My disappointment at not being able to see the rocks in Sipura Island spurred my friend Sauidi to new heights. He passed the word that we needed to see the rocks, and that trickled down the vine until someone said that yes, there were rocks exposed by the waterfall. So an expedition to the waterfall was organized. It was not to be a simple affair because, being an unusual request, it had to be witnessed by a crowd of people. There were the four of us, our driver, the Director of Disaster Mitigation and a couple of the members of his staff, and four fellows from the village, who were to be our guides.
There we were, happily driving toward the waterfall, when we were informed that to get to the waterfall we would need to trek through the jungle for three kilometers (I suspect it was less than a kilometer, but by the time we were done it felt like it had been 10 kilometers). Our lack of jungle craft showed from the very beginning, because for starters we had to climb a slippery slope of wet, slick mud. Rapidly the machetes came out from their scabbards, the villagers provided us with sturdy stocks, and a couple of fellas were assigned to help me. They were so sweet, ready to pull or push as needed, and were quite surprised when they saw how adept I was at the use of the stock as support, anchor, and fall back (I didn't fall on my butt not even once, but was the only outsider that ended with clean pants). Slowly we worked our way through the jungle, and eventually made it to the "waterfall", where the creek had created a smooth slope running over a bioturbated mudstone with Upper Miocene or Pliocene shells, many trace fossils (the tracks of burrowing animals filled with sand), and some very odd calcareous concretions that sometimes became so abundant that the rocks could be considered a "limestone". These concretions are collected from the bottom of creeks, brought to the edge of the road, and sold for foundation materials to the village.
At one of these piles we also found a clayey sandstone with fossils. I believe these are relatively young sediments (Neogene) that have been "added" to the bottom of the accretionary prism relatively recently. Irvan, who is an expert at searching the internet, found an article in Indonesian that reached pretty more the same conclusions, this time based on the rocks at Siberut Island.
The way back was a repeat of the mud bath we had on the way in, plus we all were drenched in sweat, so we made a pretty gruesome group once we came out of the jungle. We had to follow up with a return to the hotel for showers and a change of clothes, lunch, and an impromptu lesson on Spanish for Irvan and Yuan (the young geophysicist from BMKG), so they could say "Ay, que bonita señorita" to a pretty girl, as well as "Perfecto!", "Delicioso", Vámonos", and some of the other expressions I use on a daily basis.
We returned to the mainland by fast boat, which took about 4 hours, and toward the end of the trip had some very nice views of the mountainous Sumatran coast, and of the layer of smog being fed by a coal-powered plant. I didn't know this, but Indonesia has sub-bituminous coal and uses it to generate most of its power. Irvan, my little environmentalist, was horrified. We also had some spectacular views of the sunset.
For dinner Sauidi invited us to the best grilled-fish restaurant in Padang. It was truly outstanding, and now I am challenged to reconstruct some of the delicious Indonesian dishes I have had on this trip. One word of caution when I invite you to an Indonesian dinner: We eat with our fingers, only stopping now and then to rinse them in the personalized bowl of water that is part of every well set table. A bit messy, but brings a new meaning to the expression "finger-licking good!"
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