Desert Point

Desert Point on Lombok is remarkably quiet for a wave that’s been voted the best left in the world. Probably because the last stretch of the three hour drive is along a bumpy, rocky dirt ‘road’ that’s painfully slow going. The village is tiny – just a handful of families living a simple life, catering for the surfers who arrive with each big swell.

We missed the waves by a day, so things were more quiet than usual: a couple of other surfers, a filmmaker and a gifted artist from Java, now living in Bali, named Santoro.

The wave breaks with hypnotic perfection, even at unsurfable low tide. It’s easy to spend hours just staring out to sea. There isn’t much else to do. Surf, swim, walk, read, eat, sleep. Visitors are put up in simple bamboo huts with woven grass walls. There’s no electricity during the day, no shower or flushing toilet. Basic by any standards but you adapt quickly.

Chickens scratch in the dirt, cows laze in the shade and in the early evening local families head to the shallow waters to look for small fish and other sea treats. Two days of humble living to remind us how little we really need to be happy.

Low tide drainer

Warungs facing the reef

Our humble abode

The future of local surfing

Santoro the painter with a canvas he did for us