Indonesian Critters

The first thing I should mention about the Pangandaran Beach area is that it was devastated by a huge tsunami in 2006.  This was not the same tsunami that hit Banda Ache and the Indian Ocean a few years earlier.

550 people were killed, and over 50,000 were left without homes or businesses.  The area started to recover after only 2 months, and today, things look pretty much normal.  Only the new tsunami evacuation route signs are a physical reminder of what happened.

The whole group took part in an evening walk through a nearby Nature Reserve.  Our guide was absolutely uncanny about spotting animals in the forest.  The pictures I have posted are from before we got deep in the forest.  We tried to get pictures of flying squirrels in flight right over us, but you know how hard photography like that is.

We saw barking deer, macaque monkeys, monitor lizards, various birds and insects, plus we had a couple of other surprises.  The edge of the forest had ruined remains of Japanese bunkers from WWII.  Our guide insisted that we go into one, and as it was almost high enough to stand up in, and many of us had flashlights, we went for it.

It was set up in a T-shape underground, and he showed us down to the base of the "T".  When we got there, we were confronted in the darkness by a very large monitor lizard (no, not a Kimodo Dragon!), but he was pretty big and scary looking.  Some people in the group started getting a little freaked out, and decided that a hasty, but quiet retreat was required.  I was one of the last in, so they passed me just as I was approaching the area with the lizard in it.

All of a sudden, there was a loud noise right by my feet.  I looked, and the monitor lizard went charging by me, just inches away.  It happened so fast, I didn't bother to panic (hey, he had just passed me).  But the people exiting were just ahead of him.

The screaming (male and female) was just hilarious, as most of the rest of the group paniced, and headed back out, turning right at the "T".  Mr. Lizard took a left, but of course the group was unaware of that.  I calmly took a right as well, and exited the cave laughing so hard!  Hey, these are the things that are starting to bond our travel group.

We continued on through the forest, with our guide spotting all kinds of wildlife.  Several time, flying squirrels went gliding right over us.

There was to be yet one other dark and scary surprise.  We entered a huge and very magnificent natural cave.  We had our flashlight on, so no problem.  By the way, I broke down this trip and got one of those "Amazing Race" type flashlights that you wear on your head.  Mine has adjustable light levels, and can be clicked into aiming at different levels vertically.  It has amazing LED light technologies, and I am sold on it!  Won't leave home without it travelling again.

Anyway, we stopped at kind of a junction area in the cave, and out guide ordered all of us to turn off our lights.  Still fresh from the monitor lizard scare, many did not want to do it.  Everyone finally relented, and we stood there frozen in the absolute pitch black.

Our guide made some strange noises, and threw what sounded like food on the cave floor.  Suddenly, all around us in the dark there was the furious scurrying of come kind of critters.  What they were we had no idea.  There were a couple of stiffled squeals, and the guide said to turn on our lights.

There all over the floor of the cave, were about 8 to 10 porcupines, chomping away on the food our guide brought.  They seemed quite gentle and harmless, so we did what traveller do... we took pictures.

We exited the cave to dusk on a beach on the other side.  Above us, hundreds of fruit bats from other caves took to the skies above us, heading out for the evening.

We walked back to town, feeling like we had had an adventure.  After a nice dinner by the pool at our hotel, we headed out to find a couple of beers on the beach.

As it was not the weekend or holidays, the town was pretty quiet.  We did happen upon some kind of Indonesian private party happening, and soon found ourselves dancing with complete strangers (yes, even yours truly).  Adventure travel has a way of loosening you up.