By Jim Banks...

Day 1

We're still laughing about it as we ride the tender out to the Lambo. Just a few moments before as we'd been strolling along the waters edge to the little jetty where the tender was waiting for us, one of the locals wanders across the road with his rooster and throws it in the water. And then dives in after it!

None of us had ever seen anybody throw a rooster in the water before and we wondered what he was up to. In complete disbelief we watched as the rooster happily swam around in the water with his owner like it was a duck! It was a bizzare sight...a man swimming with his rooster. We couldn't believe it and laughed about it all the way back to the boat.

I took it as a good omen. A swimming rooster, something kind of unbelievable just we were about to begin something unbelievable.... an 8 month expedition of searching the entire Indonesian coastline for waves. An idea that came to me while cruising around Tahiti last year had become a reality and now the journey was about to begin!

The tender came to a stop and we jumped aboard the Lambo, the 80ft Phinisi boat that is going to be our home for the next 8 months. It was almost a surreal feeling as we fired up the engine, pulled up the anchor and pulled out of Serangan and out into the Lombok strait.

We rounded the coastline of Penida in the fading light and as we were getting our last views of Bali's Mt Agung, a pod of dolphins appeared and began swimming alongside of us as, welcoming us to our journey and our new home, the Indian Ocean.

Day 2

It's a couple of hours before dawn and we're waiting just off of the coast of Sumbawa for the first light so we can navigate in closer to the land and check the surf. There's not a lot of swell and we've headed to an exposed beach on Sumbawa's south west corner.

As the sky begins to light up, we move in and park just outside a shifting beachbreak style reef that's producing head high peelers. The wave shifts around a little but it's nicely offshore with a short barrel section halfway along it. We spend the morning surfing it by ourselves. It's nice to get into the water and I test out a 6'0 quad fish that I've just had made in Bali. It one of the first batch of boards that i've had made in Bali and I'm pleased with the quality. The board feels fast and skatey and flies all over the face reminding me of an early 80's twinny.

We spend the rest of the day cruising the wild and mountainous southern coastline of Sumbawa. It's incredibly remote here with thickly jungled deep ravines and valleys in between the surprisingly high mountains. In a rapidly developing and exploited Indonesia, the ruggedness of the landscape here is going to keep it that way for a long time. It's nice to know that parts of it are going to be safe from being torn down for hotels or palm oil plantations in the all too near future.

As the light fades we turn right and head out across the sea to an even more remote area, the wild and primitive Sumba.

In the middle of the night a rain squall catches us and we scurry to drop down the weather blinds. It passes quickly and after it I wander out onto the foredeck to marvel at the beauty of the stars and clouds that are being lit up by the almost full moon. There's a lot of phosphorescence in the water here and we leave a glowing trail behind us as we cut through the gently rolling liquid ocean.

Day 3

I'm slow to wake this morning and am feeling the exhaustion of getting the Odyssey underway. We're just offshore of the coast of Sumba cutting across a swirling current that's sweeping around the western corner of the island. It's a beautiful morning and the ocean is oily glassy.

Finally we escape the current and head up the coast to a reef that I've been curious about for more then 20 years but never had the opportunity to explore. I'm not exactly sure of it's location but we spot what appears to be some small lefts peeling into a channel. I'm pretty sure it's the spot and I'm the first into the water and paddling over to the line up.

It's pretty shallow and the waves are really drawing off the reef. Even though it's only a small and soft swell, the potential of this wave is pretty obvious and on it's day it's long flat would produce some pretty serious winding barrels. The reef is very alive and the water's crystal clear. As each waves draws off the reef it exposes an brightly colourful coral garden that's highlighted with purple, aqua and an incredibly bright yellow corals.

It's a comfortable anchorage over the sandy bottomed channel and the water in the channel is a stunning turquoise colour. The colour of the water is so attractive that's impossible to resist the temptation to continually dive into it. For lunch the cooks excels himself and serves up a killer fresh salad with some lightly spiced fresh tuna and a huge plate of calamari rings. Afterwards we chill out, soaking up the tranquility and mesmerizing beauty of the anchorage. Life is good!

We've still got many miles to cover on our journey down to Timor and we opt to keep moving while there's still light.

Not far up the coast from the left we just surfed, the swell's really focusing and we pass by what appears to be a string of shifting peaks. For some reason the wind conditions here seem to be even better than where we just were. An area to definitely explore on our way back!

We pull into a small bay to anchor and take a break before heading off later in the evening to our next destination. There appears to be a string of right handers running into the bay from the distant western point. The swells small today and there's not much happening but it's certainly somewhere to come back and check when there's more swell. To the east there appears to be a couple of peaks also. Waves everywhere!

After a magnificent sunset we feast on more culinary delights from Farid our chef and then climb up onto the roof to marvel at the star filled sky and the occasional shooting stars. It's so peaceful here, the only lights to be seen are the half a dozen fishing boats that have launched out from the tiny village in the corner of the bay.

It's ten o'clock. Time to wake the captain and get going. The engine fires up and we're off into the darkness heading to our next destination, a couple of tiny remote islands about 10 hours sailing from here.

