This mountain is the highest on the island Adonara. The island is located
just east of the much bigger Flores island.
How to get there:
The most convenient airport is Larantuka (LKA), with flights
from Kupang and Surabaya. From here, a boat (ferry) connects to
the island of Adonara. I stayed on the town Waiwerang on the south
coast the night before the climb.
From there, one may proceed with car or ojek, to the small village of Lamalota, directly
west of the mountain. A farm road that has a fairly rough section quite early, continues
to a small building at location S8.33309, E123.23984. The elevation here is near 750 meter.
One can certainly drive motorcycle to here (possibly pushing it across the bad section). A robust
4WD vehicle might also get this far. However, it is easy to just walk from the upper end
of Lamalota. The posted track runs to this village.
A quick overview of peaks climbed on this Indonesia trip.
Route description:
Be careful with navigation at the first, short section of trail after leaving the building.
This trail is narrow and slightly obscure. Soon, however, a bigger trail comes from below
(perhaps it forks uphill from the farm road shortly before you reach the (last) building?)
Follow this trail uphill. It follows a broad ridge, there are some bigger trees sparsely
growing, but generally, the ground is covered by grass. The trail is easy to follow and there
are no (jungle) obstacles. This will take you directly up to the crater rim. Next, follow the
rim counter clockwise (turn right). There is still a fair amount of elevation to be gained before
you reach the summit.
A track is posted on Peakbagger.
Comments:
We had planned to visit the 2 ultras near Larantuka in the summer of 2023,
however, at that time there were local opposition to people climbing and we
were advised to change our plans.
My trip here was organized by Anton Wutum (Whatsapp: +62-82144873755). He took
care of all local logistics.
On Wednesday, November 6th. I left my very nice hotel, La Hasienda, in Kupang, the owner
drove me to the airport. The flight left early, but Anton was already there with his driver
waiting for me. We drove the short distance to the harbor, a 3 hour wait there, as the first
possible boat did not leave until 1400.
My local guide, Andre, showed up, age 37, father of a baby son at 10 months.
We had lunch at a local street cafe, then headed for the boat.
The crossing
is harly more than 10 minutes. The boat looked very old,
it had an interesting (rope based) transmisson
from the captain to the rudder.
At the far side, we were met by a car that took us to
the small town called Waiwerang. Rob stayed here about 11 years back, the only hotel is
still Astri, it was full and we ended at a homestay nearby.
Dinner, 2 fish plus rice, served at 1800, tasted just fine. The power is out, but
they think it may return in a few hours. A young girl (age 6?) is a little shy, but still
wants to sit pretty close. She plays with a smart-phone, kids start early, seemingly
world-wide. The effect remains in the future.
We agreed to start out on motorcycle at 0500 the next morning.
Loud songs from a nearby minaret woke me up already at 0400. The net effect was that
we started slightly earlier than agreed. Good motorcycle ride out of town, gently uphill,
then more uphill as we drove the road serving Lamalota. Our motorcycle drivers (or the bikes?)
did not seem quite up to the task of driving the farm road, thus we started walking already
at the lower end of the rough section. The rest of the road was in quite good condition.
Leaving at 0715, we were actually a party of 4 (I have no idea why.) The hike to the last building
near the end of the farm road, was quite easy.
From here, a more narrow, smaller trail crossed through a section of jungle, not completely obvious,
but pretty soon, we joined a trail that was heading more or less straight uphill. It was a pleasant
morning, but I noticed that 2 of my party were starting to fall behind. The most local guy kept
up and we soon reached the rim of a rather impressive crater. I continued along the rim and
realized that my "last friend" was also behind. I continued the nice trail uphill and arrived
at the summit 2 hours after starting.
It was a nice day
and staying up here for a longer break was certainly welcome.
After a while I spotted one of my party on
a pretty distinct hump shortly before the
summit. He would soon join me, then a bit later, we were all on the summit.
Leaving after 30 minutes, the descent was as easy and pleasant as the ascent, again I got
a bit ahead and decided to walk all the way back to the small village. What remained was
motorcycle transport back to town at the coast.
Later in the day, I would take a 2 hour boat to the town of Lewoleba on the Lembata island.
There, I checked in to hotel Palm Indah for 2 nights. The next day, we would climb Labalekang.
