Our journey in the blistering heat from Larantuka to Maumere was on the usual higgledy piggledy roads and took a long four hours to complete the 138Km. Our route was lined with tall coconut palms the coconuts nestling between the palm fronds, mango and papaya trees, huge plantations of bananas each tree loaded with the small yellow fruit, the heart-shaped inflorescence dangling below the hands of bananas, acres and acres of cashew nut trees, huge piles of coconuts, all interspersed with the lush green of the small padi fields – terraced and joined together with raised banks of earth, just like a great big vivid green patchwork quilt. In the mountainous areas the innovative folk had terraced the high slopes with the aid of long pieces of bamboo thus being able to grow their veg. We also noticed numerous fields planted with sweet-corn and cabbage plus other crops – they have to be self-sufficient, no popping down to the supermarket for them.

On passing through the villages there were large plastic sheets laying on the ground aside the huts with brown nuts, rice, berries and seeds drying out in the baking sun, sometimes the nuts would be laid directly onto the ground in oblong shapes, awaiting a purchaser to pass by.

The Lonely Planet Guide advised that Maumere was dire and a city to be missed, we therefore drove straight through, keeping to the dusty coast road until we came across Gading Beach Hotel. We checked into one of the bamboo bungalows a few steps away from the beach, what a change – comfortable bed, fridge, TV, flush loo (with loo paper – unusual) shower, wardrobe (unheard of), terrace and a restaurant just 20 yards away looking out over the golden sandy beach and turquoise ocean. Was a no brainer for a two day stay and at around £18.75 per night we felt it was a snip. We swam, ate, drank and generally lazed, we were in heaven.

On our travels we couldn’t help but notice that the locals plant their dead in ornate graves just feet away from their front doors, a constant reminder of their forbears, some graves were even attached to the house, the headstones by the wall and the grave made up the terrace area covered over with glazed tiles.

Our next location on the agenda was Moni, our accommodation was at Sylvester’s Homestay, a young boy stands in front of our room, he was watering the ground with a mandi and then swept away the dust with a besom type broom, this same child - around 9 or 10 years of age had previously loaded a huge sack of rice onto the front foot space of a scooter, drove it around to the other side of the house, loaded another full sack on the passenger seat and cooly rode down the hill to the market with his wares. It seems that any child over the age of 10 rides scooters or motorbikes, no shoes or helmets visible.

The reason for our stopover in Moni was because we hoped to visit Kelimuto volcano, we would have to be up at 4am and travel the 13.5km up the narrow track to see the dawn break over the tri-coloured lakes. Kelimuto National Park has long been considered a “must-see” at day break before the clouds roll in and cover the area. The summit’s moonscape gives the volcano an ethereal atmosphere especially when light clouds billow across the craters and sunlight shafts burn luminescent pin points on the water’s surface. Kelimuto is sacred and legend tells that the souls of the dead go to these lakes, the young to the turquoise lake, the old to the brown lake and the wicked to the black lake. That night just as we had retired we heard our first rain of the holiday, it was lashing it down the sound of the droplets sending us off to sleep, that was until we heard a loud crashing noise then voices outside, 4am arrived we arose after a sleepless night. It had ceased raining but not a star in the sky could be seen, which meant that we would be unable to see the lakes due to cloud cover so returned to bed. Next day we could see that a strong gust of wind had demolished half of the metal roof of our neighbour’s house. By 8 o’clock we had packed the bike and on our way to Bajawa disappointed that the weather had curtailed our itinerary.

Part of the route to Bajawa skirted the seashore, the view spectacular and of course the sun was bright and hot. The roads continued to be tight twists and turns with more hairpin bends that a sty full of pigs with their curly tails. Again there were endless banana trees, the old faded thin brown leaves dangling down the trunks in tatters making quite a contrast to the bright green leaves at the top. On reaching Bajawa we splashed out on a deluxe room with TV, “hot” water and soap and a flush loo with loo paper all for the princely sum of 300,000 rupiah (around £21.50) although we couldn’t get a signal on our satellite TV. No world news for over three weeks now and am getting withdrawal symptoms.

