365

365 days ago I left New Zealand after cycling almost the whole country from Auckland to Bluff for half a year. Here I'm flying over Australia on route to Bali, Indonesia, my gateway to Asia.

This is a record for me. It is the first time I spend 1 year in a country while touring. I must mention that normally I don't plan itineraries, I just go with the flow. Here in Indonesia I have had plenty of "flowing" carrying me for the last 12 months.

This post is not going to cover my experience in Indonesia, that will come later.

I'm just sharing this day as a landmark worth mentioning. The norm when we travel is for short periods of time, from few days to a couple of weeks. It is rare to spend more than 3 weeks in the same place.

I arrived May 12, 2019 and spent about 6 weeks in Bali, by the end of June I arrived in the island of Lombok staying in its capital, Mataram for several months with sporadic visits to Bali. By the end of September I was living in Pemenang, north Lombok and I've been here ever since.

Early this year I broke my foot and the pandemic reached Indonesia. I didn’t know what to make of the situation, stay in paradise self-distancing, or take a risky flight to become quarantined at home? I decided, for the time being, to stay, since Lombok, Indonesia was reportedly a low-risk zone and I had a very comfortable setup to enjoy life in the meantime.

So here I am, 365 days later, in what is to me one of the most foreign country in the world. Recovering from my injury and waiting out the Covid-19 storm to calm down and for the borders to open up so I can resume my tour.

I've been in such solitude at the beach in my corner of the world where I used to go running but now I'm going swimming as therapy for my recovery. One day I was very surprised to see another human being at the beach and I'm sharing this unique sight with you.

Until next time, take care!