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Mark Moxon's Travel Writing

Bada Valley: Introduction

If you've ever fancied yourself as a bit of an Indiana Jones, then a trek through the Bada Valley has to be one of the most amazing ways to indulge your fantasy. Central Sulawesi is bound to become more and more touristy and gradually the Bada Valley will open up to more visitors, but when I visited the area in hardly any Westerners bothered to make the effort, and it's still very much off the beaten track.

Route details

One of the attractions of the Bada Valley is the complete lack of tourist infrastructure and an accompanying lack of literature about the area. I couldn't find any maps or guidebooks covering the Bada Valley – at least, none that I could find for sale in Indonesia – so our plan was to catch a jeep to the village of Bomba at the eastern end of the valley, and to try to track down some information once we got there.

Day Walk
1 Bomba to Tuare
2 Tuare to Moa
3 Moa to Gimpu

We didn't actually stay in village of Tuare itself, but in a makeshift rainforest camp about half-an-hour's walk past the village. I can't for the life of me remember why we decided to sleep on the rainforest floor rather than in a bed back in the village, but it certainly proved to be an interesting experience. Luckily we found a proper bed in Moa, the next village along, and from there it was a relatively easy walk out to Gimpu, the first village served by public transport.


1 A losmen is an Indonesian hotel.