Introduction to Lombok and Sumbawa

Lombok and Sumbawa, the two main islands of West Nusa Tenggara (Nusa Tenggara Refers to the islands east of Bali) offer of charming variety of landscapes, places of interest and activitiest of tourist. Tropical islands and coastlines lined with pristine beaches and fabulous waters for swimming, sunbathing, sailing, surfing, fishing and underwater activities await.

The countryside is ideal for trekking anf for those with adventurous spirit. Lombok has Mt. Rinjani, an awe inspiring volcano, while Sumbawa’s Mt Tambora is credited with the most destructive eruption in recorded history.

Lombok and Sumbawa have many areas of marine production such as fish, shrimps, areas sprinkle with various waterfalls and long sloping ridges. There are plenty of wet rice fields. In the dry season of central Lombok these give way to tobacco production. In the drier areas of southern Lombok and Sumbawa dry rice and other cash crop become common. Sumbawa has significant pastoral areas for cattle, goats and horses.

HOW TO GET THERE

Air

Garuda, Merpati and Lion Air all have regular flights to Mataram from Jakarta, Jogjakarta, Denpasar and Surabaya, some originating in Kuala Lumpur.

Silk Air has regular flights direct from Singapore to Mataram.

Merpati, Wings Air (Lion Air) and GT Air fly eight times a day from Denpasar to Mataram, and as well Merpati offers regular services from Denpasar and Mataram to Sumbawa Besar and Bima. Also GT Air flies four times a week to Labuan Bajo (Flores) linking Bali and Mataram.

Tropical Airstrip (Merpati aircraft) can fly charter from Denpasar and via Mataram to Sekongkang in south-west Sumbawa.

Pelita Air flies three times a week to Bima from Jogjakarta via Surabaya and Denpasar and from Kupang via Ende.

Travira Air flies from Denpasar and via Mataram to Benete in south-west Sumbawa for Newmont employees and guests, but it is available for charter trips (to Moyo, Mt Rinjani and Mt Tambora etc)

Land

Take a car or bus from Denpasar or Padangbai and from there by ferry to Lembar in Lombok. To travel on to Sumbawa head eastwards to Kayangan (Labuhan Lombok) and catch a ferry to Poto Tano. Passengers can travel to Sumbawa from the east via Labuhan Bajo (Flores). Public transport and air conditioned coaches depart regularly from these terminals.

Boat

Drive-on ferries operate regularly from Padangbai in Bali to Lembar in Lombok. From Labuhan Lombok to Poto Tano, Sumbawa and from Labuhan Bajo (Flores) to Sape in east Sumbawa.

Perama Tours offers travel from Padangbai to Senggigi and the Gilis daily

It is sometimes possible to hire a boat from Labuhan Haji or Tanjung Luar in south-east Lombok, however this not considered reliable.

Pelni, the regional coastal shipping line, has some ship that travel regularly between the islands and provinces, completing a ring route including Lembar and Bima.

Rinjani Express plans to travels between Teluk Nare (near Bangsal) and Benoa (Bali) four times a week.

Lombok’s accommodation list includes fine local hotels and international 5 star hotels such as Sheraton, Holiday Inn, Novotel and Oberoi. Sumbawa has Aman resort on Moyo Island and ranges of hotels particularly at Hu’u (Internationally known Lakey Beach), Maluk/ Sekongkang (southwest Sumbawa Island).

The peak tourist season is between mid-June and mid September and again over the Christmast and New Year season.

The rainy season lasts between October until March and the dry season between April until September. The temperature is around 21° to 33° centigrade.

1. LOCATION

West Nusa Tenggara is one of thirty two provinces of the Republic of Indonesia. The Province is situated between 115° 45’ and 119°10’ East and to the south of equator between 8°52’ and 9°52’ South.

West Nusa Tenggara consists of Lombok and Sumbawa islands and several smaller islands (called ‘gili’ or ‘pulau’): Air, Meno, Trawangan, Tangkong, Nanggu, Gede, Lampu in Lombok and Moyo, Bungin, Satonda, Panjang, Liang, Nisa Pudu and Sangeang in Sumbawa.

The province is located strategically within the ‘golden triangle’ of Indonesian destination areas : East Nusa Tenggara (Komodo island), Bali and Toraja (in Sulawesi, to the north). In practice, it is more like a line between Bali and Komodo Island, with Sumbawa often considered (unfortunately) as a transit place. However, there is new interest in Sumbawa as an adventure destination.

2. LAND

West Nusa Tenggara consist of an area of 20,153 km². For the most part, the province is mountainous and hilly with low and high plains from Ampenan in the western part of Lombok Island until Sape in the eastern end of Sumbawa Island.

