Short Hiking and Sightseeing Tour to Table Mountain

Damaged Road through the jungle of Table Mountains.

I used to guide a German lady to Table Mountain and Mansinam island of Manokwari on a 2-day hiking and sightseeing trip. On the first day, we visited the Table Mountain and saw a lot of green plants, and insects along the road to Japanese World War II Memorial Monument. We visited the forest early in the morning at around 08.00. There were a lot of plastic wastes everywhere inside the area of the monument. We were sad to see them and decided to collect some of them and put them on one place.

In morning time animals in the forest were quite active. Small butterflies were flying around to find nectar in wild flowers, birds were singing in high trees. Spiders were knitting their webs to create traps for tiny flying insects that they want to eat. Their names were Golden Orb Weaver Spiders. There were also small black ants that were moving on the ground climbing buttresses of trees to carry food that they collected from every corner of the forest to their nests in high trees.
After that we walked deeper into the forest and entered a big cave where frogs and fruit-bats lived in it. When we were inside the cave, rain began to fall. We had to wait inside it for about half an hour.

A Beef Cow near Ayambori village of Table Mountain

When it stopped, we went out of the cave and then out of the forest to main road again. We continued our trip walking to Ayambori village and then to Anggori village. While we were walking, we saw a beef cow feeding on green leaves. We walked slowly towards her. Suddenly she paused eating the grass and raised his head to see us. She tried to walk to us but failed. Fortunately, the blue rope that was tied around her neck stopped her. Actually, it was quite intimidating to see a big animal coming to us although it was a domesticated one.
There were New Guinea Tulip (Spathodea campanulata), Centrosema flower, and papaya tree whose trunk was full of papaya fruits.

Papaya was a very popular tropical fruit. Unriped papaya could be grated and cooked with coconut milk and salt as vegetables. Nearly riped papaya that was still hard could be used to make spicy pickles - locally called asinan or gohu. The main ingredients of the pickles would be lime juice, water, ginger, sliced shallots, salt, some sugar and some chillis. Because of its economic values, papaya was available in traditional market and big supermarket in Manokwari. Fortunately, the price of the fruit was still affordable to most of the city dwellers.

Spathodea Flower in Table Mountain of Manokwari

Under the Spathodea tree, we saw a lot of its flowers on the ground. Its color was orange, like a burning flame. I asked the German lady to pick up some of them. I took picture of the flowers. They looked beautiful and gave contrast bright color in almost all green surroundings. From my personal observation, the size of tropical rainforest in Table mountains was shrinking day by day. People who lived near the forest converted it into farmland, and housing areas.
When we reached the street junction in front of a shop in Anggori village, we saw a public transport minibus coming. We stopped it and got into the bus. Fifteen minutes later, we arrived at the Billy Jaya hotel again. It was a very good jungle adventure. We were very tired but we liked it very much. When everything was ok, I returned home.
Do you plan to take a vacation to West Papua?
Whether you like hiking, birdwatching, swimming and snorkeling or just sightseeing, if you want me as your guide to organize your trip, please, contact me (Charles Roring) by e-mail to: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp: +6281332245180.
Also read:
One day tour in Mansinam island
Raja Ampat Adventure Tour

Ecotourism an alternative solution to stop deforestation

Eco-tourism is a famous word now. A lot of service providers in the tourism industry use this term a lot when promoting their businesses. But do they really understand the real meaning of eco-tourism? I have been writing about forest preservation since three years ago. The subject which I previously thought simple, in reality, becomes a very complicated issue. Forest or tropical rainforest is a complex environment. It looks strong but actually it is very vulnerable. Rainforest in West Papua or New Guinea island stand on thin top soil of the ground. When people cut the trees for agricultural or logging purposes, they don't realize that they have left the top layer of the ground exposed to erosion. This top soil can easily be swept away by heavy rain.
Besides providing food for the indigenous Papuan people living around or along the rivers in the rainforest, the forest itself is absorbing huge amount of CO2 gases which we emit every day. We might think that we live in the US or Europe which are far from the rainforest in West Papua but the CO2 gases that we emit from running our cars and industrial machineries have traveled thousands of kilometers away and end up in the rainforest region across the equator.

In recent years, developing countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia and Papua New Guinea intensify the extraction of timber or wood from the rainforest for export purposes. They give large number of permits to logging and palm oil plantation companies that are now cutting the trees in the concession area of the rainforests. A tragic example of this is the leasing of rainforest in Manokwari of West Papua. There have been many conflicts erupted between the logging and palm oil companies versus the indigenous people who live and depend their lives on the resources taken from the rainforest. Sometimes the conflicts lead to physical clashes. Government officials and security officers tend to side on the parties who have money to pay them. This situation brings the indigenous people in dangerous situation. Their food resource is being taken from them and their sacred lands are being destroyed.

