One of the trip highlights was the chance to see a female Green Sea turtle laying eggs at Sukamade beach, deep in the Meru Betiri National Park. It was a long, incredibly rough ride in, past stunning jungle and an area where the “bunga bankai” (or corpse flower, Rafflesia) can be seen.
Several times we had to cross the river. The remoteness is one of the reasons why this spot is worth seeking out, but it is not for everyone. From Banyuwangi it’s about a six hour drive, three of them requiring a serious 4×4 vehicle.
Eventually we got to the beach. Here they still practice animism, believing that the forest and ocean have spirits that must be appeased. Consequently we were not allowed to visit the beach between 5pm and 7pm. And on returning from the beach, we had to take a shower to cleanse ourselves from the bad spirits. Which was a challenge, as the accommodations here are “rustic,” to say the least. No 5-star Tugu experience here!
(And worth noting, this is just fine. Visitors should know that this is a fragile area and the moment the road gets paved, allowing for development and a 5-star hotel, the beach as a spawning ground for sea turtles will be destroyed. The low impact that a few people have per night is fine; anything more will be harmful to the ecology.)
The beach itself was lovely, though sadly trash covered, as are nearly all beaches these days. The legacy of decades of disposable plastic products being carelessly discarded. Even in a place as remote as Sukamade, the trash is a reminder of how we are treating this precious planet.
Another shock was that offshore, when we were waiting to see if a turtle would come up to lay eggs, illegal fishing boats dotted the bay with their bright lights. Apparently nobody is doing anything to patrol this or protect the bay. Since the turtles are incredibly sensitive to light, it’s hard not to think this would affect their breeding here.
It’s difficult to describe the emotions when you see your first mother sea turtle, who has swum so far, lumbered up to the very edge of the beach and dug a massive hole in the sand to lay her eggs. No light is allowed, and the photos here were taken with my camera at ISO 12800, the highest I could go. As such, they are grainy, and on the soft sand even a tripod didn’t work as well as I’d hoped.
Still, I think it shows what made the visit special.