Archive for October 17th, 2006
MERU BETIRI PRESERVATION corns at the end of 30 kilometers of pot-holed road that crossed a half dozen rivers and wound up through dense jungle and rubber plantation. It is 58,000 hectare and located about 97 km to the south of Banyuwangi. It was here, on the south eastern tip of the province, that the last of the Javanese tigers had sought refuge.
A hundred and fifty years ago Panther tigris sondaica covered most of Java Island and was even considered nuisance in some populated areas. But through the 1800s and early 1900s it was hunted mercilessly and its habitat was destroyed by plantation builders. By the beginning of the Second World War it survived only in the most remote mountains and forests and today, the last four of live line on the brink of extinction in a remote region near the southern coast.
The Indonesian Government and the world wild Life Fund have mounted a determined effort to save the tiger and his environment. And to do so, the authorities are even prepared to relocate a few thousand humans.
But Meru Betiri is not a simply tiger reserve, but also wild life of all kinds abounds, black panthers, leopards, wild pigs, deers, monkeys, several kinds of birds, even four species of turtles which often lay eggs in the night.
There are many fascinating attractions around Meru Betiri, such as: Rajegwesi beach, Green bay, and feeding ground grown over by vegetation as lushly tropical.
source : www.petra.ac.id
October 17th, 2006
To guard the preservation of this national park, tourists have to apply first at the office of Baluran National Park, at Jl. A. Yani, No. 108, Banyuwangi, or at the Batangan Post, which is the entrance post to the Baluran National Park.
To reach this area is not too difficult. If you use public transportation from Surabaya, board the Patas Bus Surabaya-Banyuwangi via Situbondo, and get off at the Baluran National Park. From Batangan to the Bekol Post is still another 12 kilometres, which can be covered by ojek (motorbike taxi).
source : www.petra.ac.d
October 17th, 2006
Other tourist attraction in this area is the Marine Park at Bama Beach, around 3.5 kilometres East of the Bekol Post. Besides enjoying the stretches of white sand along the beach, one can watch a variety of decorative fish, corals, sea stars, sea cucumbers, and diving equipment.
Around at 2 kilometres from Bama Beach, which can be covered by trail-bike in 45 kilometres, one can find the Manting water spring. This water spring never dries up throughout the year. It is believed that this water causes one to stay young. If one then continues on foot along the trail path, around 1 kilometre from Manting, we’ll arrive at a pier. Here we can witness a  beautiful scenery with mangrove forests. Along the pierwith its quiet waves, one can cano around, while watching the variety of decorative fish.
To enjoy the tourism potentials of the Baluran National Park indeed takes time. At least 2 days/ night. That’s why the management has also prepared facilities to stay overnight. The Pesanggrahan Bekol at Bekol, and the Pesanggrahan Bama on Bama Beach. While the camping grounds are at Wonorejo, around 500 metres East, before the entrance to the Baluran National Park.
source : ptra.ac.id
October 17th, 2006
Beside fauna, the Baluran National Park also accomodates a variety of flora that are preserved, and protected by law. In this area, there are 422 species of flora, from 87 familia. One of these, and a specific local plant, is the “Blue Dadap” that grows around the Talpat spring. This beautiful Dadap bears a blue flower that is 1.5 metres in diameter, and can attain a height of almost 17 metres.
Besides the Blue Dadap, the other species of flora are pokem, alang-alang, rumput lamuran, pilang, and the kesambi-which is specify dry area plant, that grows around savana deserts. Besides that, there is also a lot of kempo, asam, walukukun, and kemiri growing here.
source : www.petra.ac.id
October 17th, 2006
Watching Wild Buffels
One of the attractions that can be experienced at the Baluran National Park, is watching wild buffels drinking, and bathing. Apart from that, we can also watch wild bulls, deers, antelopes, wild boars, panthers, mangrove and wild cats, otters, komodos, and 147 species of birds, for example needle tailed swallows, uli-uli, peacocks, and jungle fowls.
To watch how wild buffels drink and bath, is indeed absorbing. For that purpose, the preservation management has prepared observation towers, equipped with long distance binoculars. Like the one at the Bekols Post, around 12 kilometres from the Batangan Post (the entrance post to the area). At this post there are two observation towers, one permanently built on top of hill, 64 metres high, the other one a quite sturdy wooden structure, 10 metres tall. These observation towers allow one to observe, not only the drinking and bathing wild buffels, but also the 3.5 kilometres stretch of savanas from the Bekol Post to the Bama Beach. Besides that one can observe other wildlife grazing.
Not far from the observation tower, several water reservoirs have been built, each of around 6 square metres. There, the wild buffels drink, and bath, in the morning and in the afternoon. But, during the dry season, sometimes this wild buffels prefer to bath in the sea. These buffels have sensitive hearing. Hence, if tourists are watching these wild buffels, no sound should be made, otherwise they will run off, or sometimes even get mad and chase the source of the sound.
Wild bulls are different. Being clean and loners, wild bulls will not drink at the reservoirs if preceeded by the buffels. Hence, these prefer to drink around noon time, and during the evening hide in the dense forest.
source : www.petra.ac.id
October 17th, 2006
The Ijen Plateau lies in the centre of the Ijen-Merapi Maelang Reserve, which extends over much of the mountainous region directly west of Banyuwangi and borders on the Baluran National Park in the north east. As at Mt. Bromo , the caldera is best viewed from the air.
Fortunately, almost all commercial flights operating between Denpasar - Surabaya, Yogyakarta or Jakarta usually fly, if not directly over, then close by Ijen plateau, where the seemingly luminous blue/green crater lake forms an unmistakable landmark. It is a beautiful scenery and located about 32 km to the north west of Banyuwangi.
The principal attraction at Ijen is the large, sulphureous crater lake which lies hidden between sheer walls of deeply furrowed rock at more than 200 meters. The Ijen crater itself lies at approximately 2,300 meters above sea level. It forms a twin volcano with the now extinct Mount Merapi. The enormous crater lake, which is 200 meters deep and covers an area of more than meters, a million square meters, contains about 36 million cubic meters of steaming, acid water.
Ijen crater shows a special type of volcanic feature common to Indonesia, about 1 kilometer in diameter and 175 meters deep. The floor is covered completely by a warm lake, milky blue green in colours held back by a dam built many years ago by the Dutch, in order to keep the hot, mineral laden water from raining the crop lands below.
The crater can be reached from either the east or the west by any kinds of vehicles, but the second part of the trip covers distance 3 km on foot (jungle track). However, the latter is more popular approach, since the climb from the road’s end to the edge of the lake is only one and a half hours. And a walk around the lake takes a full day.
The temperature drops at night, near the crater rim it can fall to about 5° Celcius. The road ends at Jampit, where very basic shelter is available. It is also possible to sleep in the old vulcanology station further up the hill, now used by sulphur collectors, but permission must be obtained in advance.
The sulphur is transported entirely on foot. In the past, horses were used but they were found to be less practical on the hazardous terrain. Today, the mine yields nine to twelve tons of sulphur per day.
Individual loads of up to 70 kg are carried by men, often barefooted, up to the rim of crater and then 17 km down the mountainside to a factory near Banyuwangi. The porters are paid by weight. The most important advice if you are travelling to Ijen is: “If you lose your way, just look out for the sulphur trail”. The meaning was clear, since a continuous flow of two way traffic,carrying the sulphur down the mountainside from the lake and trudging up again to re-load, had left a yellow trail on the well worn path. The best time for seeing Ijen Crater is at 8 to 9 am.
source : www.petra.ac.id
October 17th, 2006