After we'd been dropped off in Labuan Bajo, the crew gave us the choice to stay on the boat for another night. We politely declined as we were in need of an air conditioned room and a shower! Some of the guys chose to stay on the boat as it was a nights free accommodation. We were glad to be back on dry land again. We walked into the port town with a few of our fellow travellers to try and find a room. We asked around and tried to negotiate some prices and found a cheap place with air con. A few people from our group also stayed here.

We didn't really have a plan for our time on Flores, perhaps we'd head east, or we would just chill in Labuan Bajo for a few days. As long as we can book a flight back to Bali, that's our priority. The plan for tonight is to get everyone together from the boat to have dinner, then head to a place called 'Paradise' later for the after party. They have a live band playing, so it should be good. We were just happy to be sat in our air conditioned room as it's so hot outside. After a refreshing cold shower, we felt human again. We looked outside our room to see the most amazing sunset overlooking the islands around Labuan Bajo.

We took a walk down to treetop bar, which is a really cool restaurant that has views overlooking the harbour. We'd all agreed to eat here tonight. John was happy when we walked in as they have a pool table, I was happy I would be getting a choice of what to order from the menu. We waited for everybody to turn up and ordered the food, which was really tasty. After dinner, some of the guys played pool, while the rest of us waited then went off to paradise bar.

Reunion

When we arrived at the paradise bar, we were surprised to see our crew from the boat, most of them were already there drinking. Our guide seemed like a completely different person to whom we knew on the boat. Perhaps he'd had too much arak (Indonesian rice wine). He was friendly and chatty, which we had not experienced this side of him on the boat. He got chatting to me and explained that he has two jobs on the boat, cooking and being a guide. As he prepares all the meals, he doesn't get enough time to get to chat to us like he would like to. I felt really sorry for him, he's exhausted all the time, so it was good to chat to him and get to know more about him.

Everybody from our boat trip had turned up, so we all sat together outside while the band played. I had a few cocktails, then found out it could be dangerous drinking spirits in Indonesia as people have gone blind from it. I later found our it could have been caused by home brewing, but it scared me and I didn't really want to drink any more cocktails as they were from the local palm wine spirit. It was strange seeing everyone drunk as some were much more chatty than on the boat. We all got on so well, that we arranged for our whole group to rent scooters tomorrow and visit a waterfall. I don't know if that's a good idea if we'll all have hangovers!

15 go on a scooter adventure through rural flores...

We all arranged to meet up at our hotel the next morning, which surprisingly most people turned up. Some of us had breakfast, while the others tried to arrange scooters. As we wanted to rent so many, we all had to go to different agencies to get them. This proved to be a difficult challenge from the start. Labuan Bajo is just coming onto the tourist radar, so nothing is organised properly like it is in Bali, which has it's pros and cons. After much organisation and around 2 hours later, we all had scooters, so we set off on our adventure.

I went on the back of John's scooter, which I was scared because he's never ridden one before and has a motorbike with gear changes. I came off a moped years ago, so i'm even more wary of them now. Some other girls in the group also shared bikes as we couldn't all rent one each. As we set off riding down the streets of Labuan Bajo it started to rain, that's all we needed, but we weren't going to turn back now. We nearly lost people right from the start as some went the wrong way, and some went off to get petrol. I was beginning to think that it's going to be difficult to get everyone there in one piece, and all together!

We managed to find everyone and gather them together again, so set off once more. There is one main road; the trans Flores highway, which at first seemed to be well built straight roads. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the roads here are all like that! Once we got out of Labuan Bajo, there was a sharp winding road, which goes up through the mountains. I wouldn't have minded half as much if we were in a car, but on the back of a motorbike, I didn't feel safe at all. The bike was slipping round on the bends of the snaking mountain. We've taken many a journey through the mountains in South America, so we're used to those type of journeys. Everyone was going too fast and trying to keep up with one another so it made the situation more dangerous, some were even filming us riding on their go pros!

