Hello, avid followers, you are in for a treat. Dave and I actually did some things and some stuff so this blog will consist of a great deal more than the previous few… enjoy!

And so we find ourselves on a small island, just 30 minute away from Bali, called Nusa Lembongan after a boat journey that could have easily matched the Lady Musgrave Experience in Australia. We chose to travel with Scoot from Gili Air  which included having to change boats at Gili T, wait for 40 minutes for another 16 passengers to arrive, followed by a brief stop off at Bangsal, Lombok before we FINALLY set off for Lembongan. Firstly, if you suffer with travel sickness or any kind of back issue whatsoever, DON’T even attempt a fast crossing to anywhere. Just find the slowest, most docile boat crossing you can find.

I don’t suffer with back issues so much, but the speed at which the boat approached oncoming waves resulted in the boat (which wasn’t ship shape and Bristol fashioned) being slammed down onto the water, repeatedly. My poor body and its wealth of chronic issues did not take to kindly to this and I near enough hobbled off the boat at the other end. NEVER AGAIN. I was informed by my lovely other half, that there were in fact Dolphins swimming next to to boat, but I guess I’ll just have to take his word for it!

BUT, here we are on the beautiful Lembongan with a coastline to rival the Amalfi Coast, Italy. Our accommodation was, thankfully, just a ten minute walk up the beach – Lembongan Tropical – and comes complete with accommodation cat. Although, we later found out that the cat doesn’t belong to the resort and no, we definitely did not let her in OR on the bed.

After renting a moped for the day, we got to work exploring the island, which consisted of:

A 30 minute boat ride through the Mangrove Forest that covers a large proportion of the island, all for just 150k (£7.50).

Followed by a trip across the big yellow bridge – a bridge that is just 2 mopeds wide – to Lembongans adjacent island, Nusa Ceningan. After just 30 minutes of exploring, we realised we had exhausted the island, it is literally tiny. But here are some of the spectacular views we found as well as some of the art work and Daves happy face on a moped because mopeds make him feel 16 again.

We visited the Gala Gala underground house too, but unfortunately, we couldn’t find anyone to let us in so we admired it from the (rather dodgy looking) steps. Built between 1961 and 1976, the 75 year old Made Byasa built this cave, complete with a well, 2 kitchens, 2 bedrooms and a sitting room after reading about the Pandawa family, whose cave was built in the forest to protect and hide them from being killed over a gambling debt.

We took a 20 minute moped ride to the west side of the island to visit the Devils Tear, a blowhole of sorts, you could hear the roar from the car park and the view was stunning. Dangerous so close to the edge, but stunning.

And, after managing to avoid eating without cutlery so far, we made a rather delicious mistake in choosing this warung for lunch. There was not a fork or spoon in sight and my face says it all…

Continuing my pledge to myself to look after me a little more, I took part in an invigorating 1 hour Hatha Yoga session @ The Yoga Shack next door, whilst Dave went surfing for the first time in years, on a reef called Laceration. Thankfully, we were both without injury at the end.

We made plenty of beach dog friends too, treating one beautiful, amber eyed lady to a drink of cool water – she drank 4 GLASSES! It was at this point that Dave realised his calling in life – to feed beach dogs. Our mission the following day was to find a dog bowl small enough to fit in his pocket. Success!

Whilst playing fetch with beach dogs and feeding them copious amounts of water, there were some gorgeous sunsets occurring behind us…

After 3 nights, it was time for our next adventure, just across the water, to Nusa Penida – the largest of the Nusa islands. We took the public ferry from the Yellow Bridge (costing us 60,000k or £3 each) and got to work on seeing the sights straight away!

Moped arranged, we headed straight for Kelingking Beach for obvious reasons…

You wont even be a little surprised when I tell you that Dave was in his element and spent most of our time at Kelingking Beach aka T Rex Beach, humming the jurassic park theme tune. The coastline was breathtaking and the ocean was such a vivid blue. It was possible to climb down some rickety, old stairs to the beach below (that a young russian woman fell to her death from, in 2018) but that would have consisted of A LOT of stairs in 44 degree heat and with my body, it was a big no no. The view from the top was really something special though.

The roads to get there, however, are treacherous at best …

Made all the better for cafe dog friends though:

Day 2 on Penida started early at the harbour, after we had booked our Manta Ray snorkelling trip for 8am. Off we went, only to be greeted with big waves, rubbish weather and no Manta Rays in sight. Even after a good half an hour of searching, not one of the dozen or so boats out on the water found a single manta, so it was onwards to a tiny little cove just around the corner where we were able to feed the fish in what was the clearest water ever! The coral was so colourful, it was like being in an aquarium and so much more vivid than the coral we saw on the Great Barrier Reef. What a treat! Except, the water was still incredibly rough, so rough in fact that I threw up. Not so good. We did manage to swim with Giant Trevallys though! The giant fish that featured on Blue Planet that leap from the water to eat seagulls! They were enormous!

So, despite the rough weather and lack of Mantas, we had a successful fish snorkelling day before we moved on to our next sight seeing adventure. Post lunch at Mae Maes Reggae bar on the east side of the island (complete with home cooked chips to rival my father in laws – and thats no mean feat) we travelled further down the coast to Pura Goa Giri Putri Hindu Temple.

Up 136 steep, but manageable steps, with sarongs on and definitely no magic with us, we entered the temple and were blessed before being shown the entrance..

We emerged through the crack in the wall to the most enormous cave temple we had ever seen. It could have easily have held thousands! We were lucky to witness and admire a ceremony taking place whilst tiny bats flew alarmingly close to our heads. It was really quite something and so peaceful in the temple/cave.

And now to exit the temple..

To be greeted by loads of little Macaques, making an awful lot of noise on the roof!

Alas, it was our final day on Nusa Penida. We had originally planned on spending 4 nights here but reduced this down to just 2 when we realised that almost all of the must see things were either down roads better suited in a quarry or at the bottom of hundreds of steps. Unless you are super fit/well it is near on impossible to enjoy all that Penida has to offer. That being said, it appears that the island is preparing itself for an almighty tourism boom, with hotels, buildings and restaurants springing up everywhere. Here is hoping that with the added influx of money, they can put some aside to sort the roads.

With just 3 weeks left of our Indonesian adventure, where will we head next…?