Anchored off the village of 'Badas'.
After leaving Komodo island we spent a couple of days relaxing on the smaller island of Banta where we snorkeled on some beautiful reef and had beach fires at night. We then took an over night sail along the north coast of Sumbawa island, roughly 100 miles, to the village of Badas on the north west coast. The scenery has changed dramatically, from very dry, brown hills to lush green mountains and the smell of flowers that seems to linger in the air. We anchored in a deep inlet used as a small port in 40ft of water. We're probably the only boats they've seen here in a while as the locals are surprised to three yachts anchored on their doorstep and as far as cruisers are concerned we're now 'off the beaten track'.
Roughly 10 mins drive from the anchorage is the large town of Sumbawa Besar which used to be the capital of Sumbawa. On Saturday we met a local guy called 'Borex' who knew a little English and rented a 'Bemo'(mini bus) for us for the day so we could explore the area. We visited the Sultans palace which is actually a building site as it's in the process of being reconstructed from scratch and then wandered the small shops in town. Most importantly we found a great little restaurant with probably the best food we've had in Indonesia so far, we ended up returning there many times and the guys loved endless supply of cold Bintang! Sumbawa is a great area and although it's a shame that very few tourists visit the island it's also kind of nice that we haven't seen another white face the whole time we've been here!
Today we plan to start moving west again but not sure as of yet where we'll end up...We're all still trying to decide whether to go north or south of Lombok Island so I guess we'll decide underway or maybe just find a nice little sandy island to spend the night!!
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