26 - 31 December 2013
The Christmas-New Year period has seen me with not a lot to
do and plenty of time to do it in. I had
bought some more DVDs (legitimate of course) in an attempt to while away the
hours on the couch with something a little more meaningful than staring at the
wall – which is probably something I needed to do too. And no, I am not going mad….
Tennant, Steve and I planned a self-guided ride to Baucau,
which was the first major town I headed to soon after arriving here in
September 2013 but we were tourists this time.
Each of us had a motorbike, mine as I may have mentioned is a clapped
out Honda Megapro while the others’ were brand new Kawasaki 125 trail
bikes. No prizes for guessing which bike
was able to take the lumps and bumps better out of the group.
So we set off on a fine sunny Dili day after delaying the
departure for a day due to the rain and made reasonable time to our first stop
at Dollar Beach (41 kms out of Dili). When
the UN were in TL is large numbers, everyone was charged for the pleasure of
sand between their toes and is considered one of the better beaches in TL, I
would agree whole heartedly. We decided
to not get sand in our toes this time and saddled up on the bikes for the next
leg to Manututo which is about an another hour away.
(View of Dollar Beach,
pretty pink church in Laleia, flag pole with skulls supporting map of
Timor-Leste represents Indonesian occuption)
This is a spectacular section of road; the road is perched
on the cliff face, the sealed road is only 1.5 cars wide, which is not a
problem on a motorbike and the drop off should we mishandle the bike can be up
to 100m down to the sea. Obviously we
did not lose anyone to the edge (“don’t look where you do not want to go”) but
we did stop at a small hamlet to get the wet weather gear on, well Tennant and
Steve did, I had to ride for the next hour in the pouring rain, much to
amusement of the children as we whizzed past (Malae Bulak or Crazy white man
(polite form)).
We reached Manututo by lunch time in a bedraggled mess and
found somewhere to eat lunch even though it was the holidays (of sorts). We made good friends with a local, Marcus,
who able to guide me to a repair shop as my motorbike had lost a bolt on the
front brake assembly. A dollar later and
Marcus with a pack of ciggies for his assistance, we were on our way for the
remaining half of our ride. By this
time, my bike was purring along, I think that most of the riding I have done on
it has been short rides around town and the occasional long ride going no more
than 40 km/h. It was amazing to be
riding on a road where 95% of the road was sealed and/or repaired, it made for
a very comfortable ride, although the backside was starting to complain a
little, all of those years of cycling had not prepared for the pain either.
(Steve, Marcus and
Tennant, garish orange guesthouse in Baucau, looking east from Baucau)
We reached Baucau by mid-afternoon and were immediately on
the task of finding somewhere to stay.
The Pousada was a little too expensive for our respective volunteer
allowances so we had settle for the guest house next door, which was very
comfortable if a little garish in its bright orange, green and maroon colour
scheme with a contrasting blue roof.
What better way to recover from the ride than having a swim in the
Baucau pool. Ahhhh!!!!
There are many springs surrounding the town which supplies
water to the residents as well as the pool – it is one of the few places where
there seems to be an excess of water even during the dry times. The Portuguese took advantage of this water
by building a fort up high on the hill as protection from possible ship-borne
cannon attacks back in the time of tall ships, making Baucau not your typical
TL town. There is matching port (of
sorts) at the sea’s edge with a long winding road up to Baucau proper known as
Osolata.
We rode down to the Osolata beach in the hope of finding a
safe place to swim or a crocodile. We
did neither although the water is very tempting to swim in; at the time we
could not work whether this building was some sort of change room as it did not
seem to be your typical Portuguese building (Indonesian built?!?). It turned out to be the old customs
house. It was a very pretty spot that
has so much potential for tourism. It
was also nice to see so many Hermit Crabs going about their business, there
were literally 100’s of them.
(Osolata customs house, Osolata
beach, Rob and Tennant discussing the merits of swimming where possibly crocs
lurk)
Dehydration was starting to set in, so we headed back up the
hill for refreshments and lunch in Baucau.
We also took the frog-inspired approach to re-hydration by going back to
pool and remaining in the water for ages.
As like last time I was there, the pool was full of Timorese staring at
us – we would look funny with our tanned arms, legs and faces and brilliant
white everything else. Surely we are the
coloured ones?
(Rob and Tennant warming
up for some synchronised swimming, Dili Hell’s Angels waiting for dinner,
sometimes blackouts add to the mood at dinner)
As we finished dinner, we were blessed with a power
blackout, “quick let’s run and not pay!” was the first thought that entered our
minds, but we didn’t. “Look at those
pretty stars”, was the next and less controversial thought we had before
turning in for the night.
The ride back to Dili was largely an uneventful affair,
although we all experienced a degree of saddle soreness along the way. Forcing us to stop at several locales along
the way, although Laleia was the most macabre of the stops, where a flagpole is
supported by a map of East Timor and the skulls of the victims of 1970’s Indonesian
invasion.
(, even goats enjoy the marquees at Dollar Beach, the cow paddock between
the marquees and beach)
What better way to finish off the trip by stopping for a
swim at Dollar Beach. The urge to swim
was greater than the risk of being eaten by a crocodile, this is a great beach
in comparison to Jesus’ Backside Beach which is the only other beach I have
swam in here in TL. There are beach side
shelters about a 50 metre walk through a cow paddock to the water. So goats have worked out that the shelters
are good to get out of the sun too.
Another hour’s riding after Dollar Beach saw us back in
Dili, just before the afternoon rain hit town.
It was nice to get back to the Palació before the New Year’s
celebrations starts, apparently there were two container loads delivered to
Dili for the festive period….
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