After trolling an hour east of Larantuka on the fast ferry,
we arrived in the main city of Lembata Island, Lewoleba. The ride provided some great views of the
myriad of volcanic landforms, giving hints at what was to come. Nova had arranged for a local police chief to
pick us up after cashing in on an earlier connection made in Rote Island. The chief, Um Robby and his friend and driver
Julius were parked on the boat dock with a rugged Toyota Hilux ready to
go. This rigor proved to be necessary
for travel across the rough roads on the island.
Our 10:30 am arrival allowed us time to push ahead with
permitting and set off to find a site for one of our two installs. By 1pm or so, we were able to leave Lewoleba
and move down the line of permitting by going north to speak with the Camat
that looked over the group of villages we sets site on for installing. He recommended that we put our station in
near his office, but it was not far enough to the north for our pre-determined
location. Fast forward to the last
day…we installed it where he originally suggested.
After speaking with the Camat the first day, talked with our
targeted village leaders, then went on to the next village to the south and
agreed on a location. The first village was very skeptical about our
presence. After we waited for them to
assemble, Nova provided a comprehensive summary of our project and the
motivation behind our efforts. Despite
this effort, they were not convinced of the benign nature of our project – a
prior experience with a US gold mining company has very deeply broken their
trust of foreign (especially US) scientists.
So we were stuck in a moment of compromise, we wanted to install our
station nearby, but only under the condition of complete agreement and
acceptance. We were forced to move on to
the next village south. It was late in
the day, but the village leader led us to a site and we agreed that is would be
suitable. He was kind enough to let us
store our delicate seismometer and other equipment in his house until we
returned in two days. All seemed well
despite the awkwardness and distrust of the previous village. We went back to Lewoleba with a sense of
progress and feasted on some delicious fish and squid near the harbor. Yum.
The road along the coastline south from Lewoleba. A newly erected statue of St. Mary (left) was celebrated the next day. |
The next day, we headed south to gain some distance from the
previous location. The road was very
rough and required slow pace of travel.
Some excellent views of a volcano across the strait gave some
appropriate distraction from the bone-jarring road. It was a hot day. We made it to the Camat office; he was a
sleepy and feeble man, but was willing to help us find a location by our
targeted site. We clambered 10 km
further south to arrive in a village that turned out to be situated on a large
prominent lava flow. Oh boy, who loves digging!? After standing around in the scorching heat
convincing ourselves that we did not want to get out the chisel again (and we
didn’t have Rosy from Sumba), and heeding the warning that the land to the
south was cursed (ha ha), we headed back north to a more appealing location on
a village leader’s private property. The
drive to the site climbs up an alluvial fan that is spilling out of the flank
of an extinguished volcano, elevating above the coast to reveal a stunning view
of the 1659m tall Iliboleng, an
active volcano that last erupted in 1888.
At least the scenery was nice. We
did not have much for breakfast and it was hot.
The installation was difficult, but we tackled it as a team and
finishing in about 6 hours (a few hours longer than normal).
Iliboleng is hiding under the clouds, but station BAOP is listening to it breathing now. |
After going back to Lewoleba and going straight to bed to
make up some much needed sleep, we were charged up to finish off our work on
the island. We made good time to get
back to the north to meet the village leader who stored our equipment. He presented some bad news: the people of the
village did not want our equipment there, fearing the worst for their
land. We were back to square one. Even if we could convince them that we would
not/cannot do harm to their land, it would be completely unnerving to think
about future potential for disaster. So
we packed our stuff up and left, trying to preserve our dignity and also be
respectful of the situation. We were
fortunate that the Camat was available to talk with us on the weekend; he set
us up with the local village leader in Hadakewa for a nearby location. No problem.
The best parts – the station (and the previous on Lembata) is (1) in direct
view of an active volcano (Lewotolo,
recorded activity since 1660 and on), and (2) close to the driver Julius’
relatives house where we had some immaculate fresh grilled tuna!
Ah yeah, Lewotolo is beautiful. It looks like it is puffing a little bit here. |
Our return trip to Flores consisted of a morning boat ride
back to Larantuka, then 6+ hours of driving to Ende. We picked up the remaining four set of
equipment along the way, leading us ever closer to the completion of this
work. The terrain between Maumere and
Ende is dramatically different than previous travel. The steep mountain slopes force the main road
into a serpentine spiral. Cool, lush
climate envelopes the area, hopefully providing us some relief in the coming
days.
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