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 Valu Beach in 2015 with Jaco Island in the background at left | |
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| Location | Tutuala, Lautém, East Timor |
| Nearest city | Lospalos |
| Coordinates | 8°24′44″S127°18′01″E / 8.4123°S 127.30017°E |
Valu Beach (Fataluku: Valu Sere, Tetum : Tasi-ibun Valu, Portuguese : Praia Valu) is a public beach at the easternmost tip of mainland East Timor, and the gateway to Jaco Island to its east.
The beach is located in the suco of Tutuala, Lautém municipality, opposite Jaco Island. [1] [2] : 207 It is made up of white sand, [1] [3] and is partly surrounded by ancient virgin forests. [4] Its waters are translucent, and suitable for swimming, snorkelling, and diving. [1] [2] : 229
Local people claim that the beach is "... a place of great spiritual, cultural, historical and ecological significance not just for Tutuala and Lautem district but for all of Timor-Leste." [4] The beach, suco and island all lie within Nino Konis Santana National Park, the first national park in East Timor. [5]
The beach, the island and the 600 m-wide (660 yd) channel or strait between them (known as Jaco Strait) are sometimes said to be where Timor meets the boundary between the Banda Sea (including Wetar Strait) to the north and Timor Sea to the south. [6] [7] However, according to the standard work Limits of Oceans and Seas, 3rd edition (1953), published by the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO), the only point where Timor meets those two seas is Tanjong Sewirawa (now known as Cape Cutcha), the eastern extremity of the Timorese mainland. [8] [9] Cape Cutcha is a short distance north of the beach, and northwest of Jaco Island. [9]
At the beach and other adjacent beaches, green sea turtles come ashore to lay their eggs. Before the national park was established, some local families would camp at the beaches and keep watch to collect eggs and capture nesting turtles. However, such activities are now prohibited in the national park. [2] : 208
The open area at the back of the beach houses traces of pottery, stone artefacts and shell, along with broken and abandoned contemporary artefacts. Local people say that in the past, local families would exchange pottery, goats and other goods with people from other islands at certain times of the year. [2] : 224 [10]
About a 30 minute walk from the beach is Lene Hara cave, the main element of a system of solutional caves in the Lautém municipality. Further afield, about a two hour trek from the beach, is Ile Kére Kére , a limestone overhang. Both sites are decorated with rock art. [2] : 229 [4] [11]
A road links Tutuala with the beach. The road was previously somewhat treacherous, and therefore helped to protect the island from overtourism, but has since been improved. [12]
The beach is the gateway to Jaco Island, and a fishing co-operative operates boats to carry passengers between the two places. The currents in Jaco Strait are too strong for people to make the journey by swimming across it. [4] [13]
Close to the beach is a community-run eco-resort/guesthouse in shaded grounds, with open-air bungalows. It was opened in 2005, shortly before the national park was created. The facility's buildings are made of local materials such as such as bamboo, grass, palm leaves, and wood. A central hut is used for serving simple local meals (including rice, maize, cassava, sweet batata, and taro, along with local varieties of beans and vegetables), and usually basic supplies are available. There is also a beach campsite [2] : 207 [4] [14]
Members of the fishing co-operative catch and cook fish for visiting tourists. [2] : 207 [4] They set up temporary shelters for themselves, and keep their boats at the back of the beach, where racks and limestone caverns have been created for the storage of their possessions. [2] : 207–208
The major cultural event in the national park is the Mechi ceremony , which is held on the beach and on Jaco Island. The ceremony involves the ritual gathering of and feasting on palolo seaworms ( Eunice viridis ), which are known as mechi in the local Fataluku language. Two Mechi ceremonies are held each year: in the last quarter of the moon in February, at which time there is a minor Mechi kiik harvest, and at the new moon in March, when the major Mechi boot harvest takes place. [5] [15] [16]
On both occasions, local communities gather at night to conduct the ceremony, as the mechi are photosensitive. The harvested mechi are combined raw with chili and lime to create a marinated salad. The gathering, feasting and associated ritual invocations, singing and dancing mark the beginning of a new agricultural calendar, and are also important in creating, strengthening and renewing bonds and alliances between the participants in the ceremonies. [16]
The Davis Strait is a southern arm of the Arctic Ocean that lies north of the Labrador Sea. It lies between mid-western Greenland and Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. To the north is Baffin Bay. The strait was named for the English explorer John Davis (1550–1605), who explored the area while seeking a Northwest Passage. By the 1650s it was used for whale hunting.
Fataluku is a Papuan language spoken by approximately 37,000 people of Fataluku ethnicity in the eastern areas of East Timor, especially around Lospalos. It is a member of the Timor-Alor-Pantar language family, which includes languages spoken both in East Timor and nearby regions of Indonesia. Fataluku's closest relative is Oirata, spoken on Kisar island, in the Moluccas of Indonesia. Fataluku is given the status of a national language under the constitution. Speakers of Fataluku normally have a command of Tetum and/or Indonesian, those speakers who are educated under Portuguese rule or from younger generation educated under Portuguese-language educational system during independence speak Portuguese.
Jaco Island is an uninhabited island in East Timor, a country occupying the eastern end of the island of Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands in Southeast Asia. It lies off the eastern tip with Cape Cutcha of the island of Timor.
