Day 1

We went to the harbour to get our transfer to Lombok, Bangsal harbour. We had to go to the Lombok cafe, where Wanua Tours were. When we got off the boat, men at the port took our luggage and carried it for us, then expected paying for it. You really have to watch out for them all the time here, it seems to be a common thing that they do. After that they tried to get us to pay for a horse and cart to take us 50 metres down the road. We declined the offer and walked there ourselves.

We checked in and had breakfast while we waited to depart on our boat. It was supposed to leave at 11.30am, but we didn't depart until nearly one. Luckily it wasn't raining, so when we set sail it was pretty smooth. We heard about a boat that sank a few years ago around Flores. It was due to a storm and the treacherous conditions in the water. The currents are notoriously bad around Komodo island in particular, so we hope we don't have bad storms while we're on our trip. It was with another tour company, although it could have happened to anyone.

In our group there were around 20 people, all varying in nationalities. There is also another boat containing about the same number of people. Luckily they provided two boats, as one would have been too crowded. There were 2 other Brits on the tour. It was a mixed bunch of people. For the first day, we wouldn't be doing much as we have to sail to the north east point of Lombok. It's a much larger island than I first imagined. We sailed for over 4 hours to reach Sugian beach, where we could swim to shore. The boat can't go right up to the islands, so you have to swim across. We all went for a swim, most people jumped off the boat, although I took the ladder. We didn't stay there for too long as we had more sailing to do.

After swimming ashore we just chilled on the boat deck. A few hours later, dinner was served. They gave us rice and plenty of vegetables, all laid out on a mat on the floor. The food was sufficient, but nothing special, but you don't expect too much on this kind of trip. We carried on sailing until around 7pm, then we docked up to the north east of Lombok by the harbour. They told us we'll be here until 11pm, then we'd be sailing for the rest of the night until we reached Moyo island tomorrow. While we were docked up, some of the guys decided to do fishing from the boat. None of them caught anything so gave up on it. We sat on the boat deck looking up at the full moon and seeing the stars up above us. It was a pretty chilled night, but it was a shame we have to start sailing again. But we did, as we've got a long distance to cover until we reach Moyo island in the morning. Everyone went to bed before we started sailing as the engine is so noisy.