Week 97 - Atauro Island, Dili, Kupang (Timor Leste, Indonesia)

We’d arranged for a pack lunch for our first full day on Atauro Island and were presented with a feast that we spooned in to tupperware boxes to take with us on our hike to Adara. Along with Chris and Michelle and armed with a hand drawn map, we headed out to start the walk which would take us over the central mountainous spine of the island and down to a beach on the other side where we’d heard there was good snorkeling.

From Barry’s, where we were staying, we turned off the main coast road and headed in land. The road became progressively more rugged and broken as it wound up the mountain, passable only by 4WD, but provided us fantastic views of the coast below. Surrounded by the sound of birds and good company we continued, passed the turn off to Makadade, a village on the ridge, until we reached a small concrete bridge. Here, we joined a footpath that ran through the forest to the small village of Arlo, spotting flocks of parakeets and doves along the way. Once in Arlo, surrounded by papaya and casava plantations, a kind man pointed us in the right direction to continue, along the edge of the village, towards the coast. We were starting to tire by this point and were faced with a steep rock face that we scrambled down to reach the flat coastal plain. Another 45 minutes walking parallel to the beach and we arrived at Mario’s place. Mario works at Barry’s and had provided us with the map that morning. We’d expected the walk to take a little over 2.5 hours, it took 3.75 hours. 

View from the ridge, Atauro Island.

Rhys, Michelle and Chris walking along the beach to Adara, Atauro Island.

We were warmly welcomed and settled at a table to enjoy our picnic, feeding the left overs to a skinny dog on the beach, before doning our snorkel gear and wading in. The wind was picking up and it was a little choppy but we stayed out for an hour or so, swimming out to the drop off and meandering back through some decent coral. It was hard to keep track of where everyone was with the waves but was still enjoyable and Rhys saw some kind of sea spider and a couple of lobsters. 

A lovely spot for a picnic, Mario's Place, Adara, Atauro Island.

By the time we’d swam back to shore, it was time to pack up and leave to give ourselves time to make it back before dark. We asked Mario’s mum to call to arrange a car to pick us up at the concrete bridge (there are no roads on the west side of the island) and after buying her credit, we still weren’t too sure whether the car would be there or not. Faced with the thought that we might end up walking all the way back, we set out. Lunch and a swim had revived us and we covered the ground quicker than on the way over and made it to the bridge in a little under 2 hours. The truck turned up and happily we jumped in for the ride back down the mountain to Beloi.

Coastal plain on the West coast of Atauro Island.

Chris and Michelle, tired and waiting for the truck, Atauro Island.

We started the next day with more snorkeling, back near the ferry pier in Beloi. Me and Rhys both thought the coral and fish were superior on this side of the island to the previous day and spotted another couple of lobsters including a pink and blue one and a Bicolour Parrotfish. We sheltered from the midday heat by our tent, reading and watching TV, before heading out again with Chris and Michelle after lunch, on a little outrigger boat that would take us to the outer reef. By then, the clouds had started drifting in, the tide was in and the wind had picked up so visibility wasn’t as good as it had been in the morning. Just as we decided to call it a day and feeling chilled through, Michelle spotted a porcupine fish. 

Again, the next stay started with snorkeling by the pier in Beloi. The tide was out so we floated around less than a metre above the coral and saw a few smaller, brightly coloured fish we hadn’t seen before. After checking them out in one of the books in the communal area at the lodge, we headed to our tent to relax. Leaving Rhys to watch a film I wandered along the beach retaking some photos i’d taken the previous day with the camera settings all wrong, a shame as i’d seen a couple of kids spear fishing by the pier catch a small octopus.

View of Beloi beach, Atauro Island.

We had thought to hire bicycles for the afternoon but the sun was hot and the wind had died down. We’d expected bad weather to be coming in and as a result the water taxi wasn’t running, but nothing materialised. Instead, after saying goodbye to Chris and Michelle who flew the 12 minutes back to Dili in a little 8 seater propellor plane, we wandered north towards Pala. We didn’t make it to the village and turned back before we lost the light. The road was new and incredibly dusty but worth the walk to enjoy the sweeping views of the ocean.

