Lake Toba

  Samosir, Sumatra, Indonesia
Saturday, February 28, 2009

Lake Toba is a lake and also a super volcano measuring 100 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide and 505 metres (1,666 ft) at its deepest point. It is the largest volcanic lake in the world and is the site of a 75,000-year-old super volcanic eruption, the largest in the last 25 million years. It is suggested that eruption reduced the worlds population to 10,000. Read more here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toba_catastrophe_theory

These days the island of Samosir on Lake Toba is a beautiful retreat. The indigenous people are the Bataks and their presence and culture still exists on the island today. I caught a cold whilst trekking in Bukit Lawang and Lake Toba was the perfect place to relax as there is really nothing to do but to relax, hang out with friendly locals and enjoy their hospitability and good food. The food was amazing. The island is virtually self sufficient for food. The soil is mega fertile due to eruptions and each meal was a delight as you could really taste the freshness of the food.

The main tourist strip is Tuk Tuk but Chris and I rented a couple of Batak houses about 2 km away from Tuk Tuk where theras just two guesthouses and one place to eat. It was nice and peaceful and the perfect place to chill. The Batak houses were perched right on the lake front and you could sleep with the windows open and open your eyes and watch amazing sunrises from bed.








I stayed there for 5 days recouping, and catching up with my blog. On my last full day we hired a couple of motorbikes and drove around the island and to a vantage point were we had amazing views out across the island. Again Lake Toba seems devoid of tourists. In its heyday it used to be a party island but those days are long lost to Thailand and now it is a sleepy place perfect to waste time doing nothing.








Unfortunately time was not a huge luxury for me. Sumatra is Indonesia's largest island and transport is slow and uncomfortable and my friend, Sarah, is meeting me in Bali so I now have a ticking clock. So with a 18 hour bus journey to my next port of call it was time to hit the road again on route to my next stop - Bukkitinggi. I had just enough time to enjoy one final sunrise before I had to leave.