For all its 250-square-kilometers, you hardly know it’s there. Approaching from either the north or west, the park’s entrance comes up so suddenly that I flew past the sign, then had to back up. The gatekeepers won’t give it away either. They were lounging around on motorbikes chatting up the local girls.
In the remote northeast corner of Java, Baluran’s unprepossessing entrance explains why so many tourists pass it on the main road without even realizing that it exists. A reserve since Dutch times, registered as a national park only in 1980, Baluran is one of Bali’s most accessible game reserves, yet on the Saturday night I visited there were just two other tourists. And they were French and I don’t speak French.
Although the park’s modest accommodations have a carrying capacity of 40 people, most of the cabins were darkened and empty, even a bit spooky. The park’s eerie atmosphere was heightened all the more by the yellow eyes of musang (civets) and rusa (deer) picked up by my headlights traveling the rough 12-kilometer road into the park late at night. The narrow entrance also belies Baluran’s huge land area with mountains giving way to open mahogany and teakwood forests, rolling extensive savanna and scrub land threaded by stone-bedded water courses. The whole reserve is dominated by the towering open-sided cone of Gunung Baluran (1,247 meters) and bounded on three sides by coastal marshes, swampy groves and white-sand beaches washed by the Bali Straits.
Inland is a different story. Java’s northeast corner is exceptionally dry with little rain between April and October. With its high grasses, flat-topped acacias, and herds of animals grazing peacefully, the reserve is strikingly similar to East Africa’s famous game parks, Java’s Serengeti.
Baluran is the easiest place on Java to see an impressive variety of plant species and animals. Its wildlife features monitor lizards, wild dogs and pigs, squirrels, fruit bats, giant woodpeckers, crab-eating monkeys and leaf monkeys in the upland forests. Groups of 30 or more barking deer are common.
But I had no time for these bottom feeders. I was there to see the wild counterpart of Indonesia’s domestic cattle, the huge feral oxen known as banteng (Bos javanicus), whose head even appears on the nation’s coat of arms. Portions of the savanna, particularly around waterholes, were cleared to create grazing areas for the shy banteng.
From the porch of my bungalow on that first night I could see their massive silent black shapes in the darkness, some specimens it’s said weighing up to a ton. I crouched and closed in on the small herd until I frightened some barking deer hidden nearby. Their sharp squeals scared the hell out of me, too.
Determined, early the next morning I took the three-kilometer road to the beach at Bama. Squatting in the tower overlooking a forest swamp, I waited stoically for the park’s most famous and elusive denizens to lumber up and drink. Again, no bulls.
We started back to base camp. On the way, while passing a gravel truck, a man on top pointed across open grassland. Banteng! The guide and I crouched and ran down a dry river bed until we were about 50 meters from the herd.
The banteng were intensely aware of our presence but couldn’t see us. Through the bushes I could see them presenting their pure white rumps, their heads turned contemptuously as if to say "This is all you’re gonna get."
But that was good enough for me.
Getting ThereIf driving yourself, it’s a three hour drive from southern Bali to Gilimanuk Harbor, then it takes an hour to cross the Bali Strait to Java by ferry to Ketapang Harbor.
From Ketapang to the park’s entrance at Batangan is just 30 minutes. The headquarters at Bekol is a 25 minute drive from the main Banyuwangi-Surabaya coastal road. A Toyota Kijang can easily make it if you drive slowly.
No permits are required; just sign in at the office. No food or beverages are available, so bring your own food. You can also arrange for food to be delivered from town at a set time each day. Wear good walking shoes, a hat, sunblock (it’s hot!). Bring water, a strong flashlight, binoculars, mosquito coils, towel, food, coffee/tea, sugar.
Where to StayThere are five modest bungalows in the main camp and two others on the beach three kilometers away. The tariff is Rp15,000-35,000 per person.
At the gate, guards will radio ahead to Bekol to check on vacancies. Or you can call and make reservations at the head office (tel. 0333-461-650) in Banyuwangi. Count on a cabin being available as the park’s facilities are way underutilized and under-publicized.
Electricity is only available 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. At around 10 p.m., camp personnel come around and leave kerosene hurricane lamps that provide light through the night.
Travel Agency Fortunately, a Bali-based travel agency specializes in tours of Baluran. Bali Java Tours is located at Jl. Melasti, Gang Lebakbena 6X (in front of Camplung Mas Hotel and next to Vilarisi Hotel) in Legian.
Contact Paul Yogya (speaks English, plus a little French and German), tel/fax: (0361) 763-645, 764-613, 767-200, handphone numbers 081-856-4940, 081-734-1455 or staff at 081-797-13-600, 081-647-11-408, email: balijava@hotmail.com.
