The next day we were all too quickly back on the boat leaving this tropical paradise to head back to the main island where the swell had completely vanished dashing any hopes for a surf on another island on the way back.
After a quick stop off for Erman to say g’day to his mum we were back on the road. Crossing a bridge we thought we saw an epic river mouth set up, and I’m sure it has it’s day. We gave it a crack, got a couple and if we hadn’t been surfing such epic waves of late probably would have rated it. But our perspective had been altered. Walking back to the car though we looked up and we were no longer alone. The bridge was literally choked with kids; the whole town had come to see us. Just another surreal moment on the island showing how friendly the people are. Then it was time to be leaving already. It was such a lost-in-time-and-space sensation but I had to re enter the real world. I had one last surf at Pete’s wave on the way back to the airport and I got a small taste of what he was frothing about. It’s a powerful little nugget of a wave which I think is as good as he actually says. In Medan I was sitting having a reflective Bintang and chatting with the crew who were getting on it. Erman had brought them to a local bar and was serving up some nasty Arak that had got them getting pretty loose. One of those ‘bummer I missed it but glad I did’ moments. But just drinking that beer, all I could feel was gratitude. SUP
