EAST TIMOR - The end of the road

The 4th of November 2022 we finally reach the border. Not just any border: the last terrestrial border of our journey! We thanked the Indonesian customs officers for these 60 days spent in their beautiful country and crossed the bridge to the eastern part of the island: East Timor. It was midday and oppressively hot. 'Where will we take the necessary break before resuming pedaling?" we asked ourselves. As luck would had it, we had barely entered the air-conditioned customs station when the officer announced a 2-hour lunch break for the administration. Perfect, we took out our Helinox chairs and ate our picnic in the cool, at the foot of a large map of the country, displayed on the wall.

Then, as usual: stamp in the passport, excuses for not having our bags scanned, exchange of our last Indonesian roupias... And 30 min later we were on the Timorese roads. The road network was rather simple: a main road which goes around the island along the coast and a multitude of small roads which cross the island from north to south, the latter in much poorer condition. Our final destination by bike? The capital, Dili, 130km.

But as we had already booked our plane ticket for November 17, it left us two weeks in the small country, so the goal was to take our time.

A few kilometers further, we arrived in the first town, Batucada. At the entrance to the town, facing the sea, was an old military fort, probably dating from the Portuguese era. We stoped at a small store across the street and immerse ourselves in the culture of the country. Because yes, a simple store gives us a lot of clues about how a population lives. For example, the customers in front of us were buying beers, it's been a while we saw that ! There was also bread and wine, relics of the Portuguese era. We stocked up for an evening party in the tent!

A little further on, we stoped at the edge of the beach. Why not the spot for this evening? But a group of young people arrived and we started to chat. They told us to stay on the coast because the tribes living in the mountains were savages who still kill each other today... We later understood that they came from the capital, Dili and were there for the weekend. They also told us that we had to be careful when swimming, because there were crocodiles. They even showed us a small mangrove where there might be one! We didn't see it but preferred to camp further away, just in case... We then got lost in small paths which lead to a remote beach. We were alone and pitched the tent. The sunset was majestic and we enjoyed our last moments of wandering, knowing that the adventure was ending slowly...

We took two additional days to reach the capital. On the side of the road, we tasted the local dish: freshly caught fish, grilled and served with yellow rice. All for $2 a plate. Here too, as in Cambodia, the official currency above 1 dollar is the American dollar. The price of living is more or less similar to that of Indonesia if you consume locally, however the big negative point is accommodation. Tourism being very rare in the country, the only existing accommodations were overpriced. The cheapest we found was 25 USD per night, 4 times more expensive than in the neighboring country… But we understood that installing wifi, air conditioning and a shower to our European standards came at a price here, far from everything. We spend 2 nights in these accommodations in small villages.

We finally arrived in Dili, the capital. The first thing we passed by was the commercial port. It was brand new. Everything was shining: the cranes, the installations, the buildings… But not a boat in sight. We learned later that this port had just opened and was 500M$ investment from Mr Bolloré !

We continued to the city.

We were greeted by an English expat couple, Martin and Kerry, who was living here for two years. They were the only Warmshower hosts in the country and we were delighted that they were available to host us for the remaining ten days in the country. They were both English teachers for military personnel in training, with the aim of an hypothetical cooperation with the Australian army. Through their contacts, we organized a presentation in an international school where we explained our trip to a hundred students. A beautiful project that became reality.

We spent a few days packing our bikes for the Dili-Darwin flight. The Australian continent was only a few hundred kilometers to the south, but there were no boats making the trip, the flight was taking an hour only and was cheap. We still visited the marina but it was not the season and the few sailboats at anchor had not planned to move during the typhoon season which was beginning.

The remaining week we wandered and visited. We spent a day on the island of Atauro for snorkeling and eating grilled fish and a few days in Baucau, the second largest city in the country which looked like a small village... We were taking advantage of this little vacation, because we had already found a work in Australia and the transition will be rapid.

Finally, it was time to fly over the Timor Sea and reach our host country for a little while: Australia. We would initially work on a remote farm in the outback. A whole new adventure!

In total, we have traveled 20,500 km, across 25 countries and over 19 months! It's time to end this chapter and start a new one!