When we made it near the flat surface at the top, there was a big truck coming the other way, so John went too close to the edge and we skidded onto the grass verge, fell sideways and the bike fell on top of us. Luckily, we were not going fast as John had a few grazes down his legs, I got away lightly with hardly a scrape! Qin was behind us, so he stopped to help lift the bike up and check we were ok. We carried on the adventure, as that's what it was, journeying to a remote location with a big group of people. Now we were somewhere so remote, when we saw children along the side of the road they were all calling out to us and doing hi fives with us. They probably haven't seen many tourists before. It was amazing to see how interested in us they were, and it wasn't just a few of them. It was literally like every child we passed along the road wanted to become our friend.

Dirt track road

The locals had warned us of the bad road conditions on the road approaching the waterfall. Us being blissfully ignorant tourists didn't really heed their advice until we reached that road. It was a non existent road, just a muddy path, made 10 times worse due to the rain. As we rode along it, there were massive potholes and lots of loose gravel. We skidded on gravel and came off the bikes again. This time we did more damage to the bikes than ourselves! Going up and downhill was the worst part on this road, so the girls on the back of the bikes decided to walk for part of the way, me included. There was also a bridge made of tree trunks, so the boys rode the bikes over them and we waked too. At least we were able to experience somewhere off the main tourist trail. Once we got nearer the waterfall road, the path was a bit better condition so we made it to the village where the waterfall is situated.

Meeting the locals

When we arrived, we had to pay park entrance fees, then they told us we needed a guide. Well actually they said we need two guides as there are 15 of us. There was a bit of a debate amongst the group whether we wanted or needed a guide or two, but in the end we settled on having two guides. All the children from around the village had come to greet us and they were so intrigued by us. When John went to get some bread out of our bag, all the kids came running over to see what he had. I said give the rest of it to them, so they took it and I said to share it amongst themselves. They were so excited, I don't think they eat bread here, so it was a treat for them!

We started to walk through the village and just seeing they have such a basic way of life here and they are all so happy and jolly was really heart warming. They live in little wooden shacks, keep chickens, make their own boats to sail on the rivers, keep water buffalo for carrying heavy loads to and from the village, so they do utilise and make the best of what they've got. We wandered through the village and as we walked past each of the houses, the locals would come to their door and either stare at us, or wave to us. I was amazed by this, we really are lucky to being able to experience village life. Roosters were walking about everywhere, and there was a woman herding her buffalo. I stopped to take a picture of the buffalo, and the woman watched me and approached me. I showed her the picture I took and she just smiled. The language barrier stopped us from communicating, but we shared a moment together.

Hornets

Our guides walked with us, they couldn't really speak much English either, so they took us towards the waterfall. We trekked through the woods and jungle paths, all downhill, i'm not looking forward to trekking back uphill later! The sun wasn't out, so it wasn't too hot, but it was still humid. I had flip flops on, and it was muddy because of the rain, so it was best to walk barefoot because I was slipping around everywhere. One guide stayed at the front of the group, while the other hung at the back of the group, where we were. When we got down to where the waterfall was, we had to traverse a small river to get to the waterfall. Whilst the people at the front went across, we hung back to use the loos. When I came out of them, people were beginning to turn back the way we came. We wondered what was going on and why they were coming back, but then we could hear some people screaming. They were shouting 'run, run'. So not knowing what was going on and in a panic, we all turned around the other way and started to run back up the hill. They told us it was killer bees, but then we found out they were like huge hornets, much bigger than the usual type of wasp we get back in England. Half the group at the back started running up the steep hill, I was puffing and panting and really struggling to breathe because of my asthma. A couple of the guys were shouting keep moving, keep running they are chasing us. I felt like I was running for my life.

Meanwhile, the guys left at the front were getting stung by these hornets and were screaming because the stings are lethal and really hurt. Their guide stayed at the front with them, while we had turned back to go to the village with our guide. It paid off having two guides then! We heard that the rest of the group were diving into water to stop the wasps from stinging them even more. They jumped in with all their clothes on, wallets, and bike keys in their pockets, which later proved to be an awful thing, as Partrik, the Swedish guy had lost his bike key in the water. It was turning into even more of a disastrous day, and needless to say, we didn't even get to see the waterfall! What had happened we think, was that George, English guy had stepped on or kicked the hornets nest while he was walking past. This annoyed the wasps greatly, so they chased him and stung him many many times. It also got the rest of the wasps angry, as they came after anyone who was in their path and stung them too. Apparently they had to cross a big river to get away from the wasps and hide from them until the coast was clear.

