Another coast road expedition turns up this strange, very wide dirt road. Note there are no car tracks at all:
The mystery is soon solved when we come across a river bed where the bridge is missing. Not just washed away, it looks like there never was one.
Bikes can get around the obstruction, so we continue. The plot thickens as shortly there is tar seal again, but almost overgrown.
Then this girder bridge:
After this bridge across a gully with large boulders the track becomes steep and stony and we decide to turn back:
In Bima we enquire about putting our bikes onto a Pelni passenger boat to Sulawesi, but get a negative answer.
Sumbawa is a big island, but as others have rightly pointed out, there is only one decent road you can take, so we continue on East to Sape. This is the last "town" before the ferry to Flores.
We arrive fairly early in the morning and there is a hotel right next to the ferry port. This leaves us some time to explore the surroundings. There are some small, but good roads around. We follow the coast SE around the bay. A local directs us onto a small road we would have otherwise missed, where we find some kind of abandoned fish farm. Everything looks fairly new, but obviously the sea laps at the door steps at high tide, so I guess it was some kind of government setup.
Near the beach the outgoing tide has left a lot of fat starfish behind. I wonder how they will handle being baked by the midday sun.
Soon we pass a couple of thatched villages, where the kids are excited to see us, as usual: "Hello Mister!" they scream and jump up and down.
Then we find ourselves climbing very steeply up, until we reach a Telkom transmitter station at the top of a hill, at 927m altitude. The three staff are pretty surprised to see us there and we get the guided tour around the station. The view must be quite good at times, but not today, as we are above the clouds.
In the afternoon Su holds siesta and I explore on my own. I think the oil drum means not to ride bikes across this rickety bridge - I don't dare:
Fish drying in the sun.
There are lots of large fishing boats with outriggers in E Sumbawa.
The next morning we board yet another ferry, to Flores. This trip is a lot longer, it takes about 9h. The ferry is a little decrepit, some of the equipment is rusty or broken.
I like Sumbawa, but I'm looking forward to Flores: no more wakeup calls from the mosque next door at 4:30h! It's said to be mountainous, green and beautiful.