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01.06.2023

Motorcycle trip to Rokdog’s waterfall, Siberut’s interior

Located centrally in the southern half of Siberut, the Kulukubuk waterfall near the village of Rokdog, with its crystal clear and cool waters, is a beautiful and quiet place to escape the tropical heat and experience Siberut’s natural forests. The following describes our day trip to it on our motorcycles in February 2022, when the surrounding infrastructure had fallen into disrepair. In the time since, it has slowly been fixed up.

Feb. 19th, 2022

As a break from the usual weekends in PeiPei and after consoling Ade, we decided to visit the interior of the Island and go to the waterfall in Rokdog. This time we won’t go by boat, as Ade at this point didn’t have a boat to go up the shallow rivers. Instead, we resorted to take the scooter, one of the common 110cc scooters almost all the people drive in Indonesia, we had rented with Ade’s help at the beginning of the month.
Only having a car license, I had not driven a motorcycle until a few days earlier, luckily being automatic it wasn’t hard to get the hang of it. Despite my inexperience, my girlfriend, being a local and knowing about the condition of the roads, made the unilateral decision it’ll be driving us. Not knowing any better myself, I voiced my concerns yet eventually agreed.
The trip began in the morning, Ade picked us up at the Syahruddin Inn in the heard of Muara, where we were staying at. He inquired about us having facemasks, which surprised me, as even though Coronavirus precautions were still in place, the islands due to their isolation had been covid free and people weren’t usually wearing facemasks, especially not when just riding around. It finally clicked when my girlfriend clarified it’ll be dusty on the road and I should also wear sunglasses. The roads in Muara are surfaced with concrete and for the most part smooth. I already knew the way up to the bridge where the town ends, straight past the Football pitch then left and all the way through Puro.

The concrete turns to gravel at the approach to the bridge and stays this way with varying qualities, though generally better than what will come later, all the way to the main village of Rokdog. The worst part of this section follows right after the bridge, the rains since have caused the general conditions to deteriorate slightly. For a few kilometers the road is flat, fairly straight with long curves, but made up of a washed out mix of gravel and compacted blindingly white sand. It lends itself to going fast yet requires constant attention not to get into the deeper grooves, or to hit the occasional bigger rock. After a while the conditions improved significantly, the surface remains gravel, but significantly smoother and much less washed out. It also starts getting much curvier going over a few hills, leaving the river plain of the Sungai Siberut with the small farms lining the road turning to forests.
Shortly after the gravel turned back into concrete and after crossing the river the waterfall is on, we reached the main part of Rokdog. Still following closely behind Ade we stop where shortly after the last houses the concrete suddenly ends, not turning back to gravel, but just becoming a gap in the trees. Ade shortly instructed us on the best way to tackle the following path and we continued, this time slowly following mostly along the grooves cut into the ground by previous traffic, usually the darkest of the bunch, slightly blackened by the tires. Even though the remainder of the way is much shorter, it felt about as long as the previous. Not long into this part, the first of three small and narrow bridges across deep washes in the road appeared. As both approaches going down are quite steep and the bridge is especially narrow and uneven, being made up of logs, we had decided that Ade would bring the motorcycles across. The road after remained the same, some parts more challenging, some a little smoother. Bridges two and three were less challenging, allowing me to take the motorcycle across on my own, though my girlfriend had to get off to increase the stability.

We eventually reached the other part of Rokdog where the road becomes increasingly less road like and eventually turns into a narrow footpath into the jungle. The houses and the layout here are significantly more traditionally Mentawai than in the main part of the village, with traditional Uma’s lining the street. We stopped at the entrance to the path leading to the waterfall while Ade looked to see if some local friends were home. They were and we went, following Ade to their house down the street. Entering their Uma on stairs made from a single log, we sat down on the large front porch, that commonly takes up most of the Uma’s footprint and is a gathering place, living room and sometimes kitchen, for a chat. We were asked the usual questions about our relationship and as my girlfriend is Mentawai herself, what her name is and which village her family is from, questions often used by the locals to figure out potential family connections.
A few minutes passed and we left the house to finally go to the waterfall with the family’s kids tagging along. The entrance is marked with a colorful arch (It just like the rest of the way to the waterfall had fallen derelict at the time, efforts to restore everything are and have however been undertaken since), followed by a concrete and later wooden pathway. On the right, not far behind the arch, lies the traditionally built Meetinghouse, a big wooden building in a distinctly Mentawaien style. Shortly after followed the concrete based wooden pathway going all the way to the river in its, at the time, varying stages of disrepair, so we had to balance along the concrete beams which hold up the planks of the path. Being fully engulfed by the dense forest, every turn offered its surprises, and the waterfall remained hidden until entering the gorge the river had cut into the hillside. The forest opened after crossing the river and a few more turns, revealing the Kulukubuk waterfall surrounded by tall green walls of leaves and mossy rocks. The river lay on our right, to the left were some old buildings and a few pavilions are connected to the path here. The path eventually ends, short of the waterfall and to get to the pool at its base we had to walk along rocks on the river’s edge. The kids were in the water first. They had already made it to the rocks at the deep end, jumping into the water, while we changed, wrapped in towels, out of our dry clothes. The water was very refreshing, surprisingly cool for a place where even the ocean will give much refreshment. We spend some time just sitting in the water, taking in the beautiful surroundings, chatting and taking pictures.

Ade, who had fallen hungry, wanted to go back to the village after a while, taking the kids with him. We stayed behind for a few more minutes, enjoying the time and surroundings alone. We eventually decided to get dressed again and go back as well, eventually finding Ade eating noodles in a shop next to the arch. Settling down there waiting for him to