Mick's 2016 Bali Blog

Jumped on the plane early yesterday & ended up with a seat in front of a friend from my home break which was pretty cool. He was on his way over to do some work on his 12 villas on Nusa Lembongan.

Swell was bigger than expected when we landed & was surprised to see some decent size waves breaking at airport rights. I guess 1130 was pretty much top of the tide which it likes but damn was there a crowd. Over 50 I reckon.

Was cool to breeze through not having to worry about visa on arrival. Havn't been over since July last year when the missus got straight through on her non Aussie passport & had to wait for me. So that was nice, got luggage pretty quick too. But then I was like where the fark is my boards when they didn't show up on the oversize trolley. Was a little anxious & thinking of where I might buy a board if they didn't show up...but after 30 mins they did woohoo, was stoked

Staying at Febris for a few days before we head down to the Bukit. Was stoked again boards unpacked in the same condition I packed them.

New hotel on old Santika site has opened, its across the road from Febris. Supermarket under Lippo mall has sold to a new chain & shrunk. No cheap Jack Black boubon & colas I like to start a session with. Probably for the best...Small Bintangs in all the mini marts round here have skyrocketed in price. Was $1.50 in cocconuts before, now no price shown. Didn't ask coz they were warm, everywhere else $2.50 or more. So had to do the mission to Lippo which has gone up from $1.65 to $2. Luckily they still taste great...

Febris is about 5 salamat pagis to security peeps further than where we usually stay, but this was a budget trip. Didn't wanna pay for Ramada or put up with the icy waters of its sister budget hotel out front. So a few minutes walk further to the reef taxis isn't a drama. Was probably good to wake up a bit this morning anyway, coz it was pretty big.

Jumped on a boat for mids, real low tide at 5:50 & surfed there for about 20 mins as a boat of 4 guys arrived. I'd just caught my second wave & thought I had the take off spot wired. So did the other 4 guys who paddled in towards me. They'd almost made it to me when I guess they saw the panic on my face & my frantic paddling towards them coz a triple overhead wide bomb was heading towards us.

So began a relentless duck diving session of at least 20 waves before I gave up after about the 15th coz I was now in thigh high water, so I opted to brace myself & wait it over. One bloke ended up further back & must have decided he was closer to Airport lefts than mids now & paddled over there. Another bloke on the other side dissapeared in the direcion of Kuta reef.

Sat a bit further out & wide after that lol...but another set like that didn't come...until I'd caught a few more waves. About 10 all up I guess & was just planning on paddling out to my boat I could see making its way over after my last wave & another bomb set came. Only about 4 this time but the first one stole my surf hat damn it. Same thing happened last year only it was my first wave. Damn'it & no one sells surf hats this end of Jalan Kartika. Prob have to go to surf stores around Kuta Square or something. If someone knows a place, please let me know

Overall a fun surf, but took the wrong board out coz I felt tired. Real bright idea that was, might be easier paddling a 38L board over a 30L one but not so easy to duckdive when its low tide & breaking wide haha We live & learn...

I'll take the germ tomorrow, just hope I can remember how to surf it

hahaha exactly right, get through quicker only to get out at the same time with your baggage...cheers mate

Great post, look forward to updates..

So Mick have you made your way home from the Sky Garden yet

The view from the balcony the last few days. Fun times . Bloody busy though. The kitters have been doing it tough. And the rain - so much rain as Mick said. All the hills here have a green tinge still - they would normally be dry and horrible at this time of the year. Been a weird dry season from all reports. We have had rain every few days.

Good work with the blog Mick - great reading !

It was a cold & stormy night...somewhere else in the world, but Bali continued its usual about 28-30 degrees celcius no wind mornings & trade wind kicking in mid morning. Fairly easy to acclimatize to coming from an Aussie summer, but not so with 14c water & 18c air temp back home. Bali weather more than prompts you, it damn well forces you into the water. You wanna get wet, be it swimming pool or the ocean its so easy to hop in. There's none of that its nice once you get used to it BS, its great from the get go.

On the other hand it never fails to surprise me how badly you can get sunburnt, even when you feel you had taken precautions to avoid exposure to the sun. I will lather my neck with sunscreen, cover my face with zinc cream & wear a long sleeve rashy...but haha yeah, never consider applying sunscreen to the back of my legs. Generally your ok in a place thats covers a range of tides & you surf early. But head somewhere tide dependent or try & aim to surf a particular spot on a particular tide between 11am & 3pm in Indo & you need to be prepared with sun tolerant skin or some kinda sun protection.

A really bad sunburn can fark you up big time & Ive ended up with flu like symptoms a few times. Due to the sunburn itself decreasing the immunity system or what I don't know. We always bring cold & flu tabs coz they come in handy. Them & bintangs for hydration purposes

Was the missus birthday yesterday, we went snorkling & saw a moray eel in amongst heaps of fish. That was really cool. Had a great day drinking a bottle of wine we'd saved for a special occasion & had a stone massage. No surfing, but I did see Serangan across from our snorkling spot & that ship is still stuck on the reef there.

