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From Makassar we flew
to the city of Palu in Central Sulawesi, then
drove for 4 hours on poor roads to reach Lore Lindu
National Park, a vast reserve covering 230,000 ha. of lowland and
montane rainforest, up to an altitude of 2,600 metres.
About 80 per cent of
Sulawesi's endemic birds can be found at the park.
We had planned to stay in
Lore Lindu for six days, but the bad weather forced us to leave much sooner,
after seeing just a fraction of those species.
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Purple-bearded
Bee-eater |
Mangrove
Flycatcher
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Napu Valley |
Water Buffalo and Cattle Egret |
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I stayed at the lodge
in Wuasa, a village within the Park
boundaries. The lodge at Kamarora, the
former Park headquarters, was burned in 2001during a farmers' uprising after
the government failed to hand out the land they had promised when the park was
established. Whereas the old lodge offered excellent birding from its own
verandas, as described by Richard Noske in Birding Indonesia, the one at
Wuasa required long drives to reach the birding sites.
This was done mostly using
the park's only road, a narrow tarred way climbing to 1,600 m before descending
to the scenic Napu Valley, flanked by very
dense forest. Unfortunately, being the only road in the park it is very busy; after
9:00 am, an endless succession of cars, trucks and bikes climbed the road,
honking enthusiastically whenever they saw us birding.
 Off-road fun
Very few trails depart
from the road into the forest (at least in the stretches we visited), and most
of them end just a few meters from the tar. Our only off-road drive incursion,
climbing up to the high altitudes where Heinrich's Nightjar is found,
ended getting stuck on a ditch.
Our very ecological Land Cruiser
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| Crimson Sunbird |
A spider repairs its web after a downpour |
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| Rice fields in Central Sulawesi |
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| Heinrich’s Nightjar |
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During our short stay
at Lore Lindu it rained every day, practically without interruption. The few
moments when it didn't, a thick fog prevented almost all visibility. Still, and
to Royke's credit, we were able to find a remarkable number of birds in our
few hours of actual birding, including some of the most significant: Purple-bearded
Bee-eater, Fiery-browed Starling, Purple-winged Roller and a
good selection of flycatchers were all seen very well, considering the poor
conditions. On the other hand, I didn't see a single hornbill, which are
reportedly common here, and we didn't even try for the high altitude
specialties, other than Heinrich's Nightjar.
Fiery-browed Starling
I was particularly
impressed by my first Ashy Woodpecker; its drumming, when answering
Royke's call, sounded incredibly loud, like a percussionist bashing a big tin
drum. Males in Lore Lindu have a full red face, whereas the ones we saw later in
Tangkoko had only their lores red.
After our frustrating first
few days we drove back to Palu, where we
took a flight to Manado, the big, bustling
city near the NE tip of the island. From here it's a 3-hour mostly comfortable drive
to Tangkoko-DuaSudara Nature Reserve.
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| White-breasted Wood-swallow |
Purple-bearded Bee-eater |
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| White-breasted Waterhen |
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Ashy Woodpecker |
Blue-fronted Flycatcher |
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