The length of Lombok Island from west to east is 80 km. Sumbawa is 300 km from west to east and is about 100 km from north to south. The coastline extends 2500 km and territorial waters of 29,000 km² include 137 islands, of which 70 are inhabited. Sumbawa with 75% of the land area has only 25% of the total population (4.2 mill.), whereas it is the opposite with Lombok which has 75% of population.

The highest peak on Lombok is Mt Rinjani, with a height of 3,726 Mt. Rinjani is the peak of volcano, with a caldera lake (Segara Anak) and a small volcano within and an adjacent wider caldera (Sembalun).

The highest peak on Sumbawa is Mt Tambora, with a height of 2,850 m. Also of interest is active Mt Sangeang (2000 m) and smaller Satonda island, both in Sumbawa.

Since the stream of water from the mountains is general leads directly to the nearest coast in the north and south, there are very few long and big rivers to be found. Such rivers are the Jangkok, Dodokan and Babakan in Lombok and Rhe, Rora and Sari in Sumbawa.

Hydrological research in Nusa Tenggara shows that water supply in Nusa Tenggara is highly dependent on underground water reserves. The water catchment area in this region is very limited (less than 100 square kilometers), and the rivers are short and narrow flowing in deep inclines. This causes fast floods during events of heavy rain, while in the dry season the water supply is limited.

3. CLIMATE

The climate of West Nusa Tenggara is in general similar to other areas with a tropical climate in Indonesia. The temperature is around 21° to 33° centrigrade. There is a wet and dry season. The rainy season lasts between October until March and dry season between April until September. January has generally a lot of rain and winds until and reaching a peak in February. It coincides with the time of The South Lombok coastal ‘Bau Nyale’ (catching sea worms) festival (February/March). There are regional variations in rainfall too. Whereas West Lombok is like Bali, it is 800 to 1500 mm drier in the east and south, where the climate is a savannah type.

4. ENVIRONMENT

Marine ecology is important because of the coral reefs with sea grasses and seaweeds vegetation. Indonesian coral reefs are found in the Nusa Tenggara region. These coral reefs could potentially support the development of tourism, fisheries, and pharmaceutical products in the future. There are many varietes of sea grasses and seaweeds found around the islands in Nusa Tenggara. Apart from providing potential harvesting production, they importantly function as sediment-collectors and barriers to avoid coastal abration.

Along the coast mangrove forests function as habitat areas for various marine organism and protect to coastline from abrasion and strong-winds. Because of it’s location at the intersection of two different bioregions, The Nusa Tenggara Archipelago has a great number of unique species.

With the seasonal nature of the monsoon, the vegetation of Nusa Tenggara is influenced more by distribution of the rainfall in one year rather than by the total annual rainfall.

Nusa Tenggara forests range from tropical rainforests, which are always green to monsoon forests, which are very dry and vulnerable. There are not many stable primary forests of significant size left in Nusa Tenggara as they have been influenced by physical and bio-geographic limitations, and excessive and illegal logging. Original monsoon forests in dryer areas of Nusa Tenggara have now mostly changed to savannah and grass meadows.

Efforts are being made to avoid significant degradation of the environment in Nusa Tenggara, both because of natural disasters and human mismanagement. Dry seasonal climate, poor soil conditions, and inappropriorate land use and soil management practices have resulted in widespread soil erotion and degradation of soil fertility.

There is concern over coastal and marine ecosystem, including the equality and coral reef mining and fishing practices. In addition, one problem that has attracted the attention of many people is the illegal trade of endemic species of fauna such as punglor bird, komodo, and yellow crested cockatoos, because these practices threten the survival of these species.

5. FLORA AND FAUNA

The fictive ‘Wallace Line’ which separates Asia from Australia runs north-south between the islands of Bali and Lombok. From the island of Lombok eastward land becomes drier and less fertile, also the flora and fauna changes from the rest of Asia. Forests in West Nusa Tenggara are found mostly in mountain areas. Large parts of Lombok mainland are coastal wetlands, irrigated fields and other wetlands. Extensive dry land areas are found on the island of Sumbawa. Species of plants growing in West Nusa Tenggara have specific importance for the life of the people. Species of plants found in the forest are kesambi, bungur, sonokeling, mahoni (mahogany), jati (teak), kelicung, pala, ipil, bamboo, tutul etc. The province of West Nusa Tenggara has the flower Ajan Kelicung (Disspyros Macrophylla) as its mascot.

In West Nusa Tenggara there are several types of animals spread out over the area according to climatic and natural conditions. While animals found in West Nusa Tenggara are wild pigs (babi hutan), small deer (menjangan), deer (kijang rusa), iguanas (biawak) porcupines (landak), turtles (penyu) and many kinds of poisonus snakes. Many kinds of birds are found here including pring, parrots (kakatua), bering, koak-kaok, cucak rawa etc.