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October 15, 2005
Eve of Selat Sunda Xing
Chris got away fine on the Pelni ferry from Jakarta to Batam. It was the usual scrum getting on with half of Indonesia elbowing their way up the gangplank with us, but at least he got away without a major hitch.
I finally got my passport back yesterday afternoon from the south Jakarta immigration office. They made me do two more laps of the office for final stamps, then a last hurrah trip down the street for a photocopy of my passport (which they already had three copies of). I guess once they reckon there's no more money to be squeezed out of someone they finally give in and give you your passport back. I sure will miss the old place. I've spent so much of my life there it was starting to feel like home.
Today I'm back in Anyer where the kayaks were shipped to from Bali. I was thinking about heading out in the afternoon across Selat Sunda, to take advantage of the relatively slight current before the full moon in just a few days changes that. But the wind kicked up to force 4-5 before midday, so instead I spent the day getting the single kayak ready with food and drinking water enough for 48 hours. It's only 15 miles across, a day's paddle, but I haven't paddled for 3 weeks so I have no idea how out of condition I am for that kind of activity, plus the wind may come up early again, so I'm provisioning for spending the night on Sangiang island - half way across.
This is a fascinating area steeped in history from the days of the spice trade and the harbours and trade centres that were set up by the Dutch VOC nearby at Banten and Jakatra (now Jakarta). Then there's the nearby legacy of the one of the most destructive events in recorded history: the explosion of Krakatoa volcano.
My day was spent working under a delightful 40-metre lighthouse built by Queen Wilhelmina of Holland in 1885 as a memorial to the 36,417 people that were killed, mainly from the gigantic tidal waves that, as in Banda Aceh in Dec 2004, erased entire regions off the map.
At 5.45am on August 27th, 1883, after 200 years of inactivity, Krakatoa's northern volcano of Perpuatan erupted. The tsunami wave that was created crashed into the town of Anyer here and completely razed it. At 10am the same morning the main explosion tore the entire island of Krakatoa apart, tremors being heard as far as the English Channel and off the coast of Alaska. One single tsunami as tall as a seven-story building raced outwards towards the coasts of Java and Sumatra traveling at 700 kph. Three hundred towns and villages were simply erased. The government gunboat 'Berouw' was lifted from the middle of Teluk Betung and carried 3km inland, before being deposited on a hill 10m above sealevel. The same waves reached south Africa in less than 3 hours and scuttled ships in Auckland harbour.
The aftermath impacted the rest of the world for years afterwards. Fine ash particles circling the globe lowered atmospheric temperatures by as much as 5 degree celcius in some areas. In July 1884, well over a year after the eruption, bones and skulls were washed ashore in Zanzibar in East Africa; they had been carried across the Indian Ocean on pumice stone rafts.
Posted on October 15, 2005 3:03 PM