As the calendar flipped over to April, it became time for us to plan our departure from south east Asia and head back to the US. We thought it’d be a good idea to have one last snorkeling excursion before we left Indonesia, so Heather found a small island off the southern coast of Lombok boasting a fantastic reef and white sand beaches called Gili Layar. We booked three nights at the lone bungalows on the island, not wanting to commit too much time in case it didn’t live up to it’s billing. We left Bali on a small ferry to cross the Lombok Strait and disembarked at Gili Gede, the gateway to this small group of islands, then hopped aboard a smaller boat to complete the trip to little Gili Layar. At first glance it seemed to offer everything we wanted – simple bungalows; a nice beach with palm trees, loungers and hammocks; clear water and a restaurant offering cheap food and cold beer. Paradise! We dropped our bags in our bungalow, grabbed our mask and snorkel and hit the water. The reef was . . . underwhelming. Large areas of rubble, very few fish, no soft corals and quite a bit of trash floating in the water. We returned to the beach and made ourselves comfortable on a couple of lounge chairs in the shade of some palms. While the snorkeling wasn’t going to live up to it’s hype, we could still easily spend three days relaxing here, sharing this beach with just four other guests.

By the end of the day we had a new plan – we would take a ferry north to Gili Meno, another Lombok island that we’d visited just last year and thoroughly enjoyed. We knew the condition of the reef to be good, the accommodation decent and a wide variety of food on offer. For three more days, it didn’t disappoint. I spent mornings walking the circumference of the island, examining the damage from the earthquake that struck northern Lombok last September. Several guesthouses and businesses were severely damaged and had not reopened. Our days were spent in the water hunting for turtles and moray eels or lounging in the shade on the beach. A perfect way to end our time in Indonesia!

But wait! We just weren’t ready to fly straight back to the US. Where could we go for a week or so with decent weather so we could prolong returning to the cold and snow of Colorado. For a couple weeks we racked our brain -perhaps a South Pacific island like Fiji, which we visited last year on our way home from New Zealand; maybe a Japanese island such as Okinawa; or even American Samoa or Hawaii. Eventually we had to rule out each of our ideas due to lack of, or the extremely high cost of, accommodation and airfare. Maybe we should just fly directly back to Colorado, where Steamboat Springs had just recorded over four hundred inches of snow for the season, and our tenant had sent a photo of the huge snow piles ringing our parking area. Uh . . . I don’t think so. The decision was hastily made –  we’re off to Australia!