When I checked the evening before, the weather forecast was calling for a high chance of rain in Lovina by noon, and a high chance of rain in Denpasar by 10. Eager not to get caught in any of it, I woke up at 7 and left Lovina at 7:30. This time I took an altogether different route than when I arrived via Padang Bai. The road adjacent to Santhika B&B can be taken north, to the main, coastal road, or south, all the way to Mount Bratan and associated lakes. It's rather surprising that this is possible, because the road south initially looks like any other residential road in the Lovina area. As you go along it, the surroundings only become more rural -- to the point that you're certain that it will peter out and end in a dead end at any moment.
Theoretically, this will take you all the way to Mount Bratan from which it's a straight shot to Denpasar. But since this supposedly main road looks like any other residential road, whenever the road split I had to make a judgment as to which road looked less "residentially". At some point during the navigation process I checked my map and discovered that I was off course. Some locals pointed me down a road back to the main highway, a road that didn't exist on Google Maps. It did eventually get me back to the road I was looking for, but not before I made the biggest mistake(s) of my trip thus far.
At one point, the road turns into concrete where the tire treads and grass and earth in between. I was being careful, but not careful enough! I took a corner rather slowly, about 5 km/hr, but misjudged the concrete and slipped into the median. The rain from previous days had made the earth soft and my scooter slid out from under me just enough for me to lose my balance and fall slowly and pathetically on my side. It was enough to cut up the big toe on my left foot fairly badly and put two large scrapes on my knee, among some other smaller scratches.
Needless to say I was not amused with busting myself up in the middle of the wilderness, but I picked myself up and rode my scooter back to the main road. I washed the worst of my wounds with the only liquid I had with me, Kratingdaeng Pro (Indonesian Red Bull). I then applied antibiotic cream, but left my reperations at that, as I didn't have any bandages with me. Although I can't remember doing so, at some point during this process I dropped my scooter key into the under seat pocket and closed the seat, locking it in place. It took me 5 minutes of checking my immediate surroundings and digging through my backpack before deducing that I had, in fact, unconsciously locked my key in the seat. To put it lightly, I was extremely frustrated.
I tried breaking the lock, considered looking for help, but then noticed that if pulled from the side, the seat was rather pliable. And lucky for me, I had plopped my key atop the plastic bag containing my trip rations, so it wasn't buried too deep in the recesses of the seat pocket. Peeling back the seat and reaching inside, I was able to snatch my key and was once again on my way to Denpasar.
 |
| I stopped at one of Mount Batur's lakes to take this photo |
The route I was supposed to take (and in actuality just approximated) is possibly the most direct route one can take up into the mountains of Bali. As a result, the ascent was very steep. Which resulted in constant mind-numbing views on the way up and, at times, me questioning the abilities of my automatic scooter. If you happen to be heading back to Denpasar from Lovina I would actually recommend taking this route, as it's relatively traffic-free and the views are fantastic. Just make absolutely sure you know where you're going! The route as a whole is undoubtedly safe if you stay on the main road and the road is in relatively good condition.
Once back in Denpasar I washed my wounds and one of the hostel staff was nice enough to dress my cuts in gauze tape, and change the bandages again the next day before my flight. I spent the rest of the day in bed resting. At the least, I had avoided being caught in the rain that afternoon.
No comments:
Post a Comment