Timor Leste - Dare

Our packs full of gear, food, water, and still feeling pretty light we headed to the hills. 15 minutes later we were walking along a road at the base of the hill looking for what could be a track up the mountain. We could see a set of stairs headed up the hill, and assumed that they must be the start, so we headed down an alley that looked like it would get us to the base. It didn't - but undeterred we climbed over some old razor wire atop a small stone fence after sneaking through someones backyard and started scrambling up the steep loose hillside. It didn't take us long to reach a road, where we met a girl our age, Tina, who was studying at the Institute of Business, and spoke very good english, and showed us a walking trail up the hill past her home, that she said would get us on the trail to Dare. And it did, but it also took us along the side of another Timorese house from the rear, and much to my surprise the entire family was sitting on the verandah at the other end of the house, sheltering from the rain that had just started.

The invited us to join them, and we had a good old chat (as much as was possible with our limited Tetum, and the kids much better English). Starting on our way again we made it to the concrete steps, and further up the trail before it started to rain heavily again and we took refuge under a roof covering two tombstones with a view of Dili. Once the rain stop we continued up the path, which was pretty straight forward mostly, apart from one place where it didn't look to be going in the direction we wanted, so we back tracked a little and took a small side path that looked substantial initially, but soon became just a farm access track. After a bit of bush bashing we saw what looked like a constructed road down the hill, so we bush bashed down to it and slid down a 4m cliff to join it. Soon we re-entered populated territory, and the people told us that this was Dare, though it was just a collection of 3 houses. We continued a little further, and joined a bitumen road. As fortune had it we turned left, down hill, and the right way. Soon we came upon the Australian war memorial, and were elated to see the excellent views over Dili, and that we had ended up where we had wanted to. Finding some where to camp proved a little more difficult, though eventually we settled on an abandoned hut up a quiet road. We were unsure why it was unoccupied as it was quite sound and water proof if a little outdated (being built of bamboo and palm fronds for the roof), so we kept a low profile, turning off our torches whenever we heard traffic on the road.

The next day - Alieu and Maubisse