Lautém is one of the municipalities of East Timor, at the eastern end of the country. It has a population of 64,135 and an area of 1,813 km2. Its capital is Lospalos, which lies 248 km east of the national capital, Dili.
Manatuto is one of the municipalities of East Timor, located in the central part of the country. It has a population of 45,541 and an area of 1,783.3 km2. The capital of the municipality is also named Manatuto. It is the least populated municipality of East Timor.
Manufahi is one of the municipalities of East Timor. It has a population of 53,691 and an area of 1,323 km2. The capital of the municipality is Same.
Dili Municipality is one of the 14 municipalities, formerly districts, of Timor-Leste, and includes the national capital Dili. The municipality had a population of 277,279 as of 2015, most of whom live in the capital city.
Ombai Strait is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the Alor Archipelago from the islands of Wetar, Atauro, and Timor in the Lesser Sunda Islands. The strait is also the western portion of a pair of international straits, the other one being Wetar Strait; the two straits combine to link the Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean.
Wetar Strait is an international strait in Southeast Asia. It separates the island of Wetar from the eastern part of the island of Timor. The strait is also the eastern portion of a pair of international straits, the other one being Ombai Strait; the two straits combine to link the Indian Ocean with the Pacific Ocean.
The Nino Konis Santana National Park is East Timor's first national park. The park, established on 15 August 2007, covers 1,236 square kilometres (477 sq mi). It links important bird areas such as Lore, Mount Paitchau, Lake Ira Lalaro, and Jaco Island. The park also includes 556 square kilometres (215 sq mi) of the Coral Triangle, an underwater area which supposedly contains the world's greatest diversity of both coral and coral reef fish. Some of the rare birds protected by this park are the critically endangered yellow-crested cockatoo, the endemic Timor green-pigeon, the endangered Timor imperial-pigeon, and the vulnerable Timor sparrow.
The Backstairs Passage is a strait in South Australia lying between Fleurieu Peninsula on the Australian mainland and Dudley Peninsula on the eastern end of Kangaroo Island. The western edge of the passage is a line from Cape Jervis on Fleurieu Peninsula to Kangaroo Head on Kangaroo Island. The Pages, a group of islets, lie in the eastern entrance to the strait. About 14 km wide at its narrowest, it was formed by the rising sea around 13,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene era, when it submerged the land connecting what is now Kangaroo Island with the Fleurieu Peninsula. Backstairs Passage was named by Matthew Flinders whilst he and his crew on HMS Investigator were exploring and mapping the coastline of South Australia in 1802.
East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-western half, and the minor islands of Atauro and Jaco. The western half of the island of Timor is administered by Indonesia. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is 14,950 square kilometres (5,770 sq mi). Dili, on the north coast of Timor, is its capital and largest city.
The Timor and Wetar deciduous forests is a tropical dry forest ecoregion in Indonesia and East Timor. The ecoregion includes the islands of Timor, Wetar, Rote, Savu, and adjacent smaller islands.
Tutuala is a village and suco in the subdistrict of Tutuala. It is situated at the extreme eastern end of Timor. Its population at the 2004 census was 3,707. The subdistrict of Tutuala comprises two sucos, including Mehara and Tutuala with the subdistrict administrator residing in Tutuala. The suco of Tutuala comprised four hamlets (aldeia): Ioro, Pitileti, Tchailoro, and Vero. The main Fataluku language areas of the country are in Tutuala, as well as Lautem and Fuiloro.
East Timor has some of the best dive sites in the world due to its location, warm waters, minimalist tourist trade and lack of commercial fishing or heavy industry.
Lake Ira Lalaro is a freshwater lake in Mehara, Subdistrict Tutuala, Lautém District, East Timor. It is the largest of the island of Timor, and thus too of the country. The lake is part of the Mount Paitchau Important Bird Area. The lake waters and that of Irasiquero River are a closed aquatic system; they lie within a huge polje. It covers between 10–55 square kilometres (3.9–21.2 sq mi) while the authigenic catchment basin covers 406 square kilometres (157 sq mi).
Paitchau is a mountain in the Tutuala subdistrict, Lautém District of East Timor. Situated within Nino Konis Santana National Park, it is south of Lake Ira Lalaro. Though part of a mountain chain, Paitchau is an isolated mountain in the southern Sucos Mehara. It ranges in altitude from 0–960 metres (0–3,150 ft). BirdLife International has classified the mountain and its surrounding region of 55,797 hectares as an Important Bird Area of East Timor. The area contained within the Paitchau Range and Ira Lalaro is sparsely populated and contains several unique faunal and floral species.
One Dollar Beach or Dollar Beach is a public beach on the north coast of East Timor, east north east of Dili, the capital city. It is long, white, sandy and clean, and also frequently deserted, yet popular with beach users at other times.
Cyrtodactylus santana is a species of gecko found in the Nino Konis Santana National Park, which is located at the eastern end of East Timor. It is thought to be nocturnal, and to inhabit limestone caves. Described in January 2023, it is the first Cyrtodactylus species described from East Timor, and remains understudied.
Media related to Valu Beach at Wikimedia Commons
