Conservation Expedition to Indonesia 2004

I don't quite know what first drew me to Indonesia: was it the picture-postcard sunsets or the childhood ambitions of trekking through miles of unspoilt rainforest?  However, as soon as I stepped off the plane in Jakarta, I knew that above all, I was in for one great big adventure.

My first destination was Labundo bundo, a small, primitive jungle community in the middle of the jungle on the island of Buton.  However, as with all these wonderfully remote places, the long haul flight was only the beginning of a series of adventures to get me to my destination.  Now, I have issues with public transport at the best of times, and my continuing avalanche of bad luck didn't desert me in the Far East. Disaster first struck when, two flights later, our boat was cancelled.  We were to take a flight instead.  After two failed attempts to board the admittedly small, rather unstable-looking plane, we managed (with some difficulty and a lot of black smoke) to take off.  Then, to calm their very stressed passengers, they decided it was as good a time as any to tell us that we were flying on only one engine!  Being a nervous flyer at the best of times, I must say, I was rather pleased when we landed bumpily, but safely on something that resembled a familiar long-abandoned airfield very similar to the deserted airfield at St Davids!  Once off the plane, we were rushed to our boat (whom we had ‘paid' to wait for us!) and were able to settle down for the night.

Early the next morning, we were ushered into ‘janter' trucks or in other words, the most uncomfortable minibuses ever invented.  In addition to the physical pain of the journey, the drivers seemed to have some sort of sadistic pleasure in inflicting decibel-defying Indonesian dance music on your poor, unsuspecting eardrums!

Exhausted after the journey, I was ushered to my accommodation: a very basic wooden hut on stilts.  This is where, crashed out after my exertions, I encountered my highly tropical sleeping-bag-mate: a very large brown rat!  Needless to say, hysteria followed suit and I think from that moment on both me and my new friend formed a mutual agreement that we would avoid each other like the plague!  Luckily, being a keen entomologist, the fact that I had to share the ‘mandi', or bathroom with numerous different cockroaches proved rather more of an attraction than did my furry sleeping partner! 

However, the moment I looked out of the door the next morning, I realised that I was in the tropical paradise that I had dreamed of as a child: the trees stretched as far as the eye could see, and skipping around in the hazy morning sunshine were the happiest children I had ever seen.  This was the first time of many that I was struck by the wonderful nature of the Indonesian people.  The Western world can learn a lot from these people.  They are willing to give when they have nothing, but will never take anything you offer them without a gratitude that is humbling.  This was also the first time that I was introduced to a ‘parang' - a machete-like knife used by one and all for, well, everything!  They even have ‘Parang Day' in school where children as young as 3 or 4 are taught how to use them.  It really is an extremely unusual sight seeing small children skipping to school, lunchbox in one hand and large knife in other!   

However, within twenty-four hours of being in Indonesia I caught the inevitable stomach bug and thought I was going to die...and then it got to the stage where I wished I were dead!  Luckily, like an angel floating up the ladder into my wooden hut, Dr Hannah appeared with some magical tablet that put me well on the road to recovery!  I was therefore able to join the jungle training group, missing only one night in the forest, and this did have its benefits; I had my own personal guide ‘Dedi' who I came to know as a surprisingly knowledgeable cross between Indiana Jones and Jacki Chan!  We trekked through padi fields, before moving back into the rainforest to meet the others at ‘Base Camp 1'

Jungle training proved to be a fantastic experience, which involved sleeping in hammocks, building our own natural shelter and orienteering in the unspoilt rainforest.  We even learnt survival skills such as finding drinking water from vines, trapping skills, and cooking eggs wrapped in leaves on an open fire.

Returning from jungle training, it was time to put our newly acquired skills into use, and we joined a different research team each day in order to help with data collection on faunal diversity.  It was here that I learnt that wildlife in the jungle is not always east to spot!  However, by the end of the week I was, although I say it myself, rather an expert at distinguishing plant from animal life!  On my travels through the forest, I had spotted macaques, a cus cus and baby (rather like a sloth), civets, toucans, skinks a sunsnake, enormous butterflies, and numerous other insect life, of which I'm sure that I was much more excited about than you would be!   

