Driving Round the World: Java - and the hunt for Gas

Temple at Jambi

In thinking about Sumatra we don't generally think of old civilisations, but the temple complex at Jambi, constructed in the 10th - 13th centuries demonstrates that there were major conurbations 1000 years ago. The complex of dozens of brick built temples stretches for 7kms along the banks of a river. Each temple complex has a major central building which presumably housed a deity, with four smaller temples arranged round it all bounded by an enclosing rectangular wall. Bricks were used as in this flat part of east Sumatra there is little rock, but plenty of clay. the site is superbly maintained with cut grass and surfaced paths and is well used by locals for picnics and days out with open space to play games etc.

Leaving Sumatra for Java

East Sumatra has little else to detain the visitor so we headed south down the main road to spend a couple of days at Way Kambas National park, home to 200 wild Sumatran elephants and where they are seen relatively often as they invade the farmer's fields. This relatively small reserve is mainly secondary lowland forest with areas of swamp around several rivers. Taking an afternoon river cruise we saw many birds and a large crocodile, but sadly no elephant were at their grazing area.
After 8 fantastic weeks on Sumatra we were sad to leave and were bid farewell by a tremendous thunderstorm which followed us across the straits to Java.

Rock Pools at Krakal Beach

We had been aware that our supplies of LPG which are stored in a built in tank and which we use for cooking were running low so headed for Jakarta where their tuk tuks had been converted to run on gas. After asking at garages with no success a local man offered to escort us, and took us first to the tuk tuk filling station, but they use LNG, then to the LPG filling station, but they only fill bottles. It seems the only place to fill an auto tank with LPG is in Surabaya.

Wave Watching

The north of Java is relatively flat and very developed so we headed to the south coast where many sandy beaches are shown on the map. This area is so different with limestone mountains stretching down to the sea, with beautiful sandy coves. For four days we travelled along the road nearest the coast camping each night by one of the beaches, enjoying watching the waves crash against the rocky headlands and wandering over the rocky foreshores probing rock pools and finding various exotic creatures, sea slugs, sea snakes and many star fish. The south coast roads on Java are so much better then Sumatran roads and the infrastructure somewhat better, though maintenance of paths etc is not a high priority. Parts of the coast are very reminiscent of north Devon with narrow twisting roads to bays with glimpses of blue sea, the main difference is the vegetation, and temperature.

Pelang Beach

With gas our gas tank now registering 1% we have headed back to Surabaya to refill, before we head east along Java to Bali where we are planning to leave the van for a month while we return to the UK for our son's wedding.