Around The World In 80 Waves

I spent my last morning on Lombok ragging around the island on the scooter in search of another break to surf. I didn’t find anything but had so much fun going far too fast down the dusty roads.

However I had to get back to the hotel and collect my packed bags before being transferred back to the airport. Out progress was somewhat hindered by the high school marching contest which was going on in the middle of the road on the way there. Again there were hundreds of kids involved in matching uniforms and a huge cheering crowd, but I don’t think there was anything at stake beyond the honour of winning for your school. Quite odd!

Another eighteen minute flight later and I was back in Bali for the night. I had another stroll around Kuta in order to put some more credit on my phone, and have to say I really dont like it here.

Minding my own business trying to get to the phone shop and then back to my hotel I was offered more drugs on Legian street than I was in the whole of Central and South America combined! Every opportunity to make a play for the contents of my wallet was grasped whole heartedly by the hawkers, and as a consequence I have decided that I am unlikely to return to the island much beyond passing through on my way back to Oz. The waves are also so crowded here that their quality is spoilt by all the aggression and dropping in that goes on.

However my Indonesian surf experience is far from over at this stage and I have a real treat lined up before moving on. A week at G-Land on Java, which is one of the world’s super breaks like Tea’hupoo, Pipeline and Mavericks.

G-Land is an abbreviation of the village of Grajagan and you get there by taking a two hour ocean crossing on a fast boat from Bali. I boarded the G-Land Express with a group of Australians, who had been out all night in Kuta and were making life a tad hard for everybody else as they dealt with their hangovers. However everything soon settled down as we bounced across the Indian Ocean for two hours.

Java is the third Indonesian island I have visited, and you can see Grajagan on the eastern end of it in this map. As we arrive on the island we power past all the G-Land breaks which are already breaking.

Kongs, Fan Palms, Money Trees, The Launching Pad, Speedies, Chickens, 20:20 and Tiger Tracks are all working. It is an awesome and mouth watering sight.