Camping in Fatumnasi Forest




Fatumnasi is located about an hour and a half drive from SoE, the capital of South Central Timor (Timor Tengah Selatan). From Kupang, it'll be around a four-hour drive. 



Fatumnasi is a small village at the foot of Mt. Mutis on an elevated land of about 1,000 meters above sea level. So the temperature is quite mild up there. 

Just before you enter the village, there was a lookout hill with a beautiful valley on the left and right where people from Kupang used to come over the weekend enjoying the views and taking photos with their phones. 

The village used to be inaccessible with a regular car unless you have a 4x4 drive car, but since early 2021, the Government started to fix the road and now people can drive through the village to the protected forest of Fatumnasi and beyond. That's where we were going to camp. 

I already talked to a field worker, named, Pak Sandro, who lives in the village. He works for Yayasan Mitra Tani Mandiri (Friends of Farmers Foundation) and would help us to find a place for camping there. 

The trip from Kupang was smooth, we started early in the morning and made a couple of stops along the way for Kayla and Maxi to take a walk. By 11 AM we arrived near the village and had our lunch break before meeting Pak Sandro. The wind blew quite strong and the sun was above our heads shinning brightly. It was quite warm. 



Kayla resting enjoying the view when we were having lunch

We dropped by at the main Lopo (a traditional Timorese house) where the village elder lives and asked for a permit to camp. Apparently, it's quite common for people to go camping in the forest.

Soon enough Pak Sandro was already leading us on a motorbike into the forest. The road was not asphalted yet, winding into the forest. It was quite smooth, yet slippery in some parts. I wasn't sure whether it was cloudy, or because of our tinted car windows or maybe, the light was just shielded by the trees to get through. We drove into the forest for about 15 minutes before arriving at the camping site. It was right in the middle of the forest!

Our camping site 


"This is going to be interesting", I said to myself. 

From the main road, the camping area was about 200 meters away. It was sandwiched between two hills. The locals call it, Benteng Dua Putri (Two Princess Fortress). I checked my phone. There was no mobile phone signal. 

"If there's an emergency, I have to walk up to the hill to make a phone call" 
View from the road and our tent was hidden among the trees afar

 I was trying to remember the place where I could go to make a phone call in case of an emergency.  After checking around, we picked the place to camp. There was this open area right in the middle and I noticed there was a trace of a camp fire in the middle. I checked on the trees to see if there were broken and hanging branches. Kayla was resting near us, so I tied Max to our car wheel.  I didn't know what happened during our camping in Lelogama happened again when he darted off chasing cattle into the thick fog. We started unloading our goods and assembling our tent. 

It was a nice day for camping, but the weather changed very quickly before dark

The sun sank lower and the temperature dropped slightly. I could feel the breeze picking. We started collecting twigs scattered around the area to make a fire. It was getting darker too. 

Maxi and Kayla look very calm. It became a bit windy and I could feel the rain will follow soon. I hope our tent would stand the rain. If the rain was too heavy we could move into our car and sleep inside. 

We decided to have an early dinner as it would get very dark soon and the wind was picking up. I was getting worried. 

My friends and I camped in Lelogama a few weeks ago and we had to get up very early in the morning because the wind was very strong and our tent was almost blown away. I was worried we were going to face the same situation that night. 

Kayla was calm but Maxi was a bit restless with the bustling sound of wind and leaves outside. We could hear the raindrops, but it was drizzling. We tried to close our eyes. I put on Spotify and tried to sleep. My wife seemed asleep but I knew her. Sleeping in a strange place like this, she might not be asleep yet. 

I didn't know how long I fell asleep. The rain had stopped when my wife woke me up wanting to have a toilet break. I felt the tent was dripping wet as I opened the tent zipper and suddenly a cold breeze hit my face. It was pitch dark outside. I checked on the time, it was just 10PM. 

I switched on the flashlight but couldn't see anything because of the fog. I took out Maxi first to make sure that we were safe and no one was outside. I waited if he had any reaction or response if he smelled anything dangerous outside. He was calm. 

I crawled out from the tent. It was freezing and dark. The wind was still blowing quite strong. I used the flashlight to check the area around nothing seemed unusual. My wife and Kayla then came out. I was shivering for I didn't have any jacket on only wearing thermal long sleeves and pants.   After the toilet breaks, we went in again quickly.  


We didn't really sleep that night. The gusty wind lasted for the whole night. The garbage plastic bag I hung outside kept rustling, and somehow I felt there was someone or something that came by and sniffed it. It was probably just wind. 

I supposed it was also the first night so it's normal if you wouldn't sleep well at any strange place away from your bed. I used to experience that when travelling and sleeping at hotel beds. 

I said to my wife that we might have to cut short our camping trip if the weather turned worse tomorrow. 

The rain stopped at midnight. We woke up at around 3 am and went outside for a bit. The stars came out and were so bright in the sky that we could see them through the forest. The wind had subsided. We went inside and tried to sleep again.

"Bi, mata na" (wake up), my wife said. 

I took Maxi out with me. It was already bright.  Maxi went around the camp checking while I tried to light up the fire. Kayla came out too. The wind had stopped and it felt very calm. The air was so fresh. I started boiling water  to make coffee and started preparing our breakfast. 

There are just some moments in life that can't be repeated. I can still feel how calm it was that morning

The weather improved and the sun climbed steadily. I took Maxi for a walk up to the hill where I could find a mobile network. We decided to go on with our plan to camp for two nights. 

I thought it was better to send some messages to our families to tell them that we were just fine and had no mobile network. I didn't want them to think that we suddenly disappeared. Kayla didn't go with us, she stayed with my wife collecting woods around the tent.



Maxi thought my walk was too slow for him

We just spent the whole day sitting, talking, and every now and then, we went around collecting twigs and woods for the night. There was no internet, no messenger and no Whatsapp messages, certainly no contact to the outside world whatsoever. We actually loved it, away from the world and just spent quality time together. 

I'd play hide and seek with Maxi and Kayla, a simple game but very useful to train them to rely on their noses to trace our scents. Maxi and Kayla couldn't be happier with such a big place to roam around. 


The wind didn't blow as strong as our first night. I was able to sleep a bit better. We woke up early. I was hoping to catch the sunrise. It was still dark when I started the fire. 

There was no sunrise that morning because it was all foggy, but it was actually quite beautiful. The feeling was surreal. The fog stayed for a while until around 8 or 9 AM before it cleared as the sun came out. 







After having breakfast, we started packing and made a move home. It was a wonderful experience to camp just the two of us. We were already planning what to bring for our next camping here. 


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Dates of Camping August 5 and 6, 2021

We ended up camping again in October bringing Maxi's puppy, Kibbie. It was a wonderful experience too with Kibbie who turned out to be a champ guard. However, it wasn't as cold as in August and we didn't experience any fog either. There are moments in life that you can't just repeat. Well, nothing can be repeated exactly the same anyway. 

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