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Early in the morning on the September 29, 2008, we leaved the hotel for Mount Kelimutu with the 40-minute soft trek up to the summit of the majestic three-color volcanic lakes. We enjoyed the lucky sunny day with the beautiful sun rise over the lakes, differently than the said-day before when the morning day had been raining. We descended to the parking area to get our mini-bus back to Moni for breakfast with a short visit to the local market of Moni. The afternoon visit of the ethno-tour to the traditional weaving villages of Ngela, Wolojita and Jopu on which we had a rare opportunity to catch up with the rigid customary guard leaders was more than a worthwhile experience before returning home in the misty afternoon on a drive through the sulphur-smell mountain road of the nearby Mount Kelimutu.
As we had planned together to trek Mount Iya, an active volcano by the Indian Ocean in the region of Ende on September 30, 2008, we leaved Moni in the early morning on the 3-hour drive after having a light breakfast. Once we arrived in a small village by the volcano, accompanied by the local 55-year old man, we started to spend the 4-hour trekking to the summit and into the cater of fire of Mount Iya, and back. The cuisine during our travel in Flores was almost all the Chinese cuisine as we had in Ende. We had an opportunity to stop at the blue stones beach of Panggajawa, and at the point of view to picture the active Mount Ebulobo from the distance in the afternoon twilight before we arrived in Bajawa, a town at the altitude of more than 1,000 m above the sea level where we stayed two nights at a simple hotel “Bintang Wisata”.
At 04.00 o’clock on the October 01, 2008, five of the guests including our two guides, Eduardus and Jhon, leaved the hotel for a small village to start the ascent to the volcanic cone of Mount Inerie while leaving the five of us in the hotel in their big sleep. After the 4-hour ascent and the 2.5-hour descent, the trekkers reached the village back and then continued to visit the nearby traditional villages of Bena and Boawe. After a short rest and lunch, we leaved for the hot-water spring of Soa, just an hour drive from Bajawa to the North. It was the first day after the end Ramadhan when the Muslims usually visited the public recreation parks, including Soa.
After an early breakfast on the October 2, 2008, we were driven 15 minutes to a village near Mount Inelika to start the one-hour soft ascent to the crater rim with the scenic views of Mount Inerie, Mount Ebulobo, and the ancient craters of Inelika along the trail. Once we arrived at rim, we walked easily down into the crater to see the nine fire-holes of the 2001-eruption. The walk to the other side of the crater was not so easy. This two-hour cater tour is not recommended unless a 60-m of safety rope is provided. After a short break at the hotel, we drove to Ruteng, our next destination with a lunch stop at Aimere, and a visit to the local fabric of drink with 60% of alcohol made of palm juice. We stayed overnight at Dahlia Hotel, the only choice in the town.
A funny breakfast started our long journey to Labuhan Bajo, a small town in the western tip of Flores Island on the October 3, 2008, when the breads provided by the Chinese-run hotel run out for the three of us who woke up late. Eduardus and Berry decided to supply the breakfast breads from the outside. We leaved Ruteng for Labuhan Bajo on the seven-hour drive in the mountain road with a visit to Cancar, a village with the web-spider-like rice fields. In Labuhan Bajo, we had a big lunch at Gardena and so had the dinner, a restaurant on the hill overlooking the tiny harbor of Labuhan Bajo. We spent the rest of day at Puri Sari, a new established hotel by the sea in a lonely afternoon.
The beginning of our live-aboard cruise from Labuhan Bajo of West Flores to Sumbawa Besar started in the morning of October 4, 2008 after a nice breakfast in the hotel. We started the navigation as we had planned after saying good-bye to Eduardus and Dedy. We cruised on the Sea Star with her six Indonesian crew, the only available boat for such marine adventure program, to cruise the rough Indian Ocean to reach Mules Island in the planned 14-hour navigation. As Pulau Mules was far beyond our expectation, we strongly discussed about a possibility to trek Gili Lawa Darat Island and Mount Sangeang (1,951 m), the active volcano off Sumbawa’ northern coast, that finally we decided. We turned the boat direction back to the National park of Komodo after the three-hour navigation, even if we had passed the extreme-current narrow strait of Molo. The first island we were heading was Rinca Island, where we had a nice naturalist walk through the savannas and the steppes to have the shots to the birds, the monkeys, the active giant lizards, the solitaire dragon lazing by the bloody water buffalo, and the six-year-old female komodo in her nest. After a short trip to Komodo Island, we anchored by the mangrove island off Gili Kalong (Bat Island), home to the thousand of giant bats.
