Tomorrow morning, at the crack of dawn, we will strap our kayaks to the top of another rusty truck and drive them about 5 hours east of Surabaya, to the coast just near Situbondo in East Java, our new starting point. We had hoped to restart from Surabaya, fittingly the city of sharks and crocodiles, but because of all the delays we would run out of time to paddle to our first major goal, Gili Trawangan, an island just west of Lombok.
The time restriction this time will be to renew our tourist visa in Indonesia - a quick flight to Singapore and back via Jakarta. This is in about two weeks and we have quite a bit of distance to paddle before then.
The spare food we had so carefully prepared back in Australia for this high calorie adventure had to be left in Darwin so our boats will now be stuffed to the gunnels with rice, noodles and chocolate bars - whatever we could find in the oddly stocked Surabayan supermarkets. We'll be topping up water from plastic bottles rather than the crystal clear springs of north QLD. The elements may have changed a little but the adventure remains the same.
Too much time waiting out days in hotel rooms has faded every shade of melanin from our recently bronzed skin to the point that we now resemble the translucent organisms of some deep underground cave. Despite our occasional visit to a gym/swimming pool/badminton court, our muscles are atrophied shadows of their slightly buff memories. Paddling and sunshine might shock these bodies, but we are ready.
Let's go!
Photo: Surabaya - Sura = shark and Baya = crocodile. We hope these creatures don't follow us on our adventure.
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