Sumatra, is it the end ?

11 August 2012

August 3rd – 11th

As soon as I disembarked from the ferry on Sumatra, I entered the coordinates to the closest national park in the GPS and headed East for the “Taman Nasional Way Kambas” in the hope of seeing some of the last remaining Sumatran elephants and the very few last Sumateran rhinos (four in total). So I stopped alongside the road, thinking I was just outside the park. As I got ready for my camp, with a fire going and some wood collected, a ranger stopped and asked me what the hell I was doing there. After a bit of talking I realized I was already well inside the park, meaning my fire and campspot were illegal of course.

But instead of charging me with a hefty fine, he simply offered me to follow him deep inside the park, into a place where no tourist ever go, and spend the night in the park, with the crew. Eight kilometres further, down a very bumpy track, we arrived to the place. And WOW, this is just like Africa I thought, wide savanna, fifty or so elephants all around, the sun setting on their back, this is amazing! Safari in Sumatra, who would have thought.

We shared our dinner, with only one of the five rangers speaking (rather well) English, and the rest only Bahasa Jawa. But what a sight! I’d never seen elephants, that close at least, let alone running wild.

The next day we woke up at five AM and two rangers took me on their motorbike through the jungle to reach a river, where we could spot wildlife. The little trip took thirty bumpy minutes, on their 125cc. At first, I thought what my rider had on his back, and was hurting my left leg, was a machete of some sort. But when we got to the river and started walking, I realized it was the muzzle of the semi-automatic rifle strapped in his back. With the other guy wearing a large machete also strapped on his back, I though well this is great: I’m with two guys, deep into the jungle, neither of them speak a word of English, both of them are armed… Oh well, whatever happens, happens.

Silently, we crouched to the river bend and stopped to watch a bunch of gibbons, a lot of kingfishers, pigs, and one springbok. Amazing. The sun was just coming up on the jungle, and the sound of birds and insects was deafening. Awesome sight.

Three hours later, we went back to the little hut and had breakfast (Indonesian breakfast is usually noodles, fried eggs and coffee with way too much sugar). A quick shower later and I left the rangers, it was time to hit the road once more. I only stopped for more elephant pictures. No luck spotting any rhino though. Actually the park was opened almost a hundred years ago, in the 1930ies, as a game reserve, under Dutch ruling. In 1980ies it got the National Park status and used mostly as an elephant conservation center, in the hope of promoting elephant use for logging and farming. With the decline of elephant use in the country, today the park is a pretty sad sight. Rusty old swings and broken children playgrounds, closed shops and ruined building litter the center place, with only the jungle and savanna free of human interaction for the animals to run wild. It’s also used today as an elephant hospital, and holds one of the few remaining herds of Sumatran elephants in the country.

The GPS says there’s only 1800km to go, time to put the foot down and reach Medan as soon as possible.

That night I camped high up on a hill, next to a waterplant, with a few dozen gibbons for company. After I ate last night’s leftovers, I went out to walk a bit in the bush and stepped on a hard root. The tip of it went through the sole of my shoe and into my foot. I couldn’t believe how hard this piece of wood was but it actually tore open the sole of my right foot, leaving me bleeding and hopping back to the car. Great, another injury to sort out. Nothing major though, just a sharp pain when I walk, but then again I spend most of my time sitting and driving so this will have plenty of time to heal. Just keep the wound clean and it’ll be alright. Just like my finger, which by the way, is healing nicely, thanks for asking.

I drove pretty much non stop for the next two days, with hardly any stops except for lunch and refuel. You might think, dear readers, that 1500km can be done in two days. Yeah well that may well be the case for Australia or Europe, where roads are smooth, wide, and fast driving. Not so much in Indonesia. It’s a constant gear shifting from second to third to fourth to second again, following smelly trucks at 30khm, overtaking them as soon as possible, reaching 80kmh again til the next truck comes along , or the next pothole, bringing you to a complete stop. So, a remaining 1500khm at an average of 40kmh at best is about, what, four or five days, if not more. Very tiring, very stressful, very boring too. Sadly I won’t see much of Sumatra, as Medan is on the North East coast, and I must be there as soon as possible, for reasons you already know. But I will never forget that night with the elephants, it’s worth the six painful next days.

