to go over the far north end of the island on this trip across. This is also quite arid land. Long straight road going up to a barren plain and big enough that I couldn’t see the coast anymore. There were small ranches around with a few cows and lots of horses. They build the corrals out of rough limestone stacked in a very distinct pattern and it must take ages. They look brilliant also. As the road goes on you get more into rolling hills with the road running on the ridges of the hills so you can see all the land around you. This was a great and very unique chunk of road. Then it turns into little green valley with some streams. The road is mostly just one lane. I did this trip with variations several times. This is a very cool rarely visited part of the island.

When I said I pack minimally, I mean it. I have one waterproof bag that I lash to the little back rack that has tools, small air compressor, medical kit, rags and a few clothes. Then I strap just a regular back pack onto the tank top with phone and food and documents. That’s it. I only bring enough food for a lunch or snack. I secure everything as tight (REALLY TIGHT) as possible to prevent from bouncing off on all day bumpy riding. If I dump there are no bulky paniers or the like to get smashed or torn up. It a good simple light system and I used it for all 7 weeks on the island and will continue to do so. I would never leave anything in the hotel because what I pack I could possibly need and…….it’s not much. Dinner in town was always my reward. And a beer or 2. They have beer on Sumba.

At about the 2 week mark after riding every day I had to get back to Bali for some immigration issues. There are 2 decent small airports on Sumba believe it or not. So I left the bike with a friends brother and jumped on a 1 hour flight back to Bali from Waingapu. I did my business in Bali and was back in Sumba in 3 days. One note, when I was back in Bali I decided to take the CRF 250 out for a spin to compare the bikes after being a part of the 150 for 2 weeks. I put the 250 up for sale before I left!!

So now I’m back on Sumba for the 2nd leg of the trip. I went straight back to the east end of the island to really explore the work site. It took awhile to find it but it was pretty nice. They were in the process of building a perfect brand new road out to the area. This road came from Tambolaka and flows the coast very close on the north west corner of the island. There is minimal development out there but that’s what the road is being built for. But in the meantime it was all mine! Just rippin along. The coast is very rough 20 meter cliffs of sharp limestone that you can drive out to the edge on and give your tires a nice chew for sure. But it is worth going out to the edge, awesome coast. Nobody there except some smoke fish camps with no one in them. I went south from the site and you go through some very traditional Sumbanese villages with the alang alang roofs and pointy angled roof. They bury their people above ground in these large stone (or concrete) rooms with a big slab stone ontop of them. All the kids play on them and they are everywhere. The rest of the coast down to Nihiwatu was very rough going and went through huge cocoa plantations. That was a rough but enjoyable day. Now I was based back in Tambolaka and was spending time in the center coast trying to find another property. The area from the spine down to the coast proved to have more mind blowing EMPTY beaches with huge rock formations and lagoons and rivers. Some didn’t even have a foot print on them. The south coast is quite famous for surfers but they generally stick to specific breaks or surf charter boats are very popular so you don’t really see many surfers. The roads leading down to the beaches were long windy single car roads some good, some non existent. Lots of cool cows and goats again and wide wide open spaces. You get a sense of how big the island is in these areas. Once again nobody around. One venture I went down a really steep trail that I almost dumped many times, no way you could get a car down it and what do you know there is a full on village down there! Beautiful black sand and rock beach. People looking at me like what the hell are you doing here….

I rode to the famous Nihiwatu resort which is very exclusive and voted best resort in the world at some time and they wouldn’t let me in! Not even for a beer. Too dirty I guess.

Culturally, Sumba is unique and very interesting. There is a very strong Christian influence and many, many churches. But I think this is a veneer. The locals still wear their swords with a sash and wear it proudly. Even younger guys, which is a sign of cultural strength as they haven’t given up and gone to the city. The original “religion” I guess would be animism. Many of the churches, although built in a traditional Christian style still sneak some Sumbaneese architecture in them. I like that. The traditional Sumbaneese villages are awesome and you get to see them often when riding. I guess the only disappointment would be that they are changing the roofing structure from traditional grass roofs (alang alang) to corrugated iron and many of them are vibrant blue and red colors. They look like spaceships coming over the horizon. Maybe the blue and red corrugated iron was on sale, I don’t know. But it has become a strange change to the once wonderful architecture of Sumba. But there are still a lot of grass roofs out there. There are a few villages with Muslim people doing mostly shop keeping

On another excursion I was trying to find a small road through an area that showed on my map. I stopped and asked young guy if I could get through, which I really thought I could and he said NO. Well, he was right. I spent 2 hours riding in and around the river bed taking apart cattle gates to get through and I kinda got lost but eventually decided my road didn’t exist. So I took a wrong turn and started riding a cattle track with razor grass covering most of it, I keep going and run into a small hut. This is in the middle of nowhere! Some old dude sticks his head out and we both did a WTF and started laughing! What are you doing here!? No, what are you doing here!? So I turned around and found my missing cow gate. The kid laughed at me on the way out.

