Whenever a bike rolls out the Temple’s back yard Bengkel, it undergoes a series of test rides to fine tune, calibrate and ensure that it is indeed ready for the variety of road conditions that Bali…and by ‘road’ I mean a light dusting of tarmac with intervals of loose limestone, deceptively deep puddles and my favorite, unnecessary patches of gravel. Usually said test rides are carried out in and around the Temple’s surrounding area…but with this DR650 build we decided to really put it through its paces, with its virgin mission consisting of a blast to neighboring island, Lombok. Equipped with a tank mounted camera, the shiny new steed joined a few of the boys for an 8 hour ferry … View More

We may not all be here to make history but we can live our lives so that we create our own. Adventure is the key. Alone or with likeminded. We’ve, as a rag tag group of vagabonds, come to realise the ease in which trips away make us feel that history is in the making. Our history. Served up another astonishing morning in a village on the edge of the world with mates all super keen to tally forth and do battle in one way or another. We joke smile and otherwise. Feels good to be part of something. We’re packing up stuff, as we have to move on but not before another adventure on the water. The serving size … View More

Indonesians are, on the whole, an incredibly accommodating and accepting race of peoples. It took us only hours, far less than days, before we felt at home. We had our shack, our base of operations and we’d sit around out the front as life paraded by, delving into the darkness within to grab a change of clothes or to sleep. The stress and pressures from past weeks at home, and away, parted like well-coffered hair. You could say that we had walked to the edge of village life, liked what we saw and plunged head first in. Morning had brought with it an incredible light show across the bay. The water went from inky black to an unbroken golden slab. … View More

A road trip can be a mini extension of matedom. It’s own little eco system if you will. When you get a group of like-minded guys they can ingrate themselves with each other so much that even after a few short days, move with a single purpose. Same direction and line. Straight after the Deus Slidetoberfest a few of us, in the like minded department, had an itching to travel. A little adventure to blow off some steam. Time poor we set our expectations and sights on not so hard to achieve, neighboring Lombok. Under a blanket of blackness we fired up our rides and set sail along the empty night highways, through thecity, popping out onto the open road … View More

The silence of the night was broken just prior to dawn with the sounding of cockerels from every coop in the village… Natures alarm clock was all the encouragement we needed to stretch and amble the 4 feet from our beds to the door, only to feel that southerly wind blowing again. To our disappointment it seemed like it had set it’s course and wasn’t going anywhere soon, which lowered group morale due the to fact that most of the waves we were searching out didn’t really hold up well with a southerly. The obligatory batch of morning instant coffee was ordered and our troupe made basic conversation between each other as the caffeine did its job and glassy eyes … View More

Our travels were slowly starting to get to us, sore muscles and sunburn were common topics of conversation at the breakfast table. We managed to fight the urge and didn’t hit the road at first light, but instead relaxed in the village until about lunch time. Once everyone was back around the table, a quick look up at the tree-tops showed that the wind was pretty much the same as when we first arrived, southerly and strong. After some debating and some calls around the island, it was decided that the best bet was to take a trip back to the little bay we had found previously. We retraced our dusty tire tracks back along the ridge, still taken back … View More

The silence of the night was broken just prior to dawn with the sounding of cockerels from every coop in the village… Natures alarm clock was all the encouragement we needed to stretch and amble the 4 feet from our beds to the door, only to feel that southerly wind blowing again. To our disappointment it seemed like it had set it’s course and wasn’t going anywhere soon, which lowered group morale due the to fact that most of the waves we were searching out didn’t really hold up well with a southerly. The obligatory batch of morning instant coffee was ordered and our troupe made basic conversation between each other as the caffeine did its job and glassy eyes … View More

Before departing from our day time location, we were given directions, accompanied by a map drawn in the sand with a stick… To which lead a short cut that would cut 45 minutes off our planned night time expedition. It’s safe to say that one of two things happened; we either did not follow the directions, which is doubtful, or were given a course that sent on a deliberately difficult mission… A mission that slowly unfolded into a night that none of our little group’s members will forget for quite some time. Life is about choices. So when the tarmac road presented us with a choice to continue along its dark smooth surface, or to abandon it for what can … View More

Pulling away from the temple in the middle of the night, with nothing but darkness and a direction ahead of us. A posse of fossil fueled fangers made a B-line for the east coast, with only the port acting as a well earned break in the tarmac. The swell rocked our weathered ferry as it chugged across some of the strongest currents in the world. Waking relief coming from the protected waters of our destination’s harbor as our over night crossing came to an end. We had planned for a first light arrival, but the tides were with us and it landed our group on dry land with a couple hours until the sun broke across the equator. Setting off … View More