After a fortnight living in the wonderful community atmosphere of Labundo bundo, you don't ever want to leave, but in order to embark on next episode of my adventure, I dragged myself away from my new friends and began my journey to the small island of Hoga, which involved another painstakingly uncomfortable 6 hour ‘janter' journey followed by a 16 hour boat journey.

However, the moment Hoga emerged out of the sea in front of us, I knew I was in for a treat.  Robinson Crusoe eat your heart out - here I was on my very own paradise island, and I knew for sure that I would be quite happy being stranded here for a while!  The picturesque white sands, palm trees and fantastic sunsets will make Hoga stick in my memory forever.  And as for the coral, well, for a person who has never dived before, it was like being transported into a different world. The Indonesian government really isn't lying when they boast having the best reefs in the world. 

As I say, I had never dived before...well, in addition to this; I have a phobia of being underwater, oh, and can't breathe through my nose underwater!  And of the other two girls in my group, one was severely claustrophobic and the other had never swam, let alone set foot in the sea before.  Needless to say, our instructor had a bit of a job on his hands!  But at the end of the two weeks of three dives per day, we emerged fully qualified divers, and not only divers, but ‘Advanced' divers!  Back home, I find myself constantly submerging in water to show off my new skill of blowing water out through my nose! 

Now, I knew that the idea of diving was to get close to the sea life, but I think I rather surpassed this aim of mine on my first day.  Going for a swim in the shallow waters, I decided to take a breather and sit on the bottom - BIG mistake.  I was out of that sea faster than if I had spotted a shark in attack mode!  It turned out that I had made the crucial error of sitting directly on top of a jellyfish!  Well, at least the scar acts as a permanent reminder of my trip!   

 
However, the rest of the wildlife turned out to be much more friendly: the 6-foot monitor lizards, apart from terrifying me after dark with their scurrying into the bushes, generally kept their distance and were quite happy to be observed from afar!  However, one of my best moments was swimming with an enormous turtle - a rare delight.  Unfortunately I missed the shark sighting, but the flying fish, dolphins, and clown fish (aka ‘Nemo' fish) more than made up for it!  And thanks to the Coral Reef Ecology course I took, I was able to identify a large proportion of what I saw.      

My two weeks on Hoga flew by as if it were only a matter of days, and in no time, we were back on the boat to take us to the mainland.  After over 24 hours' of boat trips (due to the fact that the small planes were cancelled) we ended up in Makasser, and were able to explore for a day.  However, the next morning, for some unknown reason, my flight to Jakarta was an hour later than everyone else's.  We planned to meet up in Jakarta, and thus fly back to the UK together.  However, at this point, I once again put my curse on the transport system, and my plane was delayed.  Despite manic running to the terminal in Jakarta, I had to face it: I was stranded, alone, in Jakarta.  Not only this, but I was stranded in Jakarta on the day of their elections, roughly two weeks after the Australian Embassy had been bombed!  Despite the language barrier, I managed to call my (rather worried) parents, and assured them that I was fine.  Luckily the airline assumed full responsibility and put me up in a sumptuous hotel - all expenses paid.  I felt like royalty, despite arriving looking rather different, and spent the day eating, being massaged, and sunbathing!  It was slightly disturbing being able to see the damage from the bomb from my sun lounger, but luckily there was no more action when I was there!      

The rest of my journey back to the UK went without a hitch, and I was able to spend the time reminiscing about my time in Indonesia, and the one thing I was sure of, was that as soon as I got the chance, I would do it all over again...so now I'm just busy planning my next adventure.

Sarah Beynon.

Please follow this link to the Operation Wallacea website's information on the Indonesia Expeditions.

Photographs courtesy of friends and colleagues from Operation Wallacea.