The Taman Nasional Bali Barat, occupying the island’s western end, with its complex of habitats including high forests and magnificent coral-fringed islands, is the wild and unvisited side of Bali. The park’s atavistic beauty is the perfect compliment to Bali’s sun and sea, rice terrace and temple mass tourism.
Since Bali is such a densely populated, intensively cultivated island, very little of its forests remain. To preserve a portion of the island as a wilderness zone, and as a buffer against human settlements that border it, the park was officially gazetted as one of Indonesia's 36 national parks in 1984.
Bali Barat was initially established by the Dutch in 1941 to protect Bali’s endemic white starling (Loucospar rothschildi) and the last of the island's wild banteng. The Balinese subspecies of the Asian tiger may also have roamed the area, but the last animal was recorded shot in the 1930s.
Though not nearly as rugged as the areas surrounding the higher mountains of eastern Bali, primary monsoon forests are found along the watershed on the southern slopes of the mountains Sangiang, Merbuk, Musi and Patas.
Gunung Patas gained international notoriety in 1974 when a Pan-Am jet slammed into its side after its captain mistook gas lamps from fishing platforms off Bali’s north coast for landing strip lights, killing all 107 people aboard.
The park's southern sector is watered by clear streams and traversed by footpaths that promise steep but relatively easy walking through forested hills. Bali Barat's sparse and prickly northern sector is much drier than the south, the habitat of scrub acacia, palm savannas and dense mangrove swamps.
The tourism potential of the park’s northern marine reserve, including the unspoilt coral reefs surrounding Menjangan Island, is almost unlimited.
The Bali Starling
Unquestionably Bali’s richest ecosystem, the park offers kancil (miniature deer), barking deer, long-tailed macaques, civets, monkeys, wild boars, and perhaps 30 or so banteng (Bos javanicus) — living ancestors of today's Balinese cattle. The park's profuse and beautiful birdlife (140 species) includes sea and shore birds such as terns, boobies and frigates, as well as the endangered Bali starling (jalak bali).
An extremely shy and easily agitated species, Bali’s only remaining endemic creature, the Bali starling averages 23 cm in length and features black wingtips and tail, silky white feathers and brilliant blue rings around its eyes.
To see live specimens, visit the Bali Starling Recovery Project at the end of a country road six kilometers northeast of park headquarters at Cekik. Approaching, the facility has the appearance of the stockade out of Paul Newman’s Cool Hand Luke. All four corners have watchtowers staffed by 12 armed guards on duty 24 hours a day.
Why all the security? This is an ornithologist’s Fort Knox as specimens of Jalak Bali sell on the black market for Rp15 million, and can be sold further to collectors in the U.S. or Europe for as much as US$6000.
After passing through two locked gates, you are led into the premises which consists of a number of individual steel cages whose occupants are divided into pre-adults, mating couples, recuperating birds and birds in quarantine. It is a rare sight indeed to see so many Bali Starlings in one place, one of only two such facilities in the world.
Between this WWF-funded captive breeding operation and an aviary deeper in the park (accessible only by motorbike) there are now 82 specimens (including 12 tagged specimens in the wild). If your group is small, a Rp100,000 donation is requested.
Information and Permits
The best info on permits, hiking, guides, vehicle rental - plus a small exhibit, scale model of the park, and possibly even hand-out maps - can be had from the park headquarters (closed on Sundays) in Cekik, three kilometers south of Gilimanuk at the junction of the road to Singaraja and the road to Denpasar.
More like a forest than a jungle, the park offers exceptional walking and first-class panoramas across its staggering 19,000 hectares. A typical walk lasts five hours. At times you have to crawl through undergrowth and use paths frequented by wild ox and deer. Dress like your guide: jeans and long sleeves for protection against thorns and snags.
Bring lots of water as it can get extremely hot. Early or late in the day is the best time to see wildlife. Take a lunch and sit quietly in the forest to hear the symphony. Make sure your guide is a good bird spotter and bring binoculars. The blithe spirit of birdsong makes for lovely, incessant and unforgettable surround sound.
Where to Stay
Pondok Wisata, behind the information center of the Bali Barat National Park offices, rents out three-bedroom bungalows (Indonesian toilet) for only Rp50,000. Though a bit worn at the edges, a good deal. In front is an empty black sand beach, relaxing bale and the lights of Banyuwangi twinkling across the Bali Strait. Stars crowd out the sky at night.
Decidedly more upscale, the Taman Wana lies near Palasari in Negara Regency, just 20 minutes away by car or one hour away by foot from the reserve. Contact: (62-365) 40970, fax. (62-365) 40970, reservations: Denpasar, tel./fax. (62-361) 727-770, twfs@dps.centrin.nt.id, website: bali-taman-wana-villas.com.
-This unique resort can proudly take its place among the great game lodges of the world – the Tiger Tops of Nepal, the Matla Manzi of Africa and the Bandhavgarh of India. The Taman Wana is in equal parts an exclusive jungle lodge, a five-star boutique hotel and a mountain retreat.
E-mail : pakbill2003@yahoo.com
Copyright@2004 PakBill
You can read all past articles of
Indonesian Explorer at www.BaliAdvertiser.biz
