Great escapes: Solo kayaking along Bali’s northern coastline

It’s the Easter long weekend and the tail-end of the rainy season in Indonesia yet there’s not a cloud in the sky as I push off from deserted Amed beach at the start of a five-day, 150-kilometre solo kayak trip along Bali’s sleepy north coast.

Minutes later, I find myself gliding along palm-fringed shores with volcanic black-sand beaches interspersed by rocky headlands and Hindu temples decorated with gargoyles of water dragons and giant fish. I am only two hours’ drive from the traffic-choked capital Denpasar, yet I may as well be in a far-flung corner of the South Pacific for all the beauty I see and solitude I feel.