Our second day at Selong Blanak was beautifully sunny. Adrian and I had seen a little too much sun the day before (tricked by the cloud!) so we decided that securing a raised beach hut with bean bags would be a good plan. We grabbed one before breakfast and used it as our base for the day. It was the perfect spot - dry, shady and reasonably sand-free.
Our beach is lined with surf schools, unsurprising given that it is be a great beach for learning with its reasonably gentle breaking waves. The kids were keen on a lesson, so they had a couple of hours. Adrian decided to give it a go while I watched from the beach. Eleanor and Leo loved it and were both able to get up by the end. Adrian showed great perseverance! But perhaps needs to work on his balance. And coordination. And core strength. His teacher was very patient!
The kids and I swam and hung out in the beach hut for the afternoon while Adrian went on a bit of a wander outside the resort. It was pretty much just rural Lombok, humbling to see how different local lives are to ours back in New Zealand, but also good for the soul to relearn again how a smile and a friendly ‘Salam’ (‘hello’ in Bahasa Indonesian) can help cross a few boundaries.
After sunset, as the tide came in, Eleanor, Leo, Fuyubi and Suraya spent ages creating the Great Wall of Lombok, a sand wall to keep the sea out. They worked together so beautifully on this exercise in futility. Their cries of ‘work harder’ and ‘survive’ had the adults in stitches!
We’re very sorry to be leaving - we feel like we’re just relaxing into our Selong Blanak routine and could have happily spent longer doing it. We’d love to come back one day, although suspect it will be more built up by the time we get the chance - Adrian noticed preparations for new buildings going on further down the beach and around the area.
On our last morning we squeezed in another quick surfing lesson for the kids. As the surf was bigger, they went down the very far end of the beach near the fishing village where the waves were a bit more manageable. The beach outside the resort is incredibly clean, but it turns out that it’s only because there’s a man who picks up the rubbish that’s come in on the tide. Down by the village there’s rubbish everywhere.
The kids really enjoyed their lessons. It was amazing to see them progress to being able to stand and get stronger and more confident. Their instructors were kind, extremely patient and very good surfers themselves. Dan even demonstrated surfing a wave doing a headstand on the board (just wow!) - something for our kids to aspire to!
After the lesson it was a flight back to Bali for us.
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