THE SOUTH WEST GILI ISLANDS - GEDE AND LAYAR
VISITED JUNE 2019 Sunrise just south of mainland LOMBOK's RINJANI VOLCANO from GILE GEDE (late June - sun will move rigtht until late December). Gili means "small island". LOMBOK has hundreds - the best known are the NORTH WEST GILIS of TRAWANGAN, MENO and AIR but others offer holiday possibilities, the SOUTH WEST GILIS (aka "THE SECRET GILIS") among them. LOCATION I've long checked out the small islands off LOMBOK's south west peninsula from those creaky slow vehicle ferries out of PADANGBAI in BALI when cruising towards west LOMBOK's main west coast ferry port of LEMBAR - on hearing there is now a fast boat connection from Bali's KUTA I decided it was time to check some out. The fast boat lands at GILE GEDE - I spent 6 nights there split by 4 on neighbouring GILI LAYAR GEDE and LAYAR GEDE and tiny LAYAR are quite close to the mainland whose main departure point is the small fishing town of TEMBOWONG. ---------------------------- GILI GEDE