Thursday four weeks ago after got some breakfast I started my hike to the Kelimutu Crater lakes. I opted for the small paths on my map, which started directly after a waterfall near the village of Moni. The most difficult part to find the path was right in the first 15 minutes, where a sharp turn left was needed. I saw the path, but somehow I needed to cross a field, as I couldn’t find the starting point. After that it was easy to follow that well used path. I came along several fields of cassava and even passed some cows and horses before I ended up again on a larger road, which let me to the mountain village of Pemo. Some people were asking me, where I’m heading to. When I told them Kelimutu, some said OK that’s the right way but also some told me, no way to go there (I guess because, they didn’t want that I enter the national park from this side). Quite a few people came opposite to me, even an elderly couple from Israel, which sound French and they also told me, they still have their French passport, because without that, they wouldn’t be allowed to get into Indonesia. That information was new to me. So all the people were for sunrise on the top of the mountain, but I skipped that early morning activity and just sticked to hiking during daylight. I was even invited by a local woman to come to your house, at least she heavily waived her hands. But in the end I wanted to get on top of the mountain before noon, as I expected to be clouds in the afternoon. So I declined that offer. After the village the main road became gradually smaller, until I was again just following a small path uphill. The way wasn’t really steep nor difficult and faster as expected I reached the car park of the national park. From here, wide maintained footpaths are available to the different lookouts.
The colours of the lake in combination with the yellow like stone creates a bit unreal feeling. It’s definitely an amazing view of the two major lakes. The third lake it’s a bit shaded and much darker than the other two. Each of the lake has a different depth but also a different water level. Additionally, the colours of the lake are changing continuously, and one can spot each year different colours of the lake. You can buy expensive drinks, food and souvenir on top of the mountain. I guess it’s not only for me expensive. A group of women from Sumba Island wanted to make photos with me, and I asked them about the price here, and they said they never bought anything, because it’s much too expensive.
I opted to walk back along the street, as I thought I will have something interesting there on my map, but unfortunately this was a misinterpretation. Hence, the walk down was a bit boring. Except for the last village Koanara, where people were harvesting rice paddies. It was interesting how much manual work this still is and with which very basic tools this work is performed. The people were wondering, why I’m walking along the road and not driving down in a car. In the afternoon I was back Moni. The hiking was pretty easy, but long as I wasn’t hitchhiking down, which I essentially could have done.
I made a short panoramic video:
