Determining how to visit Ujung Kulon was the most complex part of planning my trip to Indonesia in February 2023. In the weeks leading up to my departure, I contacted several tour operators in Carita and even Jakarta to inquire about their itineraries, availability and costs. I was looking for three-day, two-night tours that included Krakatau and the Ujung Kulon peninsula. Several companies answered me, but none with a price lower than 9 million Indonesian rupiahs per person, that is to say more than 800$ CAD, which was considerably higher than the price we were ready to spend for this excursion. It is finally by contacting Sunda Jaya Homestay on WhatsApp that we found the solution. We had to put Krakatau aside, but we could explore the park for three days, including snorkeling, hiking and wildlife viewing, for Rp 8 million for two people. This included a first night at the home stay, a second night on Peucang Island and a last night camping in the park.

But before you can enjoy the park, you must get there. We took a Grab (a local Uber) from downtown Jakarta to the Kalideres bus station, then a bus to Labuhan. From Labuhan, according to Lonely Planet, there is only one bus per day to Tamanjaya. It's a bit of a mystery to me how this part worked out, but I think our guest house had everything organized and the driver was waiting for us. Indeed, in Indonesia, the bus drivers wait for the passengers, make the errands of whole villages and stop to eat or gossip as they want. It took us more than five hours to get from Labuhan to Tamanjaya in a minibus that was often crowded, without air-conditioning, filled with cigarette smoke and sometimes with cacophonous bands of musicians. The last 20 kilometers is on a completely broken road with huge holes that would have been almost faster to walk at times.

However, when we arrived, we were charmed by the place and our guide, Ihrom. The beachfront cabins with palm trees were really nice. After a moment of rest, we were treated to an excellent dinner (chicken, crabs, fish, vegetables), including a cake for my friend's birthday, whom the guide had gone to look for more than 20 kilometers away (on the broken road yes). The end of the evening was marked by strong winds and a violent storm. By the way, this bad weather remained in the predictions for the days to come. You should know that my friend works on small boats and knows how to read wind predictions at sea. And she was concerned about what she was seeing. Indeed, it might be impossible for us to return from Peucang Island for several days if the wind predictions, and therefore the waves, were right. We agreed to revise our plan the next day if necessary.

The following morning, the waves were hitting the shore and it was impossible to go out at sea. So we headed for the hot springs. The short hike goes through the village and fields before reaching the boundaries of the national park. I think we entered the core zone for the first time at this point. The trail was very muddy at times. The hot spring empties into a small square concrete basin. We saw black monkeys (more about them at the end) and a young silvery gibbon, an endangered species endemic to Java. On the way back, Ihrom showed us monitor lizards on the beach and harvested coconuts for us.

Back at the home stay, we finally decided to abandon the idea of going to Peucang Island. We will sleep on Handeuleum Island instead, and only one night instead of two. We will do a canoe trip there, including wildlife viewing in a savannah, and then come back the next day via a four-hour hike in the jungle. This plan pleases everyone (we will be accompanied by a couple of tourists and another guide, the owner of the home stay). Thus, since our destination is less far, we can leave in speed boat, that is to say a long canoe equipped with a weak engine that nobody else would have qualified as fast... The island of Handeuleum has rudimentary cottages where we spend the night. We also find there many very active and visible animals, of which Javan rusas (picture by my friend), crab-eating macaques and green peafowls. We realized in the evening that the deer were being fed. Although it was nice to see them up close, this practice should be avoided, especially in a conservation area.

The day ended with the canoe trip. We explored a river near the place marked Padang Penggembalaan Cigenter on Google Maps. We saw three pythons and another snake, as well as some birds (including oriental pied hornbill) and flying foxes, but no rhinos unfortunately. In five years, Ihrom has only seen a rhino once, and that was on this river. At the time, I was wearing rather worn-out pants that I had brought along for the dirty moments (I had an adventure caving trip in Malaysia in mind). I was sticking to my canoe bench and came out with my buttocks stained blue. Luckily, I was wearing these old clothes that I allowed to get dirty. After the canoe ride, we looked around the savannah for banteng, but there was none grazing.

The next morning, we returned to the mainland for our four-hour hike through the jungle. Although the trail was beautiful for the first five minutes, it quickly deteriorated. We were following a fence set up to mark the rhino's habitat and protect them, and the trail became very muddy. We were often ankle deep in it. While we tried at the beginning to avoid getting too dirty, we quickly understood that it was hopeless. It is also necessary to know that the palms and the other plants of the forest carry almost all enormous and sharp spines. It is therefore impossible to hold on to the branches to help you get through the mud, just as you should not walk too closely along the edge. At one point, my friend gave a shout behind me. She didn't lift her foot high enough and hit a tree trunk on the ground. This one of course had the huge thorns on it and three of them stuck deep into my friend's shoe. She could no longer remove her shoe because the thorns were holding it in place, and she could feel them in her skin. However, we realized that there was more fear than harm after she gently removed her shoe. The thorns have indeed only reached the skin very superficially. For the continuation, it would be necessary to be careful. On my side, a little further, I took a big step to avoid the mud, but my pants did not accept it. They tore on the front from the top of the thigh to the knee. Mosquitoes and plants now had a wide-open door on my flesh and it made the hike pretty uncomfortable. And we were just getting started!

Other than the muddy trail and aggressive plants, we didn't see much of anything extraordinary. Some of the trees stood out because of their gigantic size! This is probably the most impressive feature of the site. We saw some insects and crabs. But birds, reptiles and mammals were practically absent. The beaches of the south of the peninsula were nice and we walked along them for a long time. There were sea turtle tracks in the sand. The ocean was crashing violently on the rocks. The guide often had to open the path with machetes, while sharp lianas hung in our face. We also met a nest of bees in the path. After three hours of hard walking in these not very pleasant conditions, we took a break by the sea. The guide then told us that we still had an hour to go before reaching the place where we would have dinner, and that we would have to walk another four hours to get back to the village. Remember that this hike was supposed to take four hours in total? Well, it looks like it's going to be more like eight! It is thus while beginning to be rather tired that we continued. We looked at Maps.me from time to time, and we noticed that we were moving away from the village rather than approaching it. The guides turned back a few times and also seemed to be looking for a way through. I understood that they did not make this way very often. We finally stopped for dinner. At this rate, we probably won't be back before dark. Fortunately, the second part of the hike went pretty well. We saw some more black monkeys and heard some wild pigs. The trail became almost a road for the last few miles and was no longer muddy at all. And it was still light when we got back. In total, the hike took seven hours instead of four. A pick-up truck was waiting for us at the exit to take us back to the home stay where we cleaned our shoes and where I threw away my blued and torn pants.

Finally, the visit of Ujung Kulon was nevertheless pleasant. It is not the most beautiful jungle I have seen, although the trees were really huge, even more than in Gunung Mulu for example. The fauna remained rather discreet, although three species of monkeys, deer, peafowls, monitor lizards, pythons and giant bats crossed our path. Iconic species such as rhinoceros and banteng remained hidden in the forest. We also missed Krakatau and the coral reefs surrounding Peucang Island. A visit outside the rainy season may offer a better experience. Also, I can recommend Sunda Jaya Homestay. Although they have a hard time estimating the length of a hike, Ihrom and the owner are very friendly and will do anything to help you, even ride a scooter 40 km to buy a cake. Their rates are also unbeatable, and their meals were all delicious. By the way, since the itinerary was changed and we didn't go to Peucang (more expensive boat and accommodation), it only cost us 5.5 million for two people (about 250$ per person).

Since the public transport ride to the park had been rather painful, we took a private transport to leave Tamajaya. Ihrom called one of his friends who took us to Bogor. He said it would take four hours, but it took seven. At least that's consistent!

Here is a note on the black monkeys in closing. I tried to identify the species of monkey we saw in the park retrospectively. In the description of the park on the UNESCO website, it says: “It is also home to three endemic primate species; the Javan gibbon (Hylobates moloch), Javan leaf monkey (Presbytis comata) and silvered leaf monkey.” The Wikipedia page about the park mentions the gibbon, the macaque and the East Javan langur (Trachypithecus auratus). Looking for a better reference, I found the book Field Guide to the Primates of Indonesia (Supriatna, Jatna. 2022. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83206-3). In there, Ujung Kulon is mentioned in the description of only four species, the Javan slow loris (Nycticebus javanicus), the Javan langur (Presbytis comata), the West Javan langur (Trachypithecus mauritius), and the Javan gibbon or silvery gibbon (Hylobates moloch). Still according to the book, the East Javan langur (Trachypithecus auratus) is called Ebony leaf monkey and is restricted to East Java, Bali, and Lombok, while silvered leaf monkey seems to refer to the silvered langur (Trachypithecus cristatus), which only lives on Sumatra, Borneo, the western coast of the Malay peninsula, and smaller islands. To deepen the mystery, Ihrom also told me that the black monkeys we saw were East Javan langur (Trachypithecus auratus). I was very puzzled by all this (maybe you are too after so many scientific names). I think I solved the case when I learn that the West Javan langur (Trachypithecus mauritius) was only elevated to the status of species in 2008. Before that, it was considered a subspecies of the East Javan langur (Trachypithecus auratus). Therefore, I believe we saw West Javan langurs and that UNESCO and Wikipedia are using outdated names.