Sorry for not following this up! It was great, except for the ferries which are floating garbage dumps. Luckily on the first one we had a 2 man cabin (800k extra) but since it was a 40+ hour trip well worth it - supposedly a/c but couldn't really tell. Got to Flores and hung around Labuan Bajo getting a feel of the place - felt dry, really, really dry (before Covid) and trying to be a "new" Bali but with really no hope as there's FA there of interest. Personally I'd rather see alligators or crocodiles than the boring as feck lizards in the park, particularly since it costs about 6 million to get there and see that - that's a lot of cold Bintang. We drove around the island doing all the touristy things it says one shouldn't miss but in all honesty the island has not much of anything to heave itself above the usual island thingy. We loved the motorbiking and the roads (mostly, stick to Google maps) were great and empty so the siteseeing wasn't a disappointment since we largely didn't care anyway.
Took the ferry from Flores to Sumba (10 hours overnight in a floating garbage scow - no cabins this time but lots of chickens) and spent a couple of days in Waingapu drinking cold beer and scanning the locals. Waingapu is about as exciting as watching paint dry so we exited there and went and did the touristy thing all over Sumba. There is much more to see than on Flores but when we were there it was also 190 days since they'd had the last rain so brown was the color of most everything. Having said that they have some wonderful beaches there and the best beach hotel in the world, apparently - we didn't go. We try and keep the hotel budget around 150k/night leaving enough for a palette cleansing beverage or 2 or a willing local girl should one present herself. Happy to say that was not a problem. Being the only 2 "whiteys" on each island made us (or our wallets) fairly popular and since neither island has much in the way of western infrastructure we usually found a local department store that sold beer to hang out at. Word traveled fast! and we were usually the center of village entertainment withing the hour. It was fun
The plan was to catch a ferry from Sumba and then go over to Sumbawa (we'd been there before but I wanted to cover some things we'd missed the first time and its just a great ride, too) but there'd been a storm in the previous month and the ferry to Sumbawa was only going once a month and the next one was a fortnight away so change of plans and we caught the next garbage scow (ferry) to Lombok.
Lombok I've been to many times and it always disappoints, except Sengigi. There's a bar in Sengigi (used to be called Mario's, run by the most miserable m.f. Austrian you could ever hope not to meet but thankfully it's been handed on to his son-in-law, whose a great guy and equally serious about good beer) were the European land lord takes his beer seriously and serves the VERY BEST tap Bintang in all of Indonesia, if not the world. So we always rock up there and while away the hours after sunset. They used to have some really nice professional ladies too
and the local barbecue joint just outside of town is brilliant.
Got home all safe and sound a few days after and had 2000km on the speedo with no issues or problems outside of a faulty cable that needed replacing on Sumba.
It's worth the effort if you enjoy the drive but if you are looking for the promised "10 New Balis" don't bother. In my opinion all four islands added together don't have 10% of the culture, scenery, infrastructure and just really nice people that Bali has.
Next trip is planned for Kalimantan sometime when this stupid virus BS is sorted, hopefully in February. Plan is to go overland to Jogja and then on to Semarang to catch a ferry. Want to try and do Brunei and Sarawak too if possible. Wish us luck.