SEVEN DAYS TO SUMBA

With its wild coastlines and endless glassy waves, hardcore surfers discovered Sumba, an island in the remote south-east corner of Indonesia, 20 years ago. For me, Sumba has another allure: a unique savanna bordered by sea cliffs on one side and volcanic ranges on the other, a place of lush golden grasslands where herds of sandalwood ponies, the fastest horses in Southeast Asia, run wild like something out of Africa. It had to be a cool place to ride.

Sumba is also home to NIHI Sumba, a luxury resort that’s been named the best hotel in the world in various polls and that has somehow managed a roaring trade during the pandemic. After a crappy year that saw my 20-year-long career as a travel and moto writer vanish into thin air because of the virus that I’m not allowed to say came from China, Sumba promised an opportunity to get back in the saddle in more ways than one.

But you can’t rent motorbikes in Sumba. The only way to ride there is to hire a bike in Bali and island-hop on vehicle ferries heading east. But ferries in Indonesia are antiquated, often poorly maintained and accident-prone. There have been 645 passenger vessel accidents here since 2000 — more than any other country in the world