Sukamade and Meru Betiri

A Turtle Nesting Beach On Java'S Remote South Coast, Reached By A River Crossing Track, In The Forest Where The Javan Tiger Was Last Recorded Before It Was Declared Extinct · Banyuwangi, East Java

Sukamade is a beach on the far south coast of Java where GREEN, OLIVE RIDLEY, HAWKSBILL AND LEATHERBACK TURTLES ALL COME ASHORE TO NEST, and a conservation station where visitors go out at night with rangers to watch a female haul up, dig, lay and return, and release hatchlings at dawn. GETTING THERE IS THE FILTER. The last three to four hours are a rough track through plantation and forest with SEVERAL RIVER CROSSINGS THAT REQUIRE FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE and can be impassable after rain - this is not somewhere you arrive by accident. THE SURROUNDING FOREST IS MERU BETIRI, WHICH IS WHERE THE JAVAN TIGER WAS LAST CREDIBLY RECORDED before the subspecies was declared extinct; occasional claimed sightings still surface and are never confirmed. It is one of the strangest and most affecting places on the island - a conservation station at the end of a track, where nothing is guaranteed and the whole point is sitting in the dark waiting.

Meru Betiri National Park, Banyuwangi and Jember Regencies, East Java, Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia

REACHED FROM BANYUWANGI, roughly three to four hours on a track that includes SEVERAL RIVER CROSSINGS AND REQUIRES FOUR-WHEEL-DRIVE; it can be impassable after heavy rain, and almost everyone comes on an organised trip rather than driving themselves. A PARK ENTRY FEE APPLIES. ACCOMMODATION AT THE STATION IS BASIC GUESTHOUSE ROOMS and should be arranged in advance because there are very few. TURTLE WATCHING IS AT NIGHT WITH RANGERS, typically from around eight or nine in the evening, and IS NOT GUARANTEED - turtles come or they do not. HATCHLING RELEASES HAPPEN IN THE EARLY MORNING when there are hatchlings. NO WHITE LIGHT AND NO FLASH on the beach at night: it disorients nesting females and hatchlings. Nesting occurs year-round with seasonal peaks.

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