Another enthralling journey followed the next day on our way to Ruteng, the going was slow and arduous, and we were still covering around 35km an hour, around 21/22 mph. At one stage we and the rest of the traffic came to a complete standstill, there was no road on which to ride. A huge swing shovel was digging into the hillside, rocks and boulders raining down with clouds of dust and then a bulldozer was clearing the loosened earth over a ledge. After around half an hour there was some resemblance of a rough path on which we could reach the narrow patch of tarmac on the other side of the hill. By 1.30pm we had arrived in Ruteng and headed for the Kungregasi Santa Maria Berdukacita, a beautiful spotlessly clean convent set in serene gardens, they had a room available for us but it had to be cleaned before we could move our gear in. As it was lunch time we left the bike, luggage, coats laid over the seat, helmet attached to the rack bag upside down and headed the 2km into town for a meal. Guess what – it bucketed it down, the spots of rain as large as 50p pieces, there was no way we could get back to the bike in a hurry, the downpour lasted for around two hours, on our return to the bike I tipped 2 inches of water out of my helmet – coats dripping wet, we hoped all would be dry next day.

It was now 22 September and on our way to Labuan Bajo, our last stop in Flores before we take the ferry over to Sumbawa, Lombok and then Bali. We have found that the trans Flores highway from Larantuka to Labuan Bajo to twist and tumble, there are empty soft white sandy beaches and an infinite skyline of perfectly shaped volcanoes, craft knifed ridges and spectacular river canyons carpeted by a vast tapestry of hip-high luminescent rice fields that undulate in the wind next to swaying palms, the scenery stunning, this certainly helps compensate for the often rutted and narrow roads, care has to be taken on the dozens of hairpin bends, lorries and buses usually taking a wide route, plus for the majority of our journey the temperature had been well over 35°C.

Whilst in Labuan Bajo we opted to have a two night stopover on the near deserted island of Seraya in a bamboo beach hut, just one hours’ boat ride away. As the tide was low on arrival we were ferried over the reef to the sandy shore in a narrow canoe hewn out of a tree – an experience in itself. It felt as if we could tip over at any time, but were assured that they hadn’t lost anyone or their luggage to date. We were so low in the water that some seeped in and had to be scooped up with a sawn off plastic bottle! The boatman had to paddle out to the boat several times to bring the 10 occupants, plus luggage, water and food ashore. Our bamboo bungalow on the beach had an open air loo which had to be sluiced down with seawater collected in a plastic bucket.

We had a very relaxing two days, swimming and snorkelling in the warm azure blue ocean was absolutely brilliant with all the brightly coloured and stripy fish of all shapes and sizes as seen on the BBC documentaries, one of our group even spotted a 3 foot barracuda, there were orangey coloured star fish galore, sea urchins, rock fish, water-bottle shaped fish, sea slugs, small electric blue and green fish darted here and there between the reef. We really enjoyed being away from the hustle and bustle of the towns and cities.

On our return to Labuan Bajo at 9am on Monday morning, we had chartered a boat to take us out to Rinca Island to see the Komodo Dragons; unlike the dragons on Komodo Island they are smaller but wild, we also spotted monkeys and a couple of water buffalo wallowing in order to cover their pink skin in mud so that they wouldn’t get sun burnt, the trip took two hours out and another couple back, so all in all we had spent 5 hours on the water that day.

It is now Tuesday 27 September, we arose early, had a bite of breakfast, packed the bike and said our farewells to Hotel Bajo and Flores, at 7am we arrived at the ferry office and booked our tickets to take us over to Sumbawa, the crossing took eight hours and was wonderfully calm, we will now spend around three days crossing over the island calling in here and there for the odd night. The scenery and roads much as it was on Flores.

My next mail will probably be my last as we never know when we can get internet access; we now have just less than two and a half weeks left on our travels and hope to be in Bali by 4 October.

Have a great day

Ellen