Sunset Heralds More 'Bang for your Crater'

This was our first glympse of Lake Toba, after a long day's journey from our various home bases, a fitting start to our exploration of this remote and beautiful part of North Sumatra, historic home of the now peaceful Batak people.

 Danau (or Lake) Toba is formed almost entirely within a massive caldera (large volcanic crater) and is the world's largest crater lake at 100km long by 30km wide by reportedly 500m deep near its northern end.  This super volcano is thought to have erupted some 75,000 years ago, coincident with the lead up to the last Ice Age.  But enough geology for now.

The journey had commenced with a four hour plane trip from Central Java, followed by a four hour road trip from Medan, interspersed with breaks to eat and to allow the bones to recover from a bitumen surface distorted by ruts and potholes, no doubt as a consequence of the many overloaded trucks working this trans-Sumatran 'highway'. We passed many churches close to the road, west of Medan, a surprising feature in this predominantly Muslim country. These churches are a hallmark of the conversion, some 150 years previously, of the Bataks from an animalistic religion to Christianity, which also, thankfully, heralded the end of head-hunting practices.

Once clear of suburbia and the myriad of villages forming a web around Medan, we encountered many large palm plantations, where the natural vegetation had been replaced, due to man's greed for palm oil. As we rose to higher ground, the vegetation was transformed to rows and rows of rubber trees, more akin to the original primary forest, but with rubber tapping scars and the occasional latex collection cup evident as we whizzed by. 

Then, as we drove into the bustling town of Pematang Siantar, some 30km away from Lake Toba, the skies darkened and the heavens opened up, bringing the rain that had been threatening to come for the last couple of hours. Would this obliterate the pending lake views?

I had been keen to visit the 'inland sea' that is Danau Toba for many years, so imagine my elation when, close to dusk, our hired minibus descended the snaking road from the crater rim, below the surrounding plateau, leaving behind the storm clouds, to come upon the above majestic view, lit up by the setting sun, like a surreal film set.

We were all breathless at the multitude of colours displayed from our vantage point, a small 'rumah makan' by the roadside, as the sun's setting rays choreographed their way across the cloudy sky.

The next day we checked out of our impressive hotel, nestling on the shores of the lake, at the sleepy little town of Parapat, and took a ferry across to Pulau Samosir, the large island responsible for the lake's distorted ring shape.  Samosir Island was originally created by rising magma pushing up the crater floor, but is now a peaceful but imposing ground mass covered in a mantle of green vegetation and trees and home to many friendly Bataks, keen to meet and greet travellers. 

                                           Ferry returning to Paraket from Pulau Samosir (behind).

Disembarking at the village of Tomok on Samosir, our local guide negotiated his way through well trodden alleyways, framed by a kaleidoscope of colourful little shops selling tourist trinkets, to arrive at an open area displaying a few of the last remaining examples of traditional Batak longhouses. These large saddle-back roofed structures were historically occupied by several families sharing a communal central eating space. These days, of course, the locals live in more conventional housing but the traditional roofing shapes (some say boat-shaped) are still evident throughout the region.

                                                       Toba Batak Longhouses in Tomok village, Samosir.

The Toba Batak longhouses (above), to which we were led, were in some disrepair and only one or two appeared to be occupied. The traditional thatched roofing had been replaced in most of them by corrugated steel. 

Back on the mainland, our mini-bus drove us along the eastern slopes of the crater rim, a tortuous winding and potholed, but less trafficked, 'scenic' route northwards. Our stomachs and tail bones were somewhat glad, however, for our 'mobile' to rise up out of the caldera, onto the more level surrounding plateau-lands, as we slowly made our way towards our next night's stopover, just beyond Toba's northern tip.  The plateau lands surrounding the lake were rich and fertile and we passed healthy looking crops of coffee, corn, and a wide variety of fruit and vegetables. We later found out that this area is one of Sumatra's cultivated food bowls. 

Stopping at Simarunjung Plantation for afternoon coffee and a special treat of kue lapis (layered cake) we were spoilt by yet another magnificent view of Danau Toba. Outside the coffee shop we were tempted to buy some locally grown corn being cooked on a small roadside barbecue, a common product of Indonesian food stalls and roadside hawkers.

Back on the road again, we made our final visit for the day at a small waterfall (Sipisopiso) offering more stunning views of the lake.  From here it was only a few kilometres to our stopover for the night, Taman Simalem Resort, but the winding back roads had taken their toll of our bodies and we were all as saddle sore as jockeys in a camel steeplechase.

We checked into Taman Simalem Resort before dusk and enjoyed the last few minutes of daylight, looking south out over this steely blue water mass. Here we marvelled at its curving perimeter, shaped by countless eroded and steeply dipping valleys, each contained between tree-clad headlands, like fingers savouring the cool water beneath.

The next day we woke to howling winds which continued to buffet us on our tour of the surrounding parklands, accompanied by the resort's manager.  These strong winds are reportedly common at this time of year (early August) and are a symptom of the large cooling effect which the lake imposes on the surrounding hot air mass, propagated by the incised valleys which act like Venturi funnels.   

Our tour of Simalem ended with a visit to the resort's huge organic fruit and vegetable plantation, where we purchased tea and coffee products, and various plant oils prepared in a small laboratory on site.  Then, all too soon, it was time to leave this unique geographical and geological wonder and make our way to Berastagi, back to Medan, then onto more Indo scenes and encounters. Stay tuned!

So there I was - been there, done that Lake Toba - and another tick off the 'bucket list'. But memories of this massive inland body of water, whose 'birth bang' had such a major impact on Mother Nature some 75,000 years back, will stay with me for many years to come, along with the Batak people, their culture (all too quickly glimpsed), their friendly grins and colourful clothing. 

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For more on this year's Indo trip, why not have a look at these buzzes:

https://www.bebee.com/producer/@ken-boddie/durian-heaven-or-hell

https://www.bebee.com/producer/@ken-boddie/where-horses-and-bikes-are-the-taxis-of-choice 

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When not researching the weird or the wonderful, the comical or the cultured, the sinful or the serious, I chase my creative side, the results of which can be seen as selected photographs of my travels on my website at:

http://ken-boddie.squarespace.com

The author of the above, Ken Boddie, besides being a sometime poet and occasional writer, is an enthusiastic photographer, rarely leisure-travelling without his Canon, and loves to interact with other like-minded people with diverse interests.

Ken's three day work week (part time commitment) as a consulting engineer allows him to follow his photography interests, and to plan trips to an ever increasing list of countries and places of scenic beauty and cultural diversity.