It was our scheduled last morning on the island of Bali,

And we woke with the sense that this side-trip would be our folly.

Checking our phones for the latest of Jetstar news

We anticipated the most unpleasant of views.

 

The winds were a shifting and volcano a spouting

And our flight’s continuation we were seriously doubting.

Scheduled and recovery flights for Friday were cancelled

But ours early Saturday morning had not yet been felled.

 

In preparation for the likely changes ahead

We searched and we searched for options to bed.

Via Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and such

Through Surabaya, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta – it’s too much!

 

 

Our heads were a spinning and our bodies were tense

So on went the sunscreen and planning went on the fence.

We walked as the ocean lapped at our feet

And talked of Australia, the country we will at some point meet.

 

We returned to the hotel relaxed and refreshed

Only to learn that our plane would not be fetched

The ash would be too much for the engine to bear

So here we would stay if we didn’t dole out a new fare.

 

The mission was to be in Cairns by Tuesday

Catching our boat on Wednesday was now our duty

We hem’d and we haw’d over costs and the routing

Settling on Surabaya->Singapore->Brisbane->Cairns after a little more pouting

 

A little more poorer but satisfied with our choice

We finished our bookings and sigh of relief came from our voice.

We would be able to see our Singapore friends to our delight

After only one week plus a night!

 

The rest of the day was spent in the pool

Relaxing and reading was the new rule.

We ate and admired the sunset over Java’s shores

Knowing that tomorrow we would visit its mores.

 

 

So, it is true! Our flight was cancelled due to more ash clouds hanging out over Bali’s airport. So rather than risk not making it to Cairns in time to meet our Great Barrier Reef boat, we are instead waking ourselves up early tomorrow to catch a ferry to Java. Once on the other side we will get on a 9 a.m. train to Surabaya. Saturday night we’ll be flying to Singapore where we will spend all of Sunday and half of Monday with Rubaina and Tawfiq once again – certainly the highlight of this new route! On Monday afternoon we will fly to Brisbane then on to Cairns on Tuesday morning. It will be 3 days of traveling but we have chosen airlines with good safety ratings (you are welcome, parents) and are crossing our fingers that all will go smoothly from here. We appreciate all of your good thoughts over the past few days and are looking forward to this new adventure ahead of us!

Daily Walking Mileage: 2.6

Fun Facts:

• Surabaya is Indonesia’s second largest city behind Jakarta with 2.9 million residents. Discovering this led us to play an hour long game of guess the two largest cities in various countries from the Philippines, to Norway, to Canada. We usually could get 50% right but in some cases we struggled to come up with two cities – Indonesia being one of them.
• After dodging two typhoons and a run-in with Mt. Rinjani, our luck was bound to run out. We just hope we can make it to the reef!