Padar Sunrise

Overnight, the ‘Captain Octopus’, my tour boat, had docked at Padar Island after starting at Kalong.

We were 14 passengers onboard and after having a sumptuous dinner, which was completely seafood based, including crabs, fish, and salads, we were told to wake up by 4:30am.

The sky was dark, with no light pollution, except that emanating from the hundred or so other boats that were docked here.

I learned something new from a young British medical school student about night photography using iPhone. I applied my newfound skills to capture the picture of deep space — the Milky Way, which I always wanted to be able to do.

At about 5:30 AM sharp, after having had some coffee, we, along with the other hundred or so boats, went to the shore of Padar Island.

It was quite a zoo. The pier to walk on after disembarking from the boat was completely backed up. Our boatsman bypassed the crowds and directly took us to the beach, where we jumped off the boat.

The walk to see the sunrise is five hillocks climb, and the initial part is a set of wooden stairs, which was teeming with people. However, it wasn’t hard to bypass them, by just walking on the mountain and ignoring the steps. With that approach the 40-minute climb turned out to be less than 15 minutes.

People found a spot facing east wherever they could have an unobstructed view of the east side.

At the very top, the views were spectacular, and it was good to see people from all over the world, sacrificing their sleep, and coming to view the sunrise. There were almost two thousand people eagerly awaiting the sunrise.

One lone ranger had no ability to keep the people from crossing over into the restricted area closed for conservation.

We were not as lucky today because the humongous dark clouds on the east occluded the sunrise. However, it was still a very fantastic morning and a great exercise.

Descending the mountain was a similar challenge, in reverse, having to bypass lots of people.

At the beach were a hundred small boats, and a small challenge was to find the ‘Captain Octopus’ satellite boat, which could take us to the main boat.

There were souvenir shops near the pier and looking back at the mountain, one can see the uphill trip we took to see the sunrise.

By 7:30am, we were at the breakfast table enjoying a good breakfast, the day had just begun, next adventure was to see the dragons at the Komodo National Park.