We deliberately made yesterday a slow day. To get to Bintulu, we'd done many hours of travelling over the previous four days, via Sarikei and Mukah, and we thought a day of chilling would be just perfect.

Bintulu was ceded to Rajah Brooke in 1861 --  20 years after Kuching and environs. In 1867, it hosted Sarawak's first legislative assembly meeting (commemorated by the clock tower), but it remained a pretty low-key place until 1969, when oil and gas were discovered off the coast.



It sits at the mouth of the Kemena river, so you benefit from both river views and sea views. There's a walkway that runs very pleasantly along the coast. But beware -- some of it is currently closed because of building works, and you can't exit at the northern end (exit at the Spring Mall instead).






Bintulu is also home to a quite splendid Tua Pek Kong temple:








We kicked off this morning at Tanjung Batu beach. This is a lovely breezy spot, a few minutes' drive up the coast from our apartment.









Today's main objective, however, was to ride the seventh ferry of our trip (which is the eighth we've had dealings with since leaving Kuching last week, and the ninth we've encountered overall...) This is the one at Sebauh, which takes you across the Kemena river.

We figured out we could do a circle, lunching in Sebauh, and then crossing the river to swing back home. Our first attempt was unpromising, however. The road Google offered was an unmade track, totally unsuitable for a hire car. The other fork, well surfaced, ended after a few metres... So we turned round again, negotiated the pack of dogs sprawled out across the tarmac, and set off for Sebauh via the road we'd planned to take on the way back. "We can just come back the same way," we figured.

It was a pretty road, with good views of wooded hills. This is very much longhouse territory, and many are visible from the road.


We rolled up to the ferry at 1005, and were driving off again at 1018, so it was another quick trip. It's a small one, with the capacity to take about 12 cars.




From the river, you get good views of the little town:



One of the things you absolutely must do here is eat prawns... Ours came from the Big Prawn Noodle & Laksa Sebauh, and they were fantastic. Fat prawns; really flavourful noodles, full of that wonderful wok hei; and a total price tag of just MYR 32, including drinks.



Sebauh is very picturesque:










It turned out we didn't have to go back the same way. We followed the signs to Bintulu, and eventually emerged on the Pan Borneo Highway, which is not too ghastly at this particular point.

And on the way back, we just stopped briefly to snap Bintulu's very lovely mosque:



So tomorrow the return journey begins...

I think we'd both like to be carrying on up the coast, exploring a bit more, and linking up with the three ferries that have so far escaped our attention. Once you get going on a road trip, you don't want to stop...

But there are good reasons for turning back now, including the imminent onset of the rainy season and the rapidly approaching Christmas holidays.

Next time, next time... In the meantime, we're heading home.