On August 7th, exactly six months after I left Melbourne last February, I crossed the Equator. I am now leaving the Southern Hemisphere, which has been my home for the past five years. Welcome to the Northern Hemisphere, I have to get used to the sun in the South again, not North, and going to colder and colder as I progress. Well, cold weather isn’t for anytime soon, I can tell you that much, it’s bloody hot, humid, foggy, damp, actually not very nice. I’m sure the wet season is actually nicer, with, granted more rain, but I bet there is more blue sky as well. Now, in the dry season, the sky is just covered with a thick layer of clouds. I haven’t seen the blue of the sky for days now. It’s just like Europe in Autumn, grey. Only hotter. A whole lot hotter.

I reached Duri pretty tired, in a bad mood, hot and sweaty. I need a shower, a shave, and a good night sleep. Fuck finding a campspot, tonight I go to a hotel. Not bad actually, for the price (about 25eur for a double, with private bathroom, a real toilet and A/C). Breakfast was awful but at least I’m shaved and clean.

I took the liberty of a late morning as Medan is only a day away now, I should be there tomorrow lunchtime.

But then, round noon, I passed another troopy, coming from Medan, on the way South. Same car, same settings or so, just as white and big as opposed to the local cars, same white “malai” driving it. Obviously we pulled over and chatted. Bloody great to meet you mate, where d’you come from ? Australia, how about you ? Australia. Where are you going ? Malaysia, and you ? Malaysia. So Sander and his two daughters, Zara (7) and Linde (5) are on their way from Cairns to Amsterdam, where they’re originally from. Only Sander warns me he’s just spent a week in Medan trying to find a ship across to Kuala Lumpur, but no such luck. There is apparently a chance in Dumai, 200km South of here, he says.
Well, let’s go then. Let’s have lunch and then ride in convoy to Dumai, find a cheapish hotel and get this thing organized.

Three hours later, we reached the port, got the right addresses to check out in the morning and booked in the closest hotel. Well, we probably should have done a bit more research on the hotel… While I was laying on my bed, checking my email, one of the girls I originally took for an innocent customer, asked me plainly if I was alone, if I wanted a massage, and if after the massage I wanted a quick fuck and a blowjob… Err, no thanks for the offer, but I’m married. Quickest way to get a prostitute off your back, pretend you’re married.

What a loud night. Between the shouting, the televisions sets, the traffic outside and the loud noises coming from the rooms across the hall, in which you can imagine the scene taking place, we didn’t get much sleep. But at least we have contacts for in the morning. Sadly though, these contacts proved to be way too expensive for our budgets. 30 million rupiah for a container, that’s about 3000AUD, give or take. No thanks. Later we met an English teacher who took us to his place, and went through great lengths to help us translating our phone calls to various shipping agents. It turns out he is into CouchSurfing and helped many overlanders like us in the past. Unfortunately, he could only confirm from Dumai it’s a no go. There are only passenger ferries leaving the town, no more cargo. They may have been in the past but now the rules have changed.

Funny though, Sander’s wife is in Australia, and so is Claire. We both have the same car, the same journey, and the same tupperwares. We even have matching tables with their broken legs.

The girls are great fun, very funny, very playful, not shy at all, always laughing. Great company. (check out their website www.http://animalworlddrive.com/)

So, back to Medan then. Off we went, 700km to go, hopefully in a day and a half we can make it. That night we bush-camped in one of the many palm-trees plantation (Indonesia, and especially Sumatra and Borneo, exports about 85percent of the world’s production of palm oil). The spot was perfect: a river-bend, far from the closest village, quiet, shady, flat soil (well, a bit muddy, as Sander learned rapidly. A little too much to the left and hop, bogged). But as the sun set and the temperature dropped to a nice cool evening, a first then a second then a sixth group of loud people on their motorbike came and asked again and again what we were doing here, waking the kids up every time, and dragging us out of our beds in the process. After I set the sixth group straight, they finally left us alone.

The next day we headed for our last long leg of the journey, some 500km to be covered in one day. As I said before, the traffic is so bad and so dense in Indonesia, especially the hundreds, no the thousands, of trucks, spitting black fumes at a low speed (40kmh max), 500kmh is actually more than seven hours drive.
Eventually we made it, at about 8PM, our friendly CouchSurfer host greeted us.

Tomorrow : ship hunting ! If we can’t get a ship here, we can’t get it anywhere, and we’ll have to find another route, maybe through Singapore (expensive) or I don’t know. We’re stuck here, with visas running short, the girl’s mum flying in to Kuala Lumpur from Cairns on the 15th while my mate Fred is also flying in from Brussels.

Distance to-day: 2742km, total: 27915km.