Many people said that East Java has a beautiful nature scenery that spread in many places. One of them is mainly consists of savanna, as well as lowland forests, mangrove forests and hills. This place is called Baluran. Located in Situbondo regency, you can reach there by going for an hour from Ketapang harbor, straight to the north via the main road.

The area has been protected since 1928, first initiated by the Dutch hunter A.H. Loedeboer. In 1937 it was declared a wildlife refuge by the Dutch colonial government. In 1980 the area has been declared a national park. Thanks for the info, Wikipedia!

Along with Yaz, Niko, Manda, Fikri, and Graham, we ride our motorcycle during mid-day to go to Baluran. After our adventure in Mount Ijen, we’re very curious with this place. The weather is also perfect for riding. We hope that this weather stay like this when we arrive there.

Maybe 3 or 4 hours journey, we finally arrive at our guest house. Tonight we decide to stay at Mr. Kasman’s house before leaving to Baluran on early morning. Mr.Kasman’s family is very nice, his wife also made a super delicious hot soup for our dinner. It’s like heaven in our mouth.

5 AM, we already ride our motorbike to Baluran’s gate. It takes only 3 minutes from Mr. Kasman’s house. The ticket price is Rp 2500,- (25 cents) for local guest and Rp 20.000,- (2 USD) for foreigner guest. That’s not include Rp 6000,- (60 cents) for each vehicle.

Our first destination in this 25.000 ha area is Bama Beach. People said that the sunrise is very nice there. We ride past the jungle when the road is somewhat damage and rocky so we can’t rush our bike. When we arrive in the savanna Bekol, the sky is already orange. The heck, me and Yaz decide to stop for a while and take some photos. With the complaint from Niko, who desperately wanted to go to the beach, we then rush our bike again.

Luckily, even the sky is turn bright, we arrive at Bama Beach just at the time when the sun rises from behind the sea. There’s some bench and table at the beach, so we’re having breakfast here. But hey, there’s very harsh monkeys here. They jump at our table, try to grab our bread. Yaz, who is very scared, give away his bread to the monkey. Too bad, it makes the other monkeys getting closer to us. Then we  decide to move away, into the mangrove forest near the beach.

After walk in peacefully quiet mangrove forest, we arrive at the bungalow above the water. Yeah at last we can had our breakfast here. It’s so quiet and peacefull here. Even I can hear some water splash from the jumping fish.

Around 8 AM, we continue our journey back to the savanna Bekol which area is spread around 300 ha. Woww it definitely looks like Africa. Never been in Africa, but I saw it on NatGeo Channel and The Lion King movie though.. There’s a watch tower where we can climb up and see the magnificent scenery of this savanna. Yeah, it’s superb scenery! From the top of watch tower I can see a group of deer and monkey. I can also see Mount Baluran (1247 masl) standing proudly on the western side.

The fauna we saw in the savanna are buffalo, deer (Java mouse-deer), peacock (Green peafowl), monkey (Javan lutung), and an eagle. Actually, there’s also a banteng and leopard in this area. But the banteng is sadly endangered and the leopard are avoiding human, so it’s very rare for people seeing them.

We spent the morning lay down under the big tree’s shadow, having a conversation and watch the animals. The weather is perfect. We can see the flying wild eagle up there. Sometimes the deer and peacock running not far from us. But the most exciting moment is when dozens of buffalo crossing by. Yeah it’s awesome, man!!

Before we leave this area, Graham realize that his bag he left in the motorbike is widely open. One of his bag is gone, and that is the medicine bag which is very important to him. What the… Just for a moment we realize that the monkeys did this. Yes, there’s a group of monkey above us, hanging on the tree. One of them is bringing Graham’s medicine bag. Then we start throwing a stones to them and after several stones the monkey throw away Graham’s bag. Luckily, the important medicines aren’t gone. Hahaa what an experience, especially for Graham..

During our journey back, we’re stoping for a while at The Evergreen Jungle. Here you can see hundreds,  maybe thousands of colorful flying butterfly. Truly awesome.. Beautiful to see but hard to capture, yes that’s butterfly.

12:30 PM, we get out from Baluran because it’s already hot there. Africa van Java, man..you know how hot it is. After take some lunch and packing up our belongings in Mr. Kasman house, we’re going hoommee.. While Yaz, Niko, Manda, and Fikri headed back to Genteng, me and Graham go to the Ketapang harbor and take a ferry back to Bali. What a magnificent 3 days journey (Bali – Ijen – Baluran – Bali)…

 

*If you want to visit Baluran National Park, you can ask our nice guide to accompany you along the journey. The name is Manda, fluent in English, still single (he is, when I wrote this), and his number is +628991052543

*If you decide to stay at nearby guest house in Baluran, instead rent a room inside the Baluran National Park, you can contact Mr. Kasman (+6287857429277)