Day 4

At first light I stick my head up and ahead of us I can see a small mountainous island silhouetted against the pale glow coming over the horizon. It would make an amazing photo but I'm still recovering from the exhaustion of getting this happening and drop my head for some still much needed rest.

The sun's well up in the sky by the time we get to viewing the break off the southernmost island. There's plenty of swell but the waves are fat, wind blown and far from appealing. We opt to go check the the larger island nearby. The winds are much better here but the waves are small and once again mostly unappealing.

We head around the western corner of the reef and anchor in a small bay. But as we go past the reef my surfer's eye catches a quick glimpse of a peeling liquid almond eye and I make a mental note of it.

The tender is dropped into the water and we head for a hilly islet just near our anchorage. I can't resist the temptation to climb the hill. What appeared to be mostly smooth hill covered in ankle high grass is actually much steeper and the grass is almost waist high and sharp. It's not easy going and the first part of the climb is oppressingly hot. But as I get higher it quickly becomes much cooler. The view from the hill is a stunning panorama but what catches my attention are the left handers peeling off about halfway down the reef. It's a little inconsistent but perfectly offshore.

We head back to the Lambo to grab our boards and spend an hour catching small but hollow peaks. Once again the reef is so alive and the water is so clear that it appears to be only inches underneath my board as I skim through the bowls. I find one nice section and score a couple of tiny but deep barrels, the first barrels of the trip. But then the tide changes and the waves become very inconsistent.

Back at the boat we vote to pull anchor and head back to other island. It's a good decision. The waves are firing and there's a mad scramble for boards as everybody can't get into the water quick enough. It's well overhead and there appears to be plenty of water moving around. The wedgy peaks are a little shifty but some of them really pitch out creating some open caverns. The wind is perfectly offshore and everybody's pretty stoked.

Every now and then some double overhead bombs catch us by surprise and send us scrambling... or washing down through the inside of the reef if we didn't scramble quickly enough. The waves really have some push and even though the shoulders are fairly full, our boards are getting plenty of speed and we are flying all over the silky faces.

I've copped too much sun from our midday session at the other island and despite the pumping waves, I head back to the boat to get some relief from the afternoon glare. Just before dark, I can't resist and dive back in for a couple of final waves. It's perfectly glassy now and I catch half a dozen waves, one after the other. The dropping tide has made the waves steeper and I score a couple of steep take offs and racing walls. Harley and I are the last back to the boat and as soon as we're aboard we pull away to make our passage through the night to our next destination...a couple of even more remote islands.

As I snuggle up under my thin blanket on the foredeck and gaze up at the the mast and our sail pointing up into the star filled sky, a deep sense of peace fills my being. Like I've finally come home from a long journey through distant foreign lands....

Day 5

During the night the current has sucked us a long way south. Even though we had spent a couple of hours hugging the coastline of a larger island last night as we snuck north in anticipation of the current, we have still been sucked south of the islands.

Anticipation is running high for me. I have been waiting to check these islands out for 20 years ever since a couple of good friends that I used to surf Desert Point with told me of another Deserts here. For years a snapshot they sent me had been stuck to my fridge door. It's an image that's still firmly imprinted into my mind.

We checked the exposed southern tip of the island first and saw once again fat, windblown and unappealing waves. As we rounded the corner to along stretch of straight reef I recognized the headland from the fridge snapshot. The wind wasn't so good today and the fast peeling waves looked too critical to handle the sideshore wind that was crumbling the lip. This wave was fast and long and a couple of sets hinted at it's potential.

We anchored just north of the break and began killing time in hope and anticipation of a wind change! As the morning progressed every now and then a set would come through that would mesmerizingly peel down the reef towards us. I finally cracked and headed out. It was a big moment for me paddling out into a lineup that I'd been dreaming of for more than 20 years.

These waves were fast and it was a case of racing them as far as I could before eventually a section would shut me down. It was difficult to pick out where to sit. It always appeared that further up or further down was where it was peeling better. The reef was pretty long and this wave had enormous potential. It was definitely no Desert Point and reminded me more of Grajagan when Grajagan's too small to connect properly.

I was curious about further down the reef and opted to head in to shore to climb the cliffs and get a better view of the reef. It was hot on the land and halfway up the cliff I found a shady perch to hide in. From here I could really get a good view of the reef and about halfway down there seemed to be a point where it was focusing and appearing to peel off almost into a channel.

I scrambled back down the cliff and began making my way along the white sandy beach. The midday sun was scorching and the glare from the white sand was so strong that it was difficult to keep my eyes from looking at anything but my feet.

Eventually I reached the section I had seen and picked my way back out across the reef. There was definitely a focused section here and the sets seemed to be even slightly bigger than further up the reef where I was surfing before. The wind was also different here and the waves were glassy. I picked off a couple of fun peelers before opting to head back to the boat and take a break from the midday sun.

This was definitely going to be a serious wave on it's day. It was no Desert Point, but at the same time with more swell and better winds it would certainly produce very long and hollow waves. A spot to check on our way back!

Unfortunately our next leg was a long one and we didn't have the option to hang around for the evening glass off. We needed to get to Kupang the following morning to refuel and restock for the first leg of the journey back up. Once again we fired up the engine, pulled up the anchor and headed off.

To read all about Jim's Indo Odyssey, or to book a place, click here