Back in Medana we had an enforced stay whilst waiting for a shipment of a new high pressure pump for our desalinator from NZ. However, we were very happy to receive another shipment, this time a $44 bilge blower fan from Whitworths chandlers. The fan was brought in by Aleta, who was joining the yacht Mediterraneo. The fan had been purchased by my sister Carolyn who delivered it to Aleta whose residence is in Charlestown, Newcastle. A big thank you to Carolyn, Aleta, and Meika for making this possible. The fan was installed and works nicely.
The crew of Gypsy Rover joined us for a day trip into the hills to see some rather impressive waterfalls on the flanks of Rinjani. About 2 hrs each way from Medana bay the drive took us along the black sand beaches of the north coast, past countless rice paddies before turning right and climbing up the mountain. The waterfall walk was cool and pleasant with a few short wades through the river to reach the roaring torrents. Even in the dry season the falls were pumping. Following this hike we had a brief tour of a “traditional” village, complete with satellite receiver dishes before we decamped to the fabulous Rinjani Lodge for a long lunch. The Lodge even has a wet edge pool which we were very pleased to use. Then back into the car for the run home via the markets and ATM. One can do a summit walk of the volcano but three days are required so we did not pursue this option.
Internet in Lombok has been very patchy and getting blogs up etc has been remarkably challenging. Access to the internet will come and go from one minute to the next even if one is using a hotel’s wifi network. Hotspotting off your iphone is usually even less reliable. Typically all bandwidth disappears during business hours.
Local phone calls can be made but usually there are very few people to speak to in English. Overseas phone calls on the local sim card are quite pricey, so it is cheaper to use a satphone for this purpose. Of course, the satphone drops out quite frequently making this relatively unreliable as well. Generally coms in this country are very frustrating. Having said that we were quite surprised when our pump arrived on schedule after one week from ordering in Opua, NZ. Sadly the tariffs charged to import goods are not for the faint hearted! Peter and his office staff really made the speedy delivery possible and without their support the process would have been a lot longer.
With the pump in our hands we prepped Diomedea for her next passage, 75 miles to Lovina Beach on the north coast of Bali. Before we left we had a final meal at Sailfish with some of the other yachts and then an early night in readiness for a 0330 hr alarm.