July 4, 2023
Day 65 - Upwards and downwards in gloom
The rain stopped sooyn after lunch yesterday. I put my head down to a relatively starry sky. And then, in the wee hours, rain started again. But at 6 am it's stopped. I'll pack and leave. No I won't, it's bucketing down. Why not another coffee? Ricky and I discussed how he needed a covered area.
There was a lull in the rain at 8.30 so I jumped on my steed not knowing that I would spend almost the entire day cycling in hard rain. Everything became difficult - glasses wet and fogged, odometer impossible to see, phone difficult to use, etc.
I knew that I'd be going up and so was a bit disgruntled to go down for a few kms. I think it was so I really did start at sea level. But it wasn't long before I turned upstream and the climb was on.
Even the road was surprisingly quiet, so much different from Sunday's ride when the road was busy and the boy racers were out in force. With every km the rain became harder. The outlook wasn't good.
In no time, I was riding on a road with occasional sheets of water. Remember the first law of plumbing: water runs downhill.
Strangely, I was rather enjoying the climb. There was a certain peace that I hadn't experienced for some time. Even in the villages people seemed hidden away. One disappointment was children shouting "money, money". I see that other cyclists have commented on this, wondering how it started.
On the odd occasion that the rain eased, I tried to get a photo.
Half way to Moni - 22 km, I took a selfie hoping to capture the moment. I doubt that I'd be smiling if I'd known that the road was about to descend for 10 km.
The penalty for descending was some pretty savage ascending from 35 to 40 km. On some of the left hand switchbacks I jumped to the RH side of the road!
I had a couple of reasons for wanting to cycle the length of Flores. The first is my memory of a rather pretty place. Secondly, it has what is arguably, the world's most beautiful volcano. Mt Kelimutu has three crater lakes that occasionally change colour. I had a quick glimpse of them years ago in the wet season. In the dry, an excellent view is guaranteed.
I got to Moni, got a bite to eat and pondered my next move. A sudden cloudburst made the decision easy. It could be a long wait for a clear day so I headed for Ende - 55 km away. It took me 45 minutes to climb to the summit above Moni, where I found the typical summit markers - communication towers and roadside stalls.
I soon caught a heavily laden truck that had overtaken me on the ascent. Fortunately, I soon overtook it and escaped the belching fumes. The road didn't seem particularly slippery so I let my bike go. The main difficulty was keeping the rain out of my eyes, which I did by peering over my glasses.
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Just a few kms from Ende, when the terrain had flattened, things looked reasonably dry. Ricky phoned to see how I was and said it had been dry most of the time at his place. It seems as though by riding from the south coast, up to the high country and back to the south coast again, I had essentially chased the rain.
Cora had kindly investigated accommodation and suggested Dasi Guesthouse and so, in no time, I could finally experience dry clothing. And that's it - the end.
Today's ride: 99 km (61 miles)
Total: 5,091 km (3,162 miles)
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