Part 2: Story pictures and videos...

So we left with the boat from Taman Jaya around 7:15 a.m.

Destination? Peucang Island
Duration? 2.5 - 3 Hours

The boat trip, like all other long-duration trips, started with a lot of talks, questions, jokes, and laughters. Then, after 45 minutes people started to be more quiet...enjoying the ocean of Sunda Strait by themselves.

The waves were not small, but not really big as well, it was pretty nice and windy. Waves that came from different direction met each other like a group of ants meeting each other...they stopped for a moment before they're gone again.

After almost 3 hours on the boat, we arrived at Peucang Island. This is the island where we will be staying at night. White sand, blue sea, green trees...

People only live close to the beach in this island. If we continue further inside, well, there's the forest. But some of the wild animals like deers, monkeys, a relatively big lizard (I don't know the name..but not Komodo) and black wild pigs are walking around freely around the place we're staying. The first one we saw was the deer right under the rooms (because there's an approximately 50 cm space between the floor of the rooms and the ground).

We left our backpacks, took a hot tea and ate some food...and off we go with the boat again to Tanjung Layar. It takes around 30 minutes from Peucang Island.

Tanjung Layar is at the West-end of Java Island. Some people also called it daerah seribu goa (the area of 1000 caves)...well, of course because it has so many caves inside. When Mount Krakatoa erupted in August 1883, like some some other islands around it, a lot of people died from a more than 7 meters-high tsunami that ate the island, including some prisoners who couldn't save themselves in their cells. We can still see some remaining of the cells.

In the other islands, it was recorded that the height of the waves that was caused by the eruption of Mount Krakatoa reached 40m high. Until now, the sound of Krakatoa's eruption is still the loudest sound ever recorded on earth. See it first here, and then here.

We went trekking in the forest for about 1.5 km. It's really nature at works.
The big trees were hundreds of years old. The variety of small plants, wild flowers, birds, monkeys and squirrels jumping around high on the trees, and the breeze that we can still feel coming from the sea behind it....no boundaries!

There are still other wild animals inside the forest, but we were not allowed to go further inside for safety reasons.

After the walk, we reached the lighthouse of the island, the "new" one. The other one is the old one from colonial time. The only people living in Tanjung Layar are only 3-4 people working with the lighthouse. They can go home once every 3 months and change shift with the other workers.

From there we continue to the old lighthouse, on then to a very high hill that marks the end of Java Island. After finishing everything, we walked our way back to the same direction as we came, and returned to Peucang Island for lunch.

Next thing to do? Even for a while, we just had to swim on that beautiful beach, or else we're just plain stupid to waste such an opportunity...hehe..

We took a short rest and again took a boat to Cidaon. Cidaon is very close from Peucang Island, only 10 minutes away.

What to do there? To spy some wild bulls and catch the sunset at the beach.

We walked in the forest for about less than 10 minutes to the place where there's a safe and higher place where we can go to see the bulls. Lucky enough, we can still found some bulls before they went back deeper in the forest of Cidaon. But, being a smart ass, we tried to get closer to the bulls, hiding and peeking behind trees and bushes.

One thing on my mind was "OK, if they suddenly run toward us, I should already know which tree to climb and save my ass" =)

The one thing we couldn't find was the famous Javan Rhinoceros (The Lesser One-Horned Rhinoceros). They're a very rare animals to see in the world. Because, sadly, they're critically endangered. It is considered as the rarest large mammal on earth. Only less than 50 of them left in the world. 8 of them were found at Cat Tien National Park in Vietnam, and the rest in Ujung Kulon.

The Javan Rhino usually avoids humans, but will attack when they feel threatened. Because of its extreme rarity and the danger of interfering with such endangered species, The Javan Rhino is the least studied of all rhino species. Mr. Komar told us that if we wanted to see the rhinos, the best way is to come around 4 in the morning, because they usually still "taking a bath" close to the sea.

It was getting dark, so we walked back to the beach at sunset. The white sand, golden sun, dark sky, green forest, blue sea....

Some people who were just too busy with going back on the boat didn't realize the scene that they're a part of. For a while I felt like I don't want to hear anything around me....
Feel the majestic scene of nature before it sleeps...
To see and listen with the heart...

Again, gratefulness....

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We came back to Peucang Island, and started to see some wild pigs walking around. Electricity is starting to work. They're using a generator there, so to save energy, we can only get electricity after 5:30 p.m.

After dinner we just chilled out and rest, talking with the people from the island. Then Baba and I had some interesting conversations with a French-Belgium couple who just started traveling around Java and Bali...very nice people...

It started to rain...what a nice evening...

We went to sleep with the sound of the deers and pigs right next to our window...it was the funniest thing ever..!! =)

.......

The next day we left Peucang Island, back to Taman Jaya, and continue with our ride home....

I hope this all worth the long writing =)

Below are some pictures of the trip.

To see the full album of the trip, click here.

Below are some of the videos

One of the lizards we found in the forest at Peucang Island



One of the old trees in the forest at Tanjung Layar



Another one from Tanjung Layar



with smile,
ali