The three coloured lakes at Mt Kelimut is one of the top tourist attractions on Flores and being based near Maumere for close to a week gave us, and lots of others in the fleet, the opportunity to visit it. Even though relatively close to our anchorage (about 50 kms), it is a three hour drive (each way) up a very windy and steep road. We decided to make it an overnight trip so we could see a few other things along the way, as well as being able to get up to the lakes at sunrise which is reputed to be the best time to see them.

Organising an excursion like this in Indonesia is an experience in itself. Others in the fleet had simply asked Conrad, the rally “agent” in Maumere, to arrange it. Easy peasy. However, we thought that we would cut out the middle man and thereby pay less for the whole exercise. We got the number of a recommended driver/guide who spoke very good English who had taken others to the lakes and had chatted on about all sorts of things during the trip, so it was very interesting and informative. So I rang Ignas, and while his English was good, he was still hard to understand on the phone but the gist of it was that he wasn’t available for the days we wanted, but he could get his “brother” to take us- air conditioned car and good English, no worries missuses. Next thing was to arrange the accommodation. Again, we had a recommendation for the Ecolodge at Moni (village about 45 minutes from the lakes) and we knew the price that others had paid. In fact, our friends had told us that a better deal would be to ask for a bungalow which had two bedrooms (we were going with another two couples) and one double room, rather than three double rooms. Well that conversation proved almost impossible to have with the Ecolodge (when I could actually get them to answer the phone), and the best they could offer was three double rooms for more than our friends had paid. Apparently our friends got a better price because Conrad had organised it through the owner’s friend (networks are clearly important in Indonesia).

I still had to get back to Ignas to confirm the arrangement and as it turned out he was to be at the anchorage at 6pm that evening (the night before we wanted to go on this trip) so we could go and meet him and finalise things. I was starting to think that perhaps we were not going to make this trip. Ignas’ “brother” was not available so he had to ring another driver/guide but could not get onto him so he said he would confirm later that evening (!). After witnessing another couple trying to organise accommodation at the Ecolodge, I asked Ignas if he could line something up for us – yes missuses no worries. Almost half the price, and just as good – according to Ignas. By now it was about 7.30pm, and we thought we would just go with the flow and if things worked out we would go, if not, then too bad.

We went back to the boat for dinner and packing our overnight bag, and did in fact get a call from Ignas later that evening to confirm things. Sure enough at 8.30am the next morning, there was Ignas and our driver on shore ready to take us. This in itself is remarkable as nothing starts on time here. The six of us piled into the car (a sort of people mover), and stuffed our bags into various nooks and crannies. We were off!

On the way to Moni, we had a couple of stops. First, at a village at the Maumere dock. There was nothing remarkable here, just another poor village.

Second, at a Catholic outdoor church high up on the mountain overlooking Maumere. This was remarkable. The church consisted of a huge statue of the virgin Mary, under which was a chapel sized glass walled room containing an altar. The doors opened out to rows of pews situated in the middle of a garden. I’m not sure how this would work in the wet season.

We stopped for lunch at an unremarkable “restaurant”. Just as an aside, another group from the rally did the trip on the same two days and the place where they stopped for lunch had to go and kill the chicken, pluck and gut it before they could prepare the lunch! We arrived at our accommodation at Moni in the late afternoon, in time to explore the village a bit before an early dinner. The views we had along the drive up the mountain were spectacular, and the forest was lush, but by goodness we had some close shaves in which it seemed our lives were at risk. The mountain road carries a lot of traffic, including trucks of various sizes, and Indonesian drivers think nothing of tailgating, passing on a curve (tooting as they go to warn others coming the other way), and driving on the wrong side of the road.

Our accommodation turned out to be satisfactory, but we still had a restless night, and before we knew it, the 4.15am alarm was going off. Up and at ‘em! Dressed in warm clothes ( novelty in itself) and off we went up the last bit of mountain road in the dark to arrive at the car park just in the nick of time to walk the last bit up to the lakes arriving there just on sunrise. It was quite spectacular and the lakes were indeed three different colours, and one did change colour slightly as the sun rose.

On the way back to our accommodation for breakfast, we stopped at some hot springs where we thought we might have a soothing dip in the water. But as with most places in Indonesia, there was quite a bit of rubbish around, the bottom of the hot spring pool (concrete) looked very slimy, and there were locals there bathing their children and washing clothes. So we passed on the swim and instead had a hot shower (using water with gay abandon, unlike on the boat) before pankcakes and fresh fruit for breakfast served on the balcony outside our room.

We wended our way back down the mountain road and stopped at a traditional village which was interesting but we got the impression that it was more for the tourists than for the residents.

We were also meant to stop at a Portuguese church but we vetoed this and opted to go back to the anchorage, as we were pretty hot and tired by this stage.
All in all it was a good trip and we did have a lot of fun with the two other couples (Lisa and Shayne, and Jack and Jan).