SOUTH LOMBOK AND NO HURRY

12 February 2024

The trip around from Gili Sudak was just a twelve mile hop and as there was only a slight breeze from ahead we motored all the way. It was an easy motor in calm seas, I took care to keep well away from the reefs which can be seen on the satellite images but not necessarily on the charts. We arrived at Gili Gede and anchored off Marina Del Rey just before ten in the morning.  

With Truce securely anchored I went ashore to visit the marina. Its a spiffing place, nice bar with a view, swimming pool and all clean and tidy. The floating dock has some lovely big boats lying alongside, most of which seemed deserted.

I went to the marina office and introduced myself and asked about mooring rates, availability of fuel, water, gas, laundry etc. The lady in charge showed me the rates and informed me that I would have to pay to anchor. Well, paying to anchor is against my religion and the rates for services seemed on the high side. For those with deep pockets this place would be a wonderful stop, for a budget conscious cruiser it does not make sense. Clearly, this marina is a huge honey trap and I departed before temptation for ‘just one cold beer’ could lure me in.

From the marina I took the dinghy across to Tembowong on the mainland where there is a floating dock to make dinghy access easy. From the dock I walked a couple of kilometers into the local village of Pelangan where there is an Alphamart. All along the road into the village I could hear the sound of small trundlers rotating away to process gold in peoples back yards. There are numerous small gold mines scattered about doing small scale mining and the processing seems to be a cottage industry. In the village I found a cash machine, unfortunately it was for local banks only and just spat my card out. At the Alphamart I picked up a few supplies and wandered back down the road to the dock, it was quite hot in the midday sun.

Just across the water from the Marina Del Rey is a small (five bungalow) resort called Palmyra Indah Bungalows, here I had an excellent (late) lunch in a beautiful relaxing setting for a very reasonable price. I like this place and plan to return.

With a good lunch inside me I returned to Truce, picked up the anchor and headed around to Gili Goleng where I was told there was a good anchorage to the south of the Island. Once again there are reefs about and I took care entering around the Island where I found good holding on a mud bottom in 20m of water. With the anchor well dug in and the engine off it was time to relax in the cockpit with a cold one. What a beautiful quiet and calm place. I had a second beer and took in the view of Bali in the distance, just perfect, I am lucky to be here.

The next day I took the dinghy across to Gili Asahan and had a walk on the beach part way around the island, its a lovely place. Then I headed to the Eco resort for a coffee. On the menu I noticed they had English Breakfast, could it be real I thought. I placed my order and was pleasantly surprised to receive an English breakfast with real pork bacon! It was delightful, the only thing missing was HP sauce. So, I seem to have landed in paradise. There is no hurry to move on.

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