Lombok island, 4 hours by slow boat from Bali. The transformation is remarkable: most of Bali houses looked like small stone temples, houses in Lombok are often just small straw huts. The main religion in Bali is Hinduism with all the ceremonies, bell tolls, bright colours, then Lombok comes with Muslim religion, mosques, women covered up, speakers echoing prayers over villages.
Besides that Lombok comes with incredible hidden beaches, perfect waves for surfers.
With a small fishing boat to the waves
Boat, surfers and the village shared by traditional fishermen and surfers.
Gerupuk village old surfshop on the main street (the only street)
One of the hidden beaches we found just by accident. From the cliff top opened a beautiful view on surfers making their way between waves and rocks.
Lombok's highes peak Gunung Rinjani showing itself for a moment from behind the clouds.
Learning the waves again after first trial 4 years ago in Australia. Photos by Gerupuk surf photographer
Russell.
Legend of the leaving Gili Trawangan, Lombok. Gili Trawangan is a small island just by Lombok, it is a popular tourist beach hideout. Connected with Bali, the main tourist hub, in numerous ways - one option is taking the speed boats. It can be a fast trip of 2.5 hours, cutting short the time of travelling from Gili Trawangan back to Lombok, then taking 3-4 hours bus trip to slow ferry terminal and then taking a 4 hour ferry back to Bali.
After a quick decision the idea was to catch the last fast boat to Bali at this day. First 10 minutes of the ride were nice, boat speeding up, waves little stronger than would want from a smooth ride. Then we were out from behind the islands and the waves started to show their full power. They were smashing against boat hull with incredible cracking sound. Captain slowed down the boat, then speeded up again.
At one moment one of the front hatches broke open and water started to come into the saloon. Children crying, women shouting to turn back and give out the life vests. The boat front was heavier from the water on board and nose started to point more and more downwards, making sure even more water from the waves will come into the boat.
The crew asked everybody who could move to go to the back of the boat, for getting the boat back in balance and to be able to shovel water out. After few moments this and change of course helped to regain the balance. With people still crying or just seasick the trip went on by not driving directly into waves.
Already calmed down.
Seaweed harvesting
