After such a nice trip into the 'interior'of Bali, it took a few days to readjust to life back on board the boat again. We needed to restock provisions, including enough fuel to see us through. We had heard that the supply from Bali Marina was dirty, so we set about finding another source. In retrospect I can understand now why the marina manager got upset when the head office of the state oil company sent a special tanker with 'virgin diesel' to fill up our jerry-cans in the marina carpark. It is amazing what a personal visit to the top guys can do! Cheaper and cleaner fuel makes life a lot easier.

All the time we were in Bali we had been debating our next move. Although our plan had been clear, we had always known there could be a flaw in the plan: although our boat is Australian, by bringing it back into the country, the Aussie customs could view it as an 'import' and charge us loads of duty. Not an attractive proposition. We had been carrying out correspondence with the Customs department for some time.

We balanced things up in our minds, and decided that although we wanted to go to Australia, it made more practical sense to sell the boat back in Langkawi, Malaysia, which meant turning around to get there in time (Bali to Langkawi is more than 1700 miles, Bali to Darwin is less than 1100 miles).

So with great reluctance and some sadness we decided that that was what we should do, and headed out from this special island back the way we had come. And we sailed on like that for a day and a half, but towards sunset on the second day (having gone 150miles northwest) we could both see we were having second thoughts. We looked each other in the eye and after much more debate and head holding, we put dreams before customs and set sail for Australia. Just exactly as we made that choice a big black back of a whale broke the surface about fifty metres away. We took it as agreement. And so... we ARE heading east for Darwin.

We put the tiller hard over, made a new passage plan and began (the now much longer trip) to Bima, Sumbawa. By the time we arrived at what is Indonesia's best natural harbour we had done more than 400 miles.

Between Bali and Sumbawa we crossed the Wallace line which divides the flora and fauna of Australasia from that of the tropics. The whole vegetation looks completely different to anything we have seen since Thailand. Gone are the palm trees, broad leaved banana trees and rice fields, and now we have small leaved deciduous trees. The effect is amazing, the islands suddenly look so much more familiar, like the Mediterranean. Which has got us feeling that we are getting closer to our goal of Australia after all.

We have now arrived in Kupang (our last port of call in Indonesia). With one thing and another we have had to scrap stopping at the island of Komodo to see the dragons, but if the locals are anything like those in Bima, I think we are better off!

Australian paperwork is even more arduous than Indonesian, but we think we have it more or less complete. We will take a few days getting ready and looking for the right weather to head off. We expect it to take at least a week to get there, so it will be a while before we post again! We aim to arrive at Darwin between 6th to 10th May, 2007... So Australia here we come!