The Kelimutu Lakes of Flores Island will go down as one of our most memorable land trips since leaving Cape Town in 2008. Our driver Fery (whom we'd hired for Rupiah 700,000 for 12 hours) drove us safely along the long and particularly winding road from the Sea World Club Resort, through the mountains some 110kms to the mysterious and magical Lakes on the south side of the island.

We stopped for a refreshing cup of tea at roadside cafe on Pago Beach - served in glass beer mugs and surprisingly, tasted like English breakfast tea. It was already a much needed break from the roller-coaster ride and hair-pin bends - and also provided an opportunity for Fery to have a drag on one of his kretek cigarettes. These cost approximately 75 pence for a packet and it seems everybody smokes them here. The kretek are a clove cigarette, and very high in tar and nicotine. They have a slightly sweet and spicy smell and are clearly loved by the locals. We're told nearly 90 per cent of the cigarettes sold in Indonesia are kretek and despite Indonesia being the largest clove producer in the world, it cannot meet the demand for the cigarattes so cloves have to be imported. One factory alone might turn out 140 million cigarettes a day. The non-filtered type are still rolled by hand and a skilled roller can turn out up to 4,000 a day!


Everyone smokes the kretek - these lads were 14 years old and weren't the youngest by far



Cloves drying out on the road - cocoa drying out to the left, on the wall


The next couple of hours were spent dodging families on motorbikes and cows grazing on the side of the road, stopping for photo opportunities at paddie fields and traditional houses, buying fresh veg from roadside stalls and flagging down a passing motorcyclist who acts as the mountain's ice-cream man.
















Eventually we reached the summit and having paid our National Park entry fee along with a small amount for each camera (the expense we go to for our readers!), the 4 hour car journey was a distant memory as the view was absolutely stunning.








The three lakes have formed in the top of an inactive caldera; each a diferent colour and each with it's own legend. Youc an read about them here.


The Kelimutu Eco Lodge was our lunch venue and we all enjoyed a chicken noodle lunch. The food here in Indonesia has yet to tantalise our taste-buds with what seems a fairly limited menu of either rice or noodles with either chicken or fish wherever we go Having experienced similar basic foodstuffs crossing the Pacific and through Vanuatu and the Solomon islands, we'd had high hopes heading towards south east Asia ... spices, curries, etc but as most coastal villages seem to be existing on subsistence living, it looks as though we'll be waiting until our arrival in Malaysia. With the differences in bacterias in water and food, we're also having to be a bit more selective about what and where we eat.

Moving on from Maumere a coule of days later, we find ourselves in Maurole some 30nm west. Just 3km from the coast lies the volcanic island of Palue on whcih sits Rokatenda, a volcano that had been grumbling since October 2012. An 3km exclusion zone was set up at the time but many villagers who have become accustomed to Indonesia's volcanic activity ignored the mandatory evacuation and decided to stay put. Sadly, the volcano erupted just last weekend with ash and rocks spewing 2km into the air ... hot ash covered a nearby beach, leaving four adults and two children dead



Mount Rokatenda is one of 129 active volcanoes in Indonesia.



CLICK HERE FOR BBC FOOTAGE OF ERUPTION



Oceans Dream with a peaceful but recently scarred Rokatenda in the background.


After dodging the volcano, our next adventure will see us dodging (hopefully!) the Komodo Dragon.