Moyo Island
A Forested Hunting Reserve Off Sumbawa With Terraced Waterfall Pools, Which Has Traded On A Royal Visit In 1993 Rather Harder Than The Visit Deserves · Sumbawa Besar, West Nusa Tenggara
Moyo is a forested island off Sumbawa's north coast, most of it a HUNTING RESERVE, and what visitors come for is MATA JITU - a waterfall of TERRACED TRAVERTINE POOLS stepping down through the forest, blue-green, warm enough to swim in and shallow enough to sit in. It is genuinely lovely and it takes a boat and a walk to reach. THE ISLAND HAS ALSO TRADED FOR THIRTY YEARS ON THE FACT THAT PRINCESS DIANA STAYED AT ITS LUXURY CAMP IN 1993, and the story is repeated everywhere and is thinner than it sounds - a visit is a visit. WHAT MOST PEOPLE ACTUALLY GET is a day trip by chartered boat from SUMBAWA BESAR or LABUAN BADAS: the waterfall, some snorkelling, deer and macaques in the forest and a very large bat colony, and back before dark. That is a fair day and the row will not inflate it. The bat colony leaving the forest at dusk is the thing you give up by coming and going in a day, and almost everybody gives it up, because the boat has to be back before dark.
Pulau Moyo, Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, Sumbawa Besar, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia
REACHED BY CHARTERED BOAT from SUMBAWA BESAR or LABUAN BADAS - roughly one to two hours depending on the departure point and the sea, ARRANGED ON THE DAY OR THE DAY BEFORE and WEATHER-DEPENDENT. MOST VISITS ARE DAY TRIPS returning before dark. THERE IS A LUXURY CAMP on the island and a small number of simple options; both must be arranged well in advance and there is no walk-in market. MATA JITU IS REACHED BY BOAT LANDING AND THEN A WALK of some distance through forest - a guide is arranged with the boat. A SMALL LOCAL ENTRY CHARGE applies at the waterfall. SUMBAWA IS HOT AND DRY and the island has little shade outside the forest. CROSSINGS ARE CANCELLED IN ROUGH SEAS.