Indonesia | Mar 24-28 2023 |
Set off from Sumbawa Besar (with hotel key in pocket), headed for Lakey Beach, aka Hu'u (as it was known in 1992, when I first went there). It's one of the most renowned surf locations in Indonesia/world, and a core element of the "Sumbawa is the new Bali" message. It was a great ride on the Aerox, with very little traffic, and a good chunk of it ran along Saleh Bay, which looks like a massive lake with little sea life. The road is on the south side of the bay, across from Mount Tambora, the site of the 1815 volcanic eruption, the largest in recorded history. Down the road at Dompu, I turned off for the final 1-hour ride to Lakey. It was interesting to see that horse carts are still a predominant form of transport in Sumbawa.
As it was in 1992, Lakey/Hu'u is still an isolated hardcore surfer destination, though there are more food and accommodation choices now than then. I stayed 2 nights at the excellent Rock Pool Homestay, then moved to the new Lakey Peak B&B, hosted by California wildman Bob. He lent me one of his boards, so I had a few days in the water straight out from the guesthouse, where I progressively surfed ("surfed", more precisely) worse each day, kind of like my golf game. I could definitely see heading back to Lakey in the future and attempting to improve my surfing skills.
One other (concerning) thing started to develop in Lakey, specifically some boil-type sores on my lower right calf, near the motorcycle exhaust burns I had from the week prior. Things were not looking good...
Ride: 227 km including ferry / 5.5 hours
Stay: Rock Pool $26 / Lakey Peak B&B 38 (both w/bfast, kind of...)
