It’s a 5,000 km ride across the Emerald of the Equator, beginning at the top of Sumatra and finishing in Dili, Timor-Leste. It’s Ramadan and being in this mainly Muslim country of a mere 250 million we’re expecting the restrictions on eating during daylight hours plus the limited availability of booze in the backblocks to amount to an enforced weight loss regime. It’s an island-to island hop, although across a mere 8 of the 20,000 of so Indonesia is reputed to possess. We’re back on Suzuki DR650’s our steed of choice for four of our last five rides. The reason we’ve gone back to carburettor is cost and ease of repair. Suspect when we get back to another long ride (Portugal to Japan is pencilled for 2018) that we’ll tale 800GS’s though.

Apart from engaging with as many of the 250 million locals as we can it’s the Komodo Dragons, Orangutans and white headed Gibbons that we’re on the look out for. To get all the way to Timor Leste will be a challenge apparently because some of the ferries are sporadic to be kind. But once there it’ll be time to look for a project or two with UNICEF. Let’s ride.