Staying at a homestay next right after the Bingin turnoffs now. Just missed catching a photo of a huge spotted gecko this avo. But I did snap off a few quick pics of Impossibles on the way home after a quick surf.

Now to see if I can upload them with this internet connection...wish me luck, cheers

Thats one cool lift ! Keep the updates coming....I should be back in Bali on Saturday for two days Message you tom.

Ok so yeah...yesterday we came down to the Bukit & are staying just off the main road to Ulu's about 1/2 way down the Impossibles stretch. I'd arranged a scooter for when we arrived but it wasn't available until the next day (today). Really need one down here unless you stay right next to one break & surf that one break exclusively.

I've only ever stayed at Blue Point Villas above Ulus when I've stayed on the Bukit, but the last time I was there I got annoyed with all the Chinese wedding BS going on. They will literally ask you to get out of the pool & leave the area, so the newly weds can have wedding photos taken in front of it. I know its their special day & all, but I just think Blue Point should make another area separate for their wedding programs so it does not interfere with other guests coz its happened every time I've stayed there. Hmmm but I digress...

Like I said before this was a budget holiday anyway & the Medori Putai is bloody good value for $40 a night, they even have rooms for $20. Nice pool, AC in a big room, cheap decent food, good location with a scooter & icy cold Bintangs for $2.20.

Yesterday we didn't have a scooter, so I was hoping to walk down to Impossibles & then along the base of the cliffs to Bingin. But the tide was a little high & the swell a little large. There's an expensive hotel down the road, its like $1000 a night if I remember right & its got that lift down to the middle of impossibels. We took a little track down the side of it & then some epic stairs to get down the side of it.

Waves were washing up to the base of the stairs of the elevator when we got there, we had to time it to pass by during a lull & then waited in a cave on the other side for the tide to drop. Missus & I took a dip & after 30 mins I did some scouting ahead. Thing is we had bags with cameras in them, so we couldn't just swim round. After scouting I told the missus we'd give the tide another 30 mins to drop coz there was a big cliff point with chest high water blocking our way.

We waited & the swell built as it often does on that stretch of coast. Its amazing Bingin & Dreamland can be flat at high tide. Then when the tide drops it can suddenly start cranking. And thats what happened of course, but the tide didn't drop enough for us to pass the cliff point to complete our journey, so I had a quick one hour surf in the middle of impossibles. Time was marching on & I didn't wanna climb the epic stairs in the dark.

Was great to get the scooter today. We did a surf check at Padang Padang at about 8am before breaky & the top of Imp's looked awesome. No one out with freight train lefts reeling through. Had breaky, got our stuff & returned to Padang Padang about an hour later. I suddenly realized I didn't see any scooters anywhere. There used to be hundreds parked along & beside the bridge. They've got a paid parking area up the hill now. Its ok, 10c & there were shady spots to park. Then it was $1 each to go down to the beach. Ok now Julia Roberts was pissing me off. Ever since she visited the place has just become more & more commercialized. But gotta say they've tidied the place up a lot since I was last there 2 or 3 years ago & it is one place the missus can have a swim in the Bukit ocean without reef boots & fear of being swept away in big waves. Dreamland is dangerous as fark for non strong swimmers. May as well go all out & shell out $10 for that beach umbrella too lol

I still think Padang Padang is pretty cool, the narrow walkway down to a nice white sandy beach enclosed by cliffs & the ocean. Its a great place to bring your missus & good for kids too. Sometimes you might even find a fun wave.

That happened today, lineup was no longer empty, it was full of surf school crew. They were pretty much sitting on the left side of the peak so they could paddle back out the channel. I got fully pitted on my first left making it through a couple of sections. Then next 2 were the same only then my leg rope broke & I had to chase after my board. Drifted a bit but no drama...but now no leg rope fark. I thought I would have to haggle a rental price off one of the ruthless Padang Padang board rental blokes but I could see it in his eye this guy really wanted my old leggy. He saw value in something I was gonna throw away. I talked him down from $5 per hour to nothing.

Meanwhile the Russians were moving in on our turf (umbrella shade) so I said to the umbrella ladies I had to move it coz the tide was moving in. They'd even had the cheek to ask my missus to watch their stuff while they went for a swim lol I mean come on sitting almost elbow to elbow with someone you don't know trying to steal our shade. Cheeky buggers

Anyhow I got back out there & it was fun head high waist deep clean pigdog barrels pretty much to myself. So fun coz I don't get barrels very often these days. I got heaps, made it out of a few & they were longer than that you get at Bingin. One of the Balo instructors could not resist one head 1/2 beauty that came through & got a real nice long deep baz for about 30m as I was paddling out. Really fun surf I'm thinking about heading back tomorrow if the swells about the same size coz Ulu's will probably be packed. Had way more fun than expected

Luvvin' this thread. This and the boys' road trip thread have provided lots of stoke. Nice work Mick. You tell a good yarn.

Great story mate I can relate so much......BTW any pics of the Russian girls..........

Cheers guys

Ifocus there are a couple at the homemstay here doing yoga beside the pool the last few arvo's. Great time to be wearing sunnies, a camera would definitely give the game away

Sounds awesome S69, PM me if ya wanna go for a surf or grab a beer some time