View back towards Beloi on the road north, Atauro Island.

View of the Atauro coast line.

We’d planned to take the weekly ferry back to the mainland in the afternoon of the following day. We woke late and wandered over to the common area for a relaxed breakfast only to discover the ferry wasn’t running as a generator had broken down and the water taxi was due to leave in the next couple of minutes. We rushed back to the tent and threw our stuff back in our bags to make the boat. It cost US$45, significantly more than the US$5 the ferry would have cost. The ride back was smoother than on the crossing over to Atauro.

Once back in Dili we decided to walk from the waterfront back to the hostel where we checked in before heading out to try to book bus tickets back to Kupang in Indonesia. Expecting no issues as we weren’t leaving for another 3 days, we took a mikrolet across town only to find out all three buses were already fully booked. Worried and not wanting to waste even more time in Timor Leste, we ran back across town to another company that runs the route to West Timor only to find the office was closed. Starting to think that we’d never be able to leave the country we sulked back to the hostel for a couple of hours while we waited for the office to reopen in the afternoon. Luckily we managed to get tickets for the bus.

We spent the rest of the afternoon at the Timor Plaza Mall using the internet and drinking coffee before heading back to the hostel for carton wine and cheap Indian. The hostel, being the only backpacker option in town, attracts a good crowd and has a great communal area where you can sit and swap travel stories and gripes. We could’ve traveled more in Timor Leste while waiting for our visas but just haven’t heard about anywhere worth the hassle, Mount Ramaleu, for example, near Maubisse, sounds like a lovely walk but there’s no transport to get back and it involves a 28km walk and then Tutula, the beach on the Eastern tip of the country is 8km from the nearest bus stop. It feels like to actually see this place you need your own transport but hiring vehicles or motorbikes is expensive, you’re talking US$35 a day for a bike. And so, we’ve ended up sitting in Dili, just waiting. I’m sure there are things to see in Dili but we’ve given up and the only museum we were interested in, the Resistance Museum, was closed Sunday and Monday, the two days we actually had time to explore.

As we didn’t get to bed until late on Saturday night, we slept in on Sunday and other than a quick trip to Burger King for lunch, chilled at the hostel for the most of the day. Disappointed to find the museum closed, we walked along the waterfront promenade and found some fruit stalls and a decent supermarket before jumping in a taxi back to the hostel visiting our favourite Indian again for dinner.

We sat around the hostel on Monday morning counting down the hours until we could collect our passports from the Indonesian embassy. Quite a few people had been waiting to lodge their applications and were turned away that morning after waiting 5 hours because there’s a limited number processed each day and the quota had been reached. Thankfully, our passports were sitting there waiting when we got there, shiny new Indonesian visa in place. I’ve never been so happy that we can leave a country and went back to the hostel to pack our bags in anticipation. 

I popped out quickly to check out some fabrics at the Tais market nearby but decided it was a little expensive and wandered back to watch TV and try to use the horrendously slow internet in the hostel. For dinner we bought some roadside roast chicken to have with salad and some bread at the hostel, we’d thought to go to the cinema to waste some time but it all seemed too much like hard work to get a night key as reception wouldn’t be open in the morning before we left to get our deposit back.

We had to check in for our bus back to Kupang in Indonesia at 8am and after spending the last of our Timorese coins in the petrol station, we jumped in a cab to the depot. After an hour of waiting around, they finally managed to get everyone organised and all the luggage packed and we set off for the bumpy journey to the border. Our driver was far better this time round and we got given face masks for the dust. We stamped out of Timor Leste and went to join the masses to stamp into Indonesia. After 20 minutes of pushing we finally made it to the front to have our bags checked through customs and register with the police before we got back on the bus to continue the journey to Kupang. I won’t bore you with the details since I already wrote about the journey in reverse last week. 

We arrived in Kupang after dark, after a 14 hour journey and checked back into the same hotel we always end up at on the waterfront where, after tracking down the source of a high pitched squeal in the room opposite ours, we settled in for a good nights sleep.