Will the leftovers keep for a few days, Mum?!
So, it's been a lovely week for me. On Saturday, I went on a road trip with some of the French gang and a couple of Beligians who were here on holiday. I have buddied up with Joey, John's Canadian girlfriend. John is from Normandy and his parents are from La Reunion, the sister island of Mauritius. Joey and I nattered all day long in English which was quite a treat. We dipped in and out of French when talking to the others (her French is better than mine) but it was so nice to be able to swap stories and get to know each other in our mother tongue.
John hired a car for the day and drove us all to a glorious beach not too far from Candidasa on the East coast. Again, not many people know about this beach so it was nice to have a little piece of sand and water where you aren't falling over tourists left, right and center.
After spending the day kicking back we dropped Julian, Cynthia and her daughter Lulu home and said goodbye to Romy and Sophie, who were heading back to Beligium the next day. Joey, John and I met up with Loïc, Anne, Fabrizio and Damien back in Sanur for dinner. I had a very yummy Cordon Bleu...just so you know.
Come Monday, it was time for another trip. Loïc and I packed a bag for Lovina which is in the very North of Bali. We braced ourselves for a four hour bike ride, but before we zoomed off out of Batubulan, Loïc dropped some clothes off at his local laundry service. As the girl working there rifled through his clothes, I got distracted by a beautiful little kitten running around the place. He's so tiny, maybe about four or five weeks old. His gorgeous blue eyes convinced me to cuddle him. But he also looked quite weak, skinny and in need of a good meal. Seeing my heart melt, the girl said I could take him. I couldn't believe she was just willing to give him away, but I guess in Bali, that's the way it is with animals. If you want it, then take it.
To my misery, I turned the offer down as we would be away for two days. And of course, I won't be in Bali for very long. But as we drove away I thought, if the offer still stands when we come back, then I would take him and give him the best two weeks of his life. Clean him, feed him, play with him, love him....Loïc would keep him when I go. And so, when we got back to Batubulan yesterday evening, the girl remembered me and came out the back with the kitten and handed him to me.
So meet Loui:
Yes, that's the back of him and I'm working on getting a picture of his pretty face but the flash makes him wince and cry. So you'll just have to use your imagination for now...but still cute, right?
So back to the trip. Half way up to Lovina, there is a huge lake cradled by some beautiful mountains. I was absolutely elated to see it. As I think I've told you before, lakes and mountains are just my favourite kind of scenery and one wouldn't think they were in Bali when sat there, gazing. The day was cloudy and the mist over the lake was thick but I think you get the idea here:
We stopped there for a buffet lunch and I took advantage of the free refill coffee. The air was lovely and cool there and I confirmed to myself that so far, this was one of my highlights of Bali. Until we got to the waterfalls where I felt sheer magic. This place in the middle of our mountain route was so beautiful, so secluded, so heavenly that we stayed for quite some time. We dunked ourselves in the water, played and sang, soaking in the incredible energy of it. I didn't want to leave and I didn't even care that my clothes were soaked all the way through. But we moved on and were dry enough two hours later when we reached Lovina.
*I'm having some technical difficulties uploading the photos!
Lovina is notorious for being able to see Dolphins, so there was no way I was going to leave without seeing any. But it would mean me getting on a boat, but I did it, folks. I faced my fear and tried to forget about the deep sea that rolled about like untacked carpet beneath us. These dolphins know the drill. About 6am every morning, they come to the same spot and show off for their spectators.
The boats follow them round like paparrazi and they play them a little. Making them turn this way and that to catch sight of them. But wow, they were beautiful. And as you would have guessed, bloody hard to get pictures of but you'll have to wait to see the photos we managed to get!
And so, exhausted from getting up at 5am to see them, we crashed out for a couple of hours and then had a swim. We got back to Batubulan at about 6pm, picked Loui up and headed to the pet shop to get him set up with a few kitty essentials.
*I've just spent the past two hours trying to work out what's wrong with the waterfall and dolphin pictures but will hopefully show them to you very soon.
So how has your week been?
