Tuesday 24 June 2014, Timor Leste Day 6

Tutuala to Viveque

An early morning view of our own tropical paradise.

Our first stop on the journey to Viveque.

One of the amazing views along the major route. To the right is a memorial to the war dead of the resistance against Indonesia.

Many of the memorials include an ossuary, a bone house, to contain the bones of the war heroes.

Back to Becau for another amazing lunch.

Four little Timor ponies, or at least the motorcyle version thereof, all in a row.

 The mini-buses, called microlets, are all filled up this way. This ensures the absolute maximum amount of fuel and therefore range, per tank.

The view about two-thirds of the way to Viveque.

Empty school house. Why is it empty? When the kids saw us pull up and recognized David, they all ran across to say hello and have hime play a few tunes on his harmonica. They are out of shot to the left.

The rviver nearby our guest house accomodation at Viveque

View just outside our guest house portico.

Monday 23 June 2014, Timor Leste Day 5

Com to Tutuala.

Good helmet video camera footage to come

One last early morning look at our digs before we mount up. After all, today, we ride.

Dave from Timor Adventures is the ultimate guide. He is so full of knowledge and stories of the areas we travelled through. More importantly though, he is very passionate about the history of Timor Leste and what can be done for its people today.

Replicas of traditional Timorese housing built after the Indonesians were asked politely to leave ... These houses are now used primarily for ceremonial purposes but were the common form of house design in the districts before the Indonesion occupation. The tall roof allowed for grain storage away from animals.

Our lunchtime stop. It doesn't get any better than this.

Well, actually, it does. This is our overnight accomodation.

Our Timor ponies. Light, strong and tough as nails.

Sunday 22 June 2014, Timor Leste Day 4

Sunday was a leisurely ride from Becau to Com. The longest straight in Timor saw us reach the heady heights of 84 kilometres an hour.

A Portuguese era building on the beach at Becau that was "modified" by the Japanese in World War Two to allow for canons.

Note the circular holes cut through the stone to allow canon muzzles.

Goats everywhere. Dogs and pigs too, but not at this beach. They all seem to get along just fine.

The Becau motorcycle garage. We didn't speak Timorese, merely the international language of motorcycling which includes various tonal grunts, points and thumbs up or thumbs down. This older model Honda Mega Pro was a definite thumbs down.

Caves hand dug out of the mountain by forced labour. The occupying Japanese compelled the local Timorese to build these caves as an ammunition dump.

One of my riding collegues, Tim, talking with local children. Tim, Alan and David all have incredible social compasses and the many social, welfare and religious discussions were a major part of the tour.

Our view from our guest rooms in Com. How much would you pay for this in Australia?

Happy pigs.

Goats warming themselves on the warm concrete pier at the local harbour in Com.