We never planned to go there, but the northern coast of Bali turned out to be far away from the madness of that touristy island.
We barely scratched the surface but it was just long enough to get an understanding of why this place is so popular.
Bali is quite different to its neighbour, Lombok. Not only is it more developed, it is predominantly Hindu, evident by the architecture and the many temples that adorn the hillsides.
Lovina
The great thing about Bali’s tourism as a cruiser is that provisioning is easy. We took a couple of jerry cans ashore by kayak where taxi drivers instantly made themselves available to take Jamie to the closest fuel station.
Other treats included finding supermarkets that sold products we hadn’t seen in years. Simple things like onion pickle and good mustard.
And there’s plenty of souvenir shops and markets to pick up wood carvings, basketware and hand-made jewellery.
All of this sounds trivial but we hadn’t seen these kind of sights in a long time, so we enjoyed trundling around buying bits and pieces.
Banyuwedang
On the north west corner of Bali, Banyuwedang is a natural harbour with year round protection from wind and swell. Sitting within the Bali National Park, it immediately went up there into our top three anchorages in South East Asia.
With year-round protection, clean beaches and touches of familiar, western comforts surrounded by natural beauty, you could easily spend an entire season at anchor in this one spot.
To assist in provisioning and scooter hire, we were introduced to Danu, who was running his second term as chief of the district. The various initiatives that keep things ticking over are run by the villagers under the guidance of Danu, who explains the various projects in our video.
Knowing that the next part of our journey was going to be taking us away from tourism, and away from land altogether, we took this opportunity to make the most of the comforts on offer.
An obligatory scooter ride east across the top of Bali meant soaking up more of the beautiful countryside and beaches.
In the afternoon we took the scooter into the Bali National Park proper, where we climbed the lookout to take in views of the vast rain forest.
Then we treated ourselves to a day among the beautiful gardens of gorgeous Mimpi Resort. Liz had a relaxing massage, while Jamie dipped in the large swimming pool, and we both soaked ourselves in the hot springs.
I can honestly say that by the time we left to continue on our travels, we were well and truly rested. And if ever we were to return to Bali, Banyuwedang would be at the top of our list of places to drop the anchor.
Watch the video to find out more about the sunken sailboat we stumbled across…
If you like our content and would like to support us, we will give you ad-free access to our videos before they go live to the public, discounts in our shop, access to Jamie’s iconic full-res photographs, and supporter-only blog posts. Click our ugly mugs for more info!
