Pulau Banyak Archipelago, Indonesia by Georg Jackstadt
Special thanks to artist Hans Drake, who accompanied Georg, for the use of his beautiful map.
We
spent one week in Pulau Banyak in Indonesia. It took almost two days
to get from Medan to Pulau Bangkaru, the most western island of the
archipelago. Pulau Banyak literally means "many islands" -
supposed to be 99 - but some of them disappeared after Aceh was hit
by the 2004 tsunami and a heavy earthquake a few months later.
Pulau Bangkaru is an amazing place: the entire island is National Park
and one of the most important nesting grounds for sea turtles in Southeast
Asia.
Bangkaru is the second largest island of the Banyak archipelago, uninhabited and entirely covered by undisturbed rain forest.
The
coast of Pulau Bangkaru is wild with big waves crashing into the rocky
shore - difficult to land safely with a boat. This isolation was one
reason that made it such an undisturbed unique nesting ground - until
Homo non Sapiens put turtle eggs and meat on the menu list.
Mahmud Bangkaru from Sweden 'discovered' Pulau Banyak in the 90's and
managed to achieve some protection for Pulau Bangkaru. The governor
of Aceh supported the idea to give Bangkaru the status as a National
Park and CALTEX donated some funds for the protection of the sea turtles
and the environment - until ACEH became a politically trouble spot for
Indonesia (the province wanted to gain Independence) and Indo- army
was sent to Aceh. At that time (mid nineties) Pulau Banyak's few backpacker
tourists were scared away and turtle egg poaching began in big style...
- until quite recently.
Now there is a NGO formed with the goal to protect Pulau Banyak and it's environment. Sea turtles have a special importance in the agenda. It is also hoped that Eco Tourism can create some jobs for local people.
We went to Pulau Bangkaru to bring some outboard engines and train locals on the job of the 'turtle patrol.' They will control the beach every night, look for turtle tracks, measure and tag the turtles while they are laying their eggs and take DNA samples, so the scientists have something to do...
These were
the first sea turtles on Sumatra which were tagged and studied. The
turtles lay their eggs only at night - after they are done they straddle
back to the water. When the small turtles hatch and make it to the sea
- many get eaten by Monitor lizards and sharks - those who grow up may
swim with sea currents more than 20.000 km to America - and once grown
up they will go back to exactly the same beach where they were born
!!! Pretty amazing...
Besides
sea turtles we saw lizards, snakes, Manta rays and a croc just about
100 m from our campsite - I wonder what it eats, there were no monkeys
- it's probably on a strict turtle- diet... ?
After 3 days on Bangkaru the Indo-Dutch Marine Biologist left with the
Swedish photographer and Mahmud Bangkaru - while I had the pleasure
to do island hopping in the Banyak archipelago.
Those
small islands are different in character: less wild than Bangkaru and
more the typical tropical-coconut-palm-tree-and-white-beach-islands
from Bounty / Bacardi - ads (No Bacardi though - "es gibt kein
Bier auf Hawaii " is nonsense for Hawaii but on Pulau Banyak brutal
reality -the Province of Aceh is Sharia country (Islamic law) and therefore
dry.
I
used an inflatable catamaran for the tour - easy to transport - I had
no clue what kind of car we were using from Medan to the west coast
- so I chose the inflatable which worked actually fine at Bangkaru to
watch and photograph turtles in the water or to bash through the waves
in the surf - On the other hand it is not a rocket for long distances
but most of the small islands are close to each other, so that is no
problem as long the weather is fine.
It
wasn't on the last day of of paddling when I had the wind blowing into
my face so strong I had no idea if I was actually making any progress
forward even I pulled on the paddle like mad - in the end I was faster
than I thought. - A faster, less wind-sensitive kayak is certainly better
for longer distances. OK, maybe another time, - this was my first paddle
trip ever in the Indian ocean - I am certainly keen on going again !!!
I am now working at a proposal for the NGO to develop kayaking / island-hopping
as an Eco-friendly activity to provide jobs for local people - if we
want to stop egg poaching we have to provide alternative jobs!
Sit-on-Tops
will be the proposed type of boat for this: easy and fast to enter if
you want to bash through the braking waves in the surf, and great for
snorkeling / swimming while on a tour in-between the islands... It's
tropical climate here where an Eskimo-style sit-inside kayak does not
have many advantages.
More information
about North Sumatra and Aceh can be found on www.sumatraecotourism.com
- This is a nonprofit website providing info, contacts, addresses etc.
for people who want to visit this part of Indonesia which has been hit
by the tsunami and is now struggling to recover.
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