Our next planned stay was 5 days on Nusa Penida, in the Bali region. A speedboat from Gili Meno took us to this nearby, somewhat larger island east of Bali.
We were greeted by a hilly, light-green landscape that is often bordered by steep cliffs.
The tourists' favourite pastime here seems to be climbing stairs. If you want to set foot on one of the dream beaches below the cliffs, you often have to reckon with a descent of 50–100 metres. To shorten the walking time, the islanders have made the stairs built right into the rock face all the steeper. Signs warn against attempting the descent if you're afraid of heights or have heart problems.
On the first day we gave in to the classic tourist tour and ticked off the most popular viewpoints in the east on our Honda Nmax (scooter): A Thousand Islands, Diamond Beach and Atuh Cliff. We didn't make the descent, since swimming is forbidden on these dream beaches anyway, and the blazing midday heat did the rest.
On the back seat of our scooter, clinging to my husband, I got to enjoy the long rides through rice fields and beautiful forest landscapes. Luckily, Chris concentrated more on the driving.
Now, sitting in Canggu, Bali, and writing this post, we miss the quiet and pleasant rides on Nusa Penida.
Once we'd had enough of the classic tourist attractions, we picked a waterfall in the south as our next destination. According to Google reviews it was worth seeing but not heavily visited – more of an insider tip. And that's where the adventure began.
According to the same reviews, instead of steep steps, the way down is an "impossible" scooter track. Local riders wait there to take you down the almost one-hour walking route on their scooters for a fee. What the Google reviews also say is that if you have very good brakes and are a very experienced rider, you can of course ride down and back up yourself. Since we're not exactly adventure-shy, and a few more scratches on the scooter probably wouldn't have been noticed, we decided to take a look at this oh-so-inhospitable track. After all, Chris is an experienced motorcyclist. Past the local scooter taxis, we stopped at the last possible spot before the slope and the unpaved steep track began, to discuss whether we wanted to arrive at the bottom as drivers or as passengers. Luckily, a motivated Italian couple stopped next to us to ask whether it was safe to ride down. We motivated each other to give it a go, but made very sure that the other couple set off first. Everyone knows Italians are experienced scooter riders anyway. Keeping a respectful distance from the couple in front, we bumped and rattled down the off-road track for 10–15 minutes without any further problems and had a huge amount of fun. Anywhere else you'd have had to pay for an off-road bike tour like that.
As a reward, a beautiful grotto with a bay, natural pools and a great beach awaited us at the bottom. Under the rocks lay the famous venomous blue-lipped sea krait (a snake), which we happily photographed.
Because of the high waves you could only swim in the natural pools, but we had a great beach afternoon with our new Italian friends.
Together we then tackled the bumpy, steep way back up and decided, as a team of four, to explore another nearby waterfall.
After a short while the navigation led us onto a forest track. The route became rockier, narrower and harder. Just as we started to doubt whether this really was a road, we met a local who wanted to know where we were heading. We told him about the waterfall and he said we should follow him. What came next, any nature lover from Austria would call a mountain-bike downhill trail – only half as wide as the bike trails prepared to Austrian standards. Compared to that, the Google-review track before had been a gentle stroll. Unfortunately it was so wild, and we were so sensible, that there are neither photos nor videos of it. But it was an unforgettable experience to ride a downhill trail through the jungle two-up on city scooters.
The whole thing was topped, though, when we arrived at a sheer cliff and the local told us the waterfall was 30 minutes' walk from here, down a hiking path to the foot of the cliff. As it would soon be dark, we decided with our Italian friends to start the descent straight away. Here, too, the hiking path turned out to be – by Austrian standards – a via ferrata of the "difficult" category, just without any self-belay and without a steel cable. It felt more like an easy bouldering route, where your hands and feet constantly had to find a hold on the wall at the same time. On the side of the drop there was a questionable bamboo construction meant to be some kind of railing, which none of us wanted to touch. We managed a good three quarters of the descent; it got harder and more dangerous. For me, with my fear of heights, it was a huge challenge. Chris went a few more metres down and reported back that there was no waterfall at all, just an artificial mini pool. I was very relieved when we jointly decided not to climb down the last bit but to start the ascent again. Here too we were sensible enough to leave the camera in the backpack – instead you get this detailed report.
Back at the top my circulation gave out a little; it was simply too many metres up and down in too short a time for me, and too much heat and tension. We noted that this cliff is particularly well suited for getting rid of unwanted tourists, or your spouse, unnoticed. We especially enjoyed this day because it was so packed with action and we'd had the wonderful beach day with a snake sighting. All in all, a great success and a fantastic experience.
The following day we ticked off the highlights of the west. Again beautiful viewpoints, friendly cows (anyone who knows me knows how much I love cows), lovely scooter rides and an overcrowded beach (Crystal Bay) that we didn't like so much.
Places we visited in the west: Devil's Billabong, Broken Beach and Crystal Bay.
We then cut our stay on Nusa Penida short by 2 days. Our accommodation wasn't the best, and the other tourist viewpoints didn't spark enough interest.
We continued by speedboat to the island of Bali (Sanur), where a driver took us up to Ubud in the centre of the island.