Lombok, Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia - January 2020

We stopped for brekky at a resort near Senggigi Beach.

After a day of topical rain as we sailed east from Semarang we docked at Lembar in Lombok this morning under an overcast but dry sky. Lombok is the somewhat quieter and slightly more natural cousin of Bali across the Lombok Strait, although quieter and natural are all a bit subjective in Asia in my experience. Anyway after breakfast we grabbed our towels and snorkelling gear and set off into the traffic on today’s adventure. 

We'd had some fairly ordinary weather yesterday as we sailed east towards Lombok - although you gotta be happy that we were in the tropics as at least it was warm rain!

Ultimately today we were heading for the Gili Trawangan Islands however we had a bit of travel before we got there. There had been a lot or rain in the days prior to us arriving on the island (further to the west in Jakarta flooding had caused numerous fatalities), the rain meant that our little van had to pick it’s way fairly slowly through some small landslides and a bit of flooding. Of course being on a tour things weren’t too hardcore though and after battling our way through the traffic for a little over an hour we arrived at the very popular Senggigi. Jumping out of our van we headed into one of the many resorts lining this stretch of the coast for our second breakfast, enjoyed while gazing across the Lombok Strait towards the 3142 metre cone of Gunung Agung. 

I'm pretty sure that the mountain poking it's head out above the clouds is Gunung Agung on Bali - although that's another Feral fact!

I'm not exactly sure if this is Senggigi Beach or not - let's just say it's close to Senggigi Beach.

We stopped at this partially built resort for a pit stop....

...and while the views were sweet....

....their OH&S left a little to be desired!

After enjoying our nice little interlude in the day we climbed back into our van and headed a little further along the road to Teluk Nare where we jumped on a speed boat for the relatively short journey out to Gili Trawangan. After 15 minutes or so our boat eased up to the sand and we were on Gili Trawangan. Now Sam and I had picked this tour as we hoped to get some good snorkelling in and maybe enjoy a peaceful beach, arriving to find an armada of small boats bobbing just off the beach along with throngs of sunburnt tourists (of which I was one) I was starting to think that our day wasn’t going to turn on as hoped. 

The boats are lined up ready to whisk the punters over to the the Gili Islands.

After making our way south through the punters along the foreshore promanade we arrived at the resort where we were going to base ourselves for the day. With the tide being quite low I wasn’t overly confident in the snorkelling here however our guide said that it was good with plenty of fish. Finding a small piece of sand (most of the beach was crushed coral) we pulled on our snorkelling gear and swam out into a waste land of dead, crushed and bleached coral - with bugger all fish. Quickly loosing interest it wasn’t very long before Sam and I returned to the hotel pool, Sam staying at the resort while I grabbed my gear and set off to see if I could find somewhere half decent to snorkel. 

 

The beach out the front of the resort where we based ourself's on Gili T wasn't overly inspiring.

Leaving Sam I walked 30 minutes north along the bustling promenade until I spied a small sand spit heading out towards deeper water, time to try again. Leaving my clothes under a small tree next to sun baking backpackers in their G Bangers, I once again pulled on my snorkelling gear and headed out, this time hoping to head for some deeper water. Initially this spot was worse than my original spot further south as the visibility was only around half a metre, once I’d reached the deeper water however the visibility improved to around 4 or 5 metres. Not only could I now see something but there was also something to see with a bit of coral about and a reasonable number of tropical fish. Snorkelling here wasn’t easy though as the action was a long way down, to get amongst the coral and fish meant a dive of at least 2 metres and I had to be a bit careful where I resurfaced as there were numerous boats anchored all around me. 

 

After giving up on snorkelling near the resort I went exploring a little. I eventually settled on this spot to the north of the main Gili T tourist strip.

The go here was to swim out to the spot where the boats were anchored in the slightly deeper water.

There were a few coral bommies.

There is actually a reasonable number of fish around here....it's the coral thats looking a little tired.

I managed to get in a bit of half decent snorkelling before grabbing my clothes and heading back down to Sam. Once back at the resort it was time for a late lunch, probably the highlight of the day in hindsight. After a nice swim in the resort pool it was time to start retracing our journey back to the ship. Our journey back broken with a stop at a pottery factory where we could spend a few rupees, although this kind of stuff doesn’t do a lot for me it appears that I’m in the minority there as most of the other punters off the boat seemed enthralled.

 

Eventually I retreated to the resort pool.....

...and rinsed the salt off.

We stopped at a pottery factory on the way back to the ship.

People seem to go crazy for these kind of trinkets - I must of missed that gene!

The Dirt.
Sam and I were on a Princess Cruise on this visit. The tour the today was booked on the ship and was called Senggigi & Gili Trawangan Islands and set us back around $220 each. Needless to say I didn’t think today was worth it. What you need to know though is that the Gili Islands consist of three main islands and the one that we went to today was the most developed of the three. Maybe Gili Meno or Gili Air, the other two islands would provide a more natural setting with better snorkelling. Also we visited on a low tide and apparently the best snorkelling on Gili Trawangan is up on the north west part of the island but it is only accessible at high tide. The beaches on Gili Trawangan consist mostly of broken coral which is very hard on your feet so reef shoes are probably a good move here. The Gili’s come with a big wrap so maybe I didn’t see them at there best, a little more time to explore and I may of found what I was looking for - or maybe I was just looking for something that the average punter isn’t?

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