ujung kulon tour

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Ujungkulon National Park, home of the One-Horned Rhino, situated at the Southwestern tip of the island of Java, in the administrative district of Pandeglang regency of the Province of West Java. Geographically, it is situated just below 6 degrees latitude south and between 102 and 105 degrees longitude east.

This remote area is the perfect place for people who need the natural escape and active adventure activity, and for the one who would like to hide from the bustling cities like: Jakarta or Singapore.

The park consists of several geographic areas. These areas the triangular shaped Ujungkulon peninsula with its adjacent island of Handeuleum and Peucang, the Gunung Honje Range to the east, and the large island of Panaitan make up the 76,214 hectare land area of the park. The surrounding sea and corals reefs contribute a further 44,337 hectares to the total 120,551 hectares.

It's a good place for: Bird Watching, Jungle Trek, Photo Hunting, Camping near the old Light House (The first light house in Indonesia..!). People can enjoy swimming, fishing, trekking following the beautiful south or north coastline of Ujungkulon National Park and observing the wild animal in Cidaon Grazing ground.

Ujungkulon is also an important area for scientific, research, tourism and recreation. As Indonesia's leading park, this park is a world heritage site and the habitat of the endangered java rhino, holds a rich and diverse wilderness of high conservation value.

In Cidaon you could take a picture or watching the Wild Oxxen, Wild Boars, Peacocks, Hornbills, Sambar Deers, Giant Monitor Lizzard, Endemic Javan Birds or migrant birds. Canoeing through the narrow Cigenter River that covered by thick rain forest in Handeuleum island to watch the animal along this river. If you lucky you can see the rare javan one horned rhino (about 50 - 60 javan one horned rhino in this park). It is very interesting to find the footprints of this rhino on the trail inside the park

The park has a wide variety of vegetation with tropical primary rain forest, lowland forest, mangroves, freshwater swamp, and coastal vegetation. Within these is a great diversity of flowering and fruiting plants.

The diversity can also be seen in its wildlife. Over 310 species have been recorded including mammals, reptiles, birds and numerous insects, with possibly many insect species still to be discovered. The reefs and surroundings seas are rich in corals, shell life, and colorful fish that thrive in the warm, clear water of the park.

In Peucang island there's a good island resort accommodation. But there are also several camping ground along the coast line, or try to spend the night inside the Oldest-Indonesian Lighthouse!

ujung kulon tour

VISIT UJUNG KULON TOUR WITH WWW.UJUNGKULONTOURS.COM

The park’s 120.551 hectares are divided into 76.214 ha of land and 44.337 ha of surrounding reef and sea. It can roughly be separated into three areas: the triangular shaped Ujungkulon Peninsula, the Gunung Honjé Range to the east of the peninsula’s isthmus and the island of Panaitan to the northwest.

The highest points in the park are the 620 meters Gunung Honje, the Gunung Payung Range peaks of up to 500 meters and Panaitan Island’s Gunung Raksa at 320 meters. In the central section of the Peninsula is a large region of wilderness known as the Talanca Plateau which reaches 140 meters above sea level, however most consist of low rolling terrain seldom more than 50 meters above sea level.

The park surrounded by unusually warm water, seldom varying from between 29ºC to 30ºC. The coastlines of the park are molded by the sea around them, battered by Indian Ocean; the long sandy beaches of the south coast are backed by dunes, lagoons and forest broken by rocky outcrops – a wild and windswept shoreline.

The west coast’s reef-lined shore has cliffs, promontories and towering sea-stacks along sand and boulder beaches overhung by forest, creating the most spectacular coastline in the park.

On the north coast, the sheltered tropical straits lap upon beaches of white sands and coral banks with islands, estuaries, swamps and forest lined shores.

Along each coastline is variety of seascape which in all their diversity, offer a wide range of absorbing shoreline experiences.

GEOLOGY

The even that led to formation of the land we as Ujungkulon began about 200 years ago when what is now the Indian Continent broke away from the super-continent Gondwanaland. It collided with the Asian continent creating huge ripples across the earth’s crust forming the snow-clad Himalaya along with Sumatra’s mountain range, Bukit Barisan.

It believed that the Ujungkulon Peninsula and the Gunung Honje Range were at that time the southern end of Bukit Barisan Range as Java and Sumatra were connected by a land-bridge. Then 20.000 to 15.000 years ago, the bridge collapsed to eventually form the Sunda Strait about 9.500 years ago.

However, the period when the strait was formed is somewhat contradicted by an intriguing account in an early Javanese chronicle The Book of Kings. It states that in the year 416 AD the mountain Kapi (Krakatau) “burst into peaces and sunk into deepest of the earth” and the sea flooded the land from Gunung Gede near Bogor to mountain Raja Basa in Southern Sumatra. The chronicle concludes: “After the waters subsided the mountain Kapi and surrounding land became sea and the island of Java was divided into two parts”.

It is a curious fact that no sea straits between Sumatra and Java was known before 1.100’s by the far ranging Chinese and Arabian traders and later European explores.

Beneath the mountains and forest of Ujungkulon, carved by the thousands of centuries of rain, wind and sea, are foundation of the land – a young mountain system formed over the older strata of the Sunda Shelf.

Geologically, the Ujungkulon Peninsula, Gunung Honje Range and Panaitan Island are part of this young tertiary mountain system while the central part of Ujungkulon is of older limestone formations which have been covered by alluvial deposits in the north and sandstone in the south.

Much of underlying rocks and early soils of the park are covered by volcanic ash, in places up to 1 meter deep, a legacy from the Krakatau eruptions.

The mountain ranges were all formed by the same folding event in the Miocene period creating beneath the forest of the Gunung Honje Range an eastward tilting mountain block.

A reminder of this activity is a geological fault line situated off the Tamanjaya coastline. It bisects the park beneath the isthmus as it passes through the Sunda straits connecting the volcanic islands of Krakatau to the major tectonic fault line to the south of Indonesia.

CLIMATE

Ujungkulon’s tropical maritime climate, somewhat cooler than inland areas of Java, produces an annual rainfall of approximately 3.250 mm. Temperatures range between 25º and 30ºC, with a humidity level generally between 80% and 90%.

April to October are the drier months, particularly between July to October. During these months there are long period of fine, calm weather with occasional spells of overcast skies, rain and rougher seas.

The wetter season usually begins in November and finishes in March bringing an average of 400 mm of rain per month. The heaviest rains of December and January are often accompanied by squalls and strong winds, clearing the atmosphere and producing brilliant sunsets and spectacular panoramas (Margareth Clarbrough/Ujungkulon National Park Handbook)