While they all stayed there, the rest of us were getting away as fast as we could. Some of our group had been stung including our guide, who was stung on his head, and Mookey was also stung on her forehead, others who got stung in our group were Eric, a Canadian, some American guy and the rest of us had a lucky escape. We went back to the village as quickly as we could to try and get help. The ones who had been stung had swellings where the poison was taking effect. Eric told us that if some people get stung more than 3 times, it can be fatal. We were really worried about the rest of our group who stayed there, as they could all get stung even more. It was a traumatic experience for everyone and we were all mentally drained when we made it back to the village.

By the time we returned, it was pouring hard, the others were going to be soaked through to the bone. We were able to sit under the shelter of the hut where we paid our entrance fees. Our guide put some lotion onto the ones who were stung, so hopefully that will ease their swelling. We all sat in the hut wondering what to do as the roads were becoming more slippery while it was wet, how were we going to get all the bikes back. Some people might not even be fit enough to ride the bikes back when they come back. We tried to figure out an action plan. Whilst this was happening, all the local children came out to see what was going on. We had some crisps so shared them out children as they were hovering around us. Their faces all lit up when we gave them crisps and they were standing outside in the rain eating them. It was starting to get late now and we didn't want to be riding the bikes back in the dark, we decided that we would try to get some transport from Labuan Bajo to help those that needed to get back. So four of the guys, the Czech and Eric rode their bikes back and the others stayed here, including myself and John.

About an hour after we returned, the rest of the guys came back. Austi came back on her own first, she said the others were coming, they've all been stung, in particular George had been stung so much his whole body was swollen. He could go into an anafalactic shock at any time. Somehow, Austi avoided being stung altogether, but Partrik, Qin, Dris, Fiona and George had all been stung. They said their guide was useless and while they were being stung, he said the waterfall is over there if they wanted to go in. Nobody was in the right state of mind to see it, so they didn't bother. It was a shame, as we'd all taken such a difficult journey to get there, but none of us would actually get to see what we all came for. They waited there for over an hour until there were no wasps and crossed back over the river at a different section to where George trod on their nest. When they returned, they were all soaked through, but that was the least of their worries. When we saw George, his whole face and rest of his body were so swollen,meh didn't look himself at all. The locals said there was a medical centre nearby, so some of them took George to get seen to.

Now we knew they were back safely, we decided we had to ride our bikes back before it got too dark. I wasn't looking forward to riding on the back of John's unstable bike. Myself and Mooky walked to the top of the hill, then the boys picked us up to go on the back of their bikes. It was slippery and we couldn't really get up and down the hills and started coming off the bike again. Partrik came to the rescue and offered to take me on the back of his moped. He's experience in riding as he used to enter bike competitions, so I should be safe on the back of his bike. Although, I know he likes going fast, and I hate that, so hopefully he will go slow for me. While John was trying to get back up the hill, the bike went ahead of him and he came off backwards, great that's more damage to him and the bike. As long as can make it back safely, we'll be fine. Partrik told me his lights don't work, so hopefully we'll make it back before dark. We rode for an hour and a half to get back, nearly loosing John. It got dark before we made it home, so for Partrik, riding in the dark was pretty hard as there are so many potholes. For me, I was scared as we rode quite fast, but we did make it back safely, which was the priority for me. We didn't come off Partrik's bike once, nor did John after the mishap coming back up the hill.

Not long after we returned, we saw Fiona and George come back too. He had been given anti inflammatory tablets and was looking much better as the swelling had gone down loads. He was still in pain, but the main thing was that the stings weren't as serious as they could have been and he would make a full recovery. Now everybody was back to Labuan Bajo safely, we could all relax. It's been a long, tiring day, and we didn't really get out to see what we achieved, but the whole experience on the journey is going to be one i'll remember forever, good and bad points included.