What's Next? Leg 2, Indonesia

Today we all fly out to Bali in Indonesia. We will leave a magnificent country and continent behind us and all the wonderful people we have met along the way, and start leg 2 of our journey with much to look forward to plus some new challenges as well.

Both bikes have had  their fuel drained, battery disconnected and crated by Auto Classic BMW Motorrad in Perth, Thanks guys, and have been collected by Jetfast, the shipping company for Airfreighting to Denpasar in Bali. They were originally scheduled to fly out on the same day as all of us but due to National Holidays and weekends we have had to delay their departure so as not to incur massive airport demurrage charges while waiting for the authorities to return to work and process the import paperwork. So we have to wait an extra 10 days in Bali. Nice you might think? Yes indeed, but 10 days is a long time in our schedule, almost the allotted time planned to travel from Bali to Malaysia, which will mean we will be under pressure to make up time to remain on schedule for our China entry date. We will also have to be navigating the every changing regulations on importing the bikes and license and insurance requirements.

We have just under 3,000 kms to cover through Indonesia with poor, winding and crowded roads. It's going to be a challenge. There are Toll freeways in Indonesia but large motorcycles are not allowed to travel on them. It's considered too dangerous.

Our average speed through Australia was 79km/hr and we never went above 100km/hr and we have planned to average 40km/hr on the roads of Indonesia, which might actually be a stretch, so we will have too ride longer days than our usual 4-5 hrs per day in order to catch up. To make things even more challenging its still Monsoon Season in Indonesia and today they have issued a EXCESSIVE  HEAT warning with high temperatures and humidity in the high 90s plus tropical rains and thunderstorms. Oh Joy!

This leg might be a challenge but on the other hand there is much to look forward to as we travel across the islands of Bali, Java and Sumatra and across to Malaysia: kind and generous people, their cultures and cuisine, magnificent landscapes and interesting customs. We all also be crossing the equator on this leg and into the northern hemisphere!

We hope to get our first Video up on our YouTube channel while we wait in Bali so watch this space for more information. Thanks and see you in Bali!

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