Indo Adventures: Sumatra

After a quick visa run through Malaysia we entered Sumatra for our final Indonesian stint.

The twisty roads and crazy driving on the way to Meulaboh made me see my chicken curry again, the driving here is just mental. 15 hrs later we arrived at Gampong Chot and the Yasyan Bumi Sehat clinic, where we volunteered. info at www.bumisehatbali.org
Meluboh was ground zero for the Tsunami, the whole area was flattened and an estimated 120,000 people lost their lives. The clinic is a maternity clinic run by an Indonesian NGO with an Australian midwife and about 15 idonesian staff. The work they do there is vital to the well being of the mothers and babies in the local community.
Our role at the clinic was to design and implement a waste management strategy as all the rubbish was being dumped behind the clinic (and the pile was just getting bigger). Cutting a long story short after the 3 weeks and with the help of the local staff we had cleared approx 2 tons of waste and taken it to the UNDP waste site, set up a working recycling and composting system. Also while there we built a fence surrounding the compound, planted fruit trees, made tree protectors to stop the invading cows eating the fruit tree saplings and started a small garden. Most importantly were the friendships we made there, the stories about the Tsunami that we were told and witnessing how the spirit of a community has coped and is managing to move on.

After the clinic we headed to the Island of Pulau Weh. Quite a little paradise; clear blue waters and rocky beaches. We spent the next 10 days here diving and snorkelling and relaxing in our little wooden hut. Tourism is very low in Indonesia on the whole, in Aceh it is vitually non existant. Maybe 15 tourists were on the islands though the local NGO's filled the place up on their weekends away from Banda Aceh.

Next we moved on to Gunung Leuser national park as usual the 6 hr minibus ride turned into a 10 hr drag, thats travelling for you. It took 2 days to reach the village of Ketambe (only 1 other tourist there and about 10 guest houses ) where we set off on a 5 day trek up Gunung Kemiri (3314m). This was a great jungle trek which we shared with Flo (The other tourist) The trek consisted of 3 days climbing up and 2 days slipping and falling down. Jungle trecking is hard graft, not huge distances but pretty harsh terrain.
At our first Camp we arrived drenched as it had rained most of the day, I only had one leech on my hip but our boots were covered in the little critters. The reward though was to be greeted by a mother and baby orangutan, they stayed for about 15 minutes at a distance of about 12m. It was our highlight of the trip.
The next 2 days up were steep and slippy with a really diverse range of flora and fauna.The guides and cook we took with us were excellent its the first time I have had chips done on a camp fire!!!
The summit was shrouded in cloud on arrival, we did manage about 10 minutes of view which was well worth the effort though.
The slippy 2day knee bending decent was great though pretty dangerous due to drops and huge thorny bushes to fall into, but we all made it down without too much damage to knees and hands.

Another 12 hours on a bus found us on Samosir Island on Lake Toba. Toba is a huge 26mile long volcanic lake apparently when this fella blew it caused an ice age due to all the debris in the air. Now its a lot more peaceful- a great place to chill out after a trek.
On the Island the people are mainly all Batak and were converted to Christianity in the 1860's. There are unique pointy roofed houses here which are like nothing else we have seen it was a really great place to hire a bike and explore for a day. On one of our lunch stops I got to try the local treat of Puppy Curry. The meat was ok though the skin was a little grim, Caroline wasn't up for Lassie stew that day.

On one of the days I teamed up with 2 lads who were pilots for the local air line, we ended up doing a crazy mission across the top of the Island on mopeds. The road started a little bumpy then got swampy then hilly and then when it couldn't get any worse it did all 3 at once. There was a lot of pushing and swearing and laughing went on that day, The locals said there was no road over the Island, they were nearly right. If it had of rained we would have still been there it was that bad, not a route to be done on a bike with road tyres I think.

3 days later we found ourselves with the orangutans again this was at the rehabilitation centre at Bukit Lawang. Seeing the semi wild Orangutans from about 2 m was a magical day and a great end to our Indonesian Odyssey.

Bye for now
Cambodia awaits....

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