To find a solution to this crisis, a number of environmental activists or forest lovers try to offer an alternative scheme which they hope can reduce or stop the deforestation of rainforest and at the same time give income both to the government and the indigenous people who are the main stakeholder of the rainforest. From my personal experience, I have directly involved in introducing ecotourism to town dwellers living in Komplex Miss at the foot of the Table Mountain where rainforest still exists. Before offering a tour or hiking package to foreign tourists, I had some afternoon hikings with my friend, Paul Warere to take some photographs and access interesting objects in the forest which we can develop for our ecotourism project.

It only takes 3 months to bring tourists to the rainforest area of the Table Mountain. When hundreds of pictures had been taken, I wrote a lot of blog posts about them and invite people to visit the forest for doing bird watching, butterfly watching and caving as well as bat watching. Some European visitors even come to the rainforest just to sit and silently hear the sounds of nature. I call it morning meditation. One example was the one which was carried out by Katja Zimmerman in the tropical rainforest of the Table Mountain on 26 May 2010. In January 2010, three Russian tourists came. Within eight months I have traveled around the forests with tourists coming from various countries such as the US, the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Norway. Tourists visit the Table Mountain of Manokwari every month. People who live at the foot of the Table Mountain enjoy the positive impact of our eco-tourism project. Some women who sell fruits in the small market next to my house say that they are happy when tourists come to buy their bananas, artists inform me that tourists buy their handicrafts and I and Paul are happy too because we can get money from working as field guide.

Ecotourism scheme that I promote here is not meant to bring thousands of tourists in one day to the small forest that is now covering the Table Mountain of Manokwari. Ecotourism is only one of the many alternatives that we can apply to preserve our environment. If if is run properly, it will bring positive outcome both to the operators of the tourism service and to the environment itself. Ecotourism may not always be a perfect solution, but it should be considered as a good alternative that is effective in stopping the deforestation conducted by logging and palm oil plantation companies that are now threatening the existence of all rainforests around the world particularly the ones in West Papua. by Charles Roring. Contact e-mail: peace4wp@gmail.com or lroring@yahoo.com For more of my stories, please, visit Manokwari Papua Travel Journal

Traveling Inside the Tropical Rainforest of the Table Mountain of Manokwari

Traveling inside tropical rainforest is a great way to appreciate the natural beauty of Table Mountain in Manokwari of West Papua Indonesia. Today I and my friend Paul accompanied three Russian tourists visiting the Table Mountain that is located several hundred meters from Penginapan Kagum. It is a cheap hotel for tourists who come to this town. In Indonesian language the mountain is called Gunung Meja. It is a protected forest that is located near Manokwari city. Their names are Inga (the girl), Mike and Dima (the young men).

We walked inside this forest from 02.00 p.m and to 6.30 p.m. We saw various kinds of plants, mushrooms, insects and birds and lizards. We also went to Japanese War Memorial which has been badly damaged due to the poor maintenance. We didn't stay there for quite long because we had to continue our trip to a natural cave that is located several kilometers away. The journey to the cave was very interesting because we could take a lot of pictures. There were unique mushrooms, various green plants that are used by the indigenous people to cure malaria. When we were near the cave we saw an owl on the ground. Perhaps, one of its wings was hurt. The bird could not fly. It was sleeping when we took some pictures of the owl. It was raining and all its feather is wet.

Inga showed her interest in insects while Dima was keen to find cave bats. Mike brought a digital camera equipped with long distance lenses. These young Russian eco-travelers who were walking with us did not complain about the mud or the mosquitoes. They just enjoy walking inside this jungle.

It was 05.00 p.m when we arrived at the mouth of the cave. It was a natural one that was covered with trees. Big corals hampered our way into the cave. Slowly we climbed them and crawled into the cave. It was very dark. I forgot to bring the flash light. We had to use the view finder red light from our digital camera to guide us through the chambers of the cave.

Dima was happy because he could find the small bats that were hanging on the walls. There were striped lizards. Inga held one of them and let us take some pictures of it. This time it was Mike who was very busy taking pictures of the bats and the lizards. For me, I was more interested in taking pictures of these Russian tourists who were happy to explore the natural beauty of the tropical rainforest in the Table Mountain or Gunung Meja Manokwari.

After finishing our exploration in this cave, we decided to go back to the Penginapan Kagum because it was getting dark. When we had reached the asphalt road leading to Sarinah, a "taxi" (a minibus that the locals use as public transportation) passed. Paul asked the driver to stop. The "taxi took five of us to the inn. Inga paid Rp. 10,000 for the ride from Table Mountain to Toko Buku Xavier. Mike said that they would continue exploring the jungles of Papua in the Nuni area tomorrow. by Charles Roring