In Indonesia they are taught a language called Bahasa Indonesia. It is what is taught in all school. They needed a language that everyone can understand and speak because there are SOOOOO many different dialects in Indonesia. I have been all over this country and you can usually speak it with most everyone. In the bush on Sumba they just stare you in the face. Most people over 25 or so don’t know it and I don’t know Sumbanese. But you get by.

So now I’m starting to think… I better start thinking about how to get the bike off the island. I spent some time in Tambolaka asking everyone about when that ferry that I came in on will be back. No one knew. Its broken, its canceled, they bankrupt, its out for service, there is no such boat….etc etc. I even went to shipping office. I also asked this French guy that owns a restaurant there and he didn’t even know and that’s how he gets most of his food!  So I went riding for another couple days and left the bike at the French guy (His restaurant is the best treat on the island, called G&G) and I flew back to Bali for some more silly business. Another quick flight, but I had to spend about 10 days in Bali this time. I flew to East Timor and did some riding there on a rental…but that’s another good story for later.

So back to Sumba for the 3rd leg of what is becoming an epic journey and I am really digging Sumba. My bike is performing flawlessly also…. So I changed the oil again! I had very specific targets on this leg as I had talked to some friends who had some ideas. They started on the south mid coast. I painstakingly went down every track to every beach and whatever to find certain places and just to document them and see them. This coast will be developed soon. You can tell. Im glad I saw it while it was still…..you guessed it….EMPTY. Most of the roads around here were tough. A lot of bulldozed limestone which was tough. I had a couple of dumps and scraps in this area. But all worked out. I definitely stomped the terra in this area. Very cool riding. Then I decided to go back to the east side again and try to find another property. I searched and searched for a road or even a path that would lead me to where I wanted to go and was never successful but got into some amazing unforgettable places, bamboo groves, strange valleys, just on and on. But I never made into the place I wanted to get to and god knows I tried. Then I tried going into the east center of the island from the top. I got dead ended many times and had to back track a lot. This is a more arid part of the island. One road took me across 4 or so rivers and then up to some unreal waterfalls and guess what? Nobody was there. I went further in trying to find another one of my mystery rods and ended up at a dead end village. These 2 young guys came up and asked what I was doing and they wanted to take me to another waterfall. I was disappointed that I couldn’t find my road so I declined and went poking around other dead ends. Then decided to go back to where those guys were. I insisted to them that there was away out further. They said no again but we went up to see the waterfall that was only 100 meters up the way. This waterfall was AMAZING. No one there of course. Not tall and crashing but wide and running through all kinds of calm pools and gutters and chutes. Just amazing and clean pure water, I drank a bunch and didn’t get sick. We started exploring a bit on the other side of the river and there actually WAS a way to go. It would have taken all 3 of us to get the bike across but it was some sort of an old road. So since it was getting late and I was in pretty deep I told the guys to expect me the next day but I would be coming from the other side. He said….

My plan was to try and find the other end of that road  and get to the river in time to find the guys and haul the bike over the river. Easy right? The next day I rode all the way around the area to enter from the west. I found a road and it seemed to be going in the right direction. The road turned into cow trails at best and I made it through some pretty rough casems that I wasn’t looking forward to revisiting but kept moving on. I am seeing no one around here. Just cows. I’m riding on the side of a hill and hit a bad rock bump and the bike falls on the down side of the hill. I gashed my shin open pretty bad. I get the bike sorted and get down to a little plateau and get out the medical kit and start to get to work. So now I have to make a decision. Should I press on to MAYBE find the river or lick my wounds and head back? Turning back was my decision due to the gash and the time. It’s a regret, but I will do again someday. I ended up making it back through the hairy parts without a hitch. The rest of the days ride was brilliant. My wound healed fine.

So now I’m back in Waigapu and I’m thinking I really need to find some transport to get off the island. I mean I could have stayed longer but as fate would have it there was a RoRO ship coming THAT NIGHT that was going to Lombok. So I got a ticket and my Sumba journey was over. The baot was big old truck carrier. Everyone sleeps on mats on the passenger deck. Very fine 29 hour ride to Lombok.

Lombok had just gone through a really bad spate of earthquakes and I wanted to see what happened as some friends wanted to donate a bunch of tents. The north west side of the island was in very bad shape, but they had a lot of agencies helping.

So I got the ferry across to Bali and that was it. 5432 kilometers door to door and about 7 weeks of broken travel. I CANNOT say enough about Sumba for riding and everything else. I have only told a few tales in this story but this is a place where I would end a day and ask myself what can I possibly see or do to match what I did today and the next day would be even better! In the end I did get the job in Sumba and will be moving there very soon. I have been back twice since the end of my trip. The Honda CRF 150 is still strong and ready to go. I think I will change the oil again.