Adventures living as expats.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Pelabuhan Ratu Surf Weekend

Shamefully Jeff and I haven't used our surfboards since arriving in Indonesia (or in my case ever).  To remedy this we headed to a popular surf beach on Java, about 160 km south of Jakarta.  Our 3 car caravan got an early 4 AM start and enjoyed with a relatively smooth drive clocking in at about 4 hours.
Pelabuhan Ratu location on Java
We arrived at our beautiful villa on Sunset Beach and immediately propped ourselves down to stare at the enormous waves crashing just in front of us.  We watched a brave surfer tried to paddle out against the waves only to give up after being pounded relentlessly.

Enjoying the waves
View from the villa
Seeing that the waves were too big for our group of newbies + Jeff with only 1 paddling arm, we went on a mission the next day to find some anak (child) waves.  We were handsomely rewarded with an almost deserted beach, free of garbage, and full of waves just big enough to give us a rush of adrenaline.  We all caught a few waves, but only Bede our beach-raised Aussie pal managed to stand up.

Beach bums
The excitement continued when we had to get the van back up the near 45 degree rock road.  We walked up the road cheering our driver on and managed to make it out only leaving a bit of tire rubber after spinning out a few times.  We arrived back at the villa to be greeted by the delicious smells of grilled lamb leg (yes I confess I've recently become a complete carnivore) and stunning sunset.
Rubber from our tires
Trying out the HDR setting on my camera
By Saturday the waves on Sunset Beach had calmed down a bit so we all headed out to have another go.  Jeff caught a few waves which boosted his spirits and left him with a big smile the whole day.
Kowabunga dude!
Trying to stand up...
We enjoyed Brendan's fantastic homemade pizzas that night along with lots of wine and beer.  Although I went to sleep early, Jeff had plenty of fun for both of us!  He stumbled into the room at 5 AM with a scratchy voice from hours karaoke and smelling like a slab of bacon.  I won't try to describe the compromising position he was in when I woke up a few hours later, but let's just say the whole crowd loved the reenactment.  I'm still laughing about it and wondering how the heck he managed to get so tangled up.  All in all an epic weekend that was well worth the 7.5 hour stop and go drive back to Jakarta.



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