I’m finding how much detail I am already forgetting as I recap travels. Names of cities, people, restaurants. I remember events out of order and forget funny details and misadventures, and it is somewhat motivating for me to attempt to write experiences down sooner. If at some point the reader catches inconsistencies in events and schedules this is likely the cause.
After leaving Lemongan, we took the ferry to Nusa Penida. Here we attempted to rent some scooters but our intentions were lost in translation (rather, lost in random hand gestures and excited pointing at scooters) and we soon were ushered onto the back of scooters with hired drivers speeding us off to our next lodging. It was unclear whether or not we would be able to keep our scooters after arrival at our next destination, but we figured if the drivers wished to return home this would unlikely be the case.
This suspicion was confirmed when our drivers collected their fare and sped off again. There were no scooter rentals for miles around us and we looked at each other with a look of collective “oops”. We decided to walk down the road a ways until we found someone to else to rent us transportation. After walking a considerable ways and finding nothing except for the taunts of a small child to “come eat some squirrel”, we walked back and discussed our options with the hut manager. They called around for us and found a company to come deliver some scooters and much to our relief we finally had transportation.
Our first night on Nusa Penida we were awoken by what we thought was a large windstorm shaking our hut. After opening a window and staring at the calm sky and still trees surrounding our hut, we realized that we were feeling one of the aftershocks from the earthquake that had struck Bali a few weeks earlier. The light hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the room swung slowly back and forth and again we all shrugged (traveling in SE Asia we found results in lots of shrugging) and stumbled back into our beds.
The next morning we grabbed breakfast and decided to see if we could find some waterfalls before trying to catch Kelingking beach at sunset. We found a few promising waterfalls on the map and headed off on our long ride across the island.
We kept seeing signs for Seganing Waterfall (i.e. pieces of cardboard and random boards with “waterfall” scrawled across them with a crudely drawn arrow pointing in a seemingly random direction) and we meandered around the island, quite literally ‘chasing waterfalls’ for most of the day. We rattled our way down barely constructed roads, random ditches, and a few private driveways and finally found our way to the edge of a massive cliff where a few scooters were parked and a little hut was selling Doritos and bottled Sprite. We were promptly asked for 5000 rps for parking and I felt somewhat indignant at now being asked to pay, after driving around all day in attempt to find the place in the first spot. I finally remembered that 5000rps was equivalent to roughly $0.37 and happily gave the kid his money. 
We expected a meandering trail to the base of the cliff where we could hang out under waterfall, but soon found that ‘meandering trail’ was a lofty exaggeration of an almost vertical ladder carved into the cliff face.
Almost immediately we were regretting our shoe choices, lack of sunscreen, and lack of water. As we continued to climb down, the trail became worse and worse and soon was more cliff than trail. The crudely constructed railing was somewhat comforting only until you touched it and realized it was essentially an impressive balancing act performed to trick tourists (shrug). If someone fell the sticks would serve little more than a conversation piece as you fell down and down past the other hikers winding their way up the ladder of death. 
Eventually we arrived at the bottom, and finally- after hours and hours of rattling around rocky roads through the middle of the jungle and slipping and sliding down the death ladder, we arrived hot, tired, and sun burnt. We stared up at the massive cliff face rising high above us and were stunned by the site of -literally no waterfall. A small, insignificant stream trickled from the base of the cliff and disappeared into the ocean waves crashing against the base of the cliffs (slow, sad shrug).
We sat on the rocks next to the ocean and watched the waves rush in and spray foam high into the air. If we hadn’t been promised a waterfall at the outset of our journey, it honestly would have been a very satisfying hike just for the views of the cliffs and ocean waves. The white ocean foam shooting into the air, highlighted against the deep blues of the ocean and the vibrant green jungle growth hanging from the cliffs, was truly a beautiful sight.
As the afternoon wore on we slowly climbed our way back up the cliff and thankfully collapsed onto the ground at the top. We ordered Sprites all around and blissfully sipped the refreshing drinks (happy shrug).