Seeing the birds going out of the nest in the mangroves was an exciting beginning of our day off the Komodo Island when we had a breakfast on the way to Komodo Island’s debarkation on October 5, 2008. Lead by the two rangers, we walked about 2 hours in the park. We saw the rare komodo baby on a dead palm tree protecting herself from the cannibalism, a colony of deer and wild black pigs, and two wild pigeons on a palm tree. We did not encounter any giant lizard along the trail, till finally the keen rangers lead us to the restaurant by the beach, just within a five-minute walk from the pier where we saw four adult dragons. What he had seen in Rinca Island was much better, except the marine park off the Komodo Island “the Pink Beach” where we got the best snorkeling experience among the untouched marine garden. The journey continued to Gili Lawa Darat Island for a soft trekking to see the fantastic views overlooking the Komodo and the surrounding islands in a desperately high temperature of 48°C on the summit. As the dark started to fall, we leaved for the next destination in windy and strong current sea during the upwelling. Along with the fall of the night, the wind and the waves were stronger and stronger making no time for us to rest and to dine. As the wind blew stronger and stronger and the journey till the next destination “Sangeang Island” would take approximately five more hours, the captain decided to bring us escaped into the vast bay of Gili Banta Island in the north of the Island, the ancient crater of the sub-marine active volcano. The wind did not stop till we leaved for Sangeang Island on the next day in the early morning.
The island of Sangeang appeared clear and clear before us as the morning twilight started to rise in the morning of October 06, 2008. Upon our morning arrival, we looked for a probability to climbing the volcano by talking to the inhabitants of the island. As the trek would take 2d/1n the program we did not plan in advance, we decided not to trek, however we were really happy to having an opportunity to anchoring off the Island of Fire 'Sangeang Island Volcano'. We continued the journey to the nearby village of Sangeang, and to Wera Village, home to the boat builders off Sumbawa Island’s northern coast. In the sunny and breezing afternoon, we continued the journey on the nine-hour navigation to Satonda Island cruising the vast deep sea of the Sanggar Bay on a lucky day when the dolphins and a whale played a show near the boat. One hour prior to the arrival, the sea was a bit rough, however we really enjoyed this longest navigation trip.
We got off the boat with our snorkeling gear on the October 07, 2008, however the coral reef was far beyond our expectation. That forced us to leave the island as soon as possible. After visiting the salt water-lake of Satonda, the ancient crater of the pre-historic stratovolcano of Satonda which was filled up by the salt-water during the three-day Tambora explosion in 1815, we leaved for Moyo Nature Preserve. We arrived at the northern coast of Moyo Island after 1.5-hour navigation. After visiting the waterfall on the 15-minute walk, we got the opportunity to snorkeling the vast marine park near the small sanctuary. The colorful tropical fishes, the reefs, the sponges, and other coral formations were so beautiful and worthwhile to explore. We thought that we would have stayed overnight here instead of by Satonda Island. We continued the navigation cruising off Moyo’s and Sumbawa’s northern coast to Kencana Beach Sumbawa with a rare opportunity to cruise inside the bay of Brang Gado where the 5-star Awanwana Resorts exists, the hotel we had wished to stay at. We arrived at Kencana Beach of Sumbawa Island’s northen coast in the afternoon.
Our pre-arranged public bus came to pick us up in the morning when we travelled on the October 8, 2008 to Poto Tano and crossed the strait of Alas on a public ferry for for Labuhan Lombok. Once we arrived in Lombok, we met our trek guide after the one-hour drive from the harbor. The afternoon drive in the misty and drizzling day through the tropical forest of Rinjani’s eastern valley up to the village of Sembalun, the ancient crater of Mount Rinjani to commence the 3d/2n trek on the next day, took about 1,5-hour. The group stayed overnight in Lembah Rinjani, a simple bungalow surrounded by the sun flower-like plants used by the locals to cure the diabetic ulcer and to support the healing of the breast cancer, the emerging health problems in Lombok Indonesia.
The 3d/2n trek to the National Park of Gunung Rinjnai started in clear morning on September 09, 2008. The group accompanied by the local porters and other tourists followed the trail up and down on the almost 7-hour walk, ascent, and descent to reach the Crater Rim II of Sembalun where the group stayed overnight in the tents. The group really enjoyed the expansive natural beauty of the lake and the summit in a misty and cold afternoon.
At early in the morning on the October 10, 2008, four of the group started the extreme ascent to the summit, meanwhile the rest stayed in the tents. After enjoying the proud feeling of satisfaction, the four descended to the camping group to meet the rest of the group. All the group then descended to into the crater lake. After a short rest in the crater lake, the group ascent to the Crater Rim I of Senaru, and then descent to Pos III for stay overnight in the tents.
The last day in the mountain on October 11, 2008 was really exiting, but the smell of Gili Air had been so strong in their feeling to soon arrive, to spend the lazing in afternoon and the whole day on October 12, 2008 on the white beach till the departure day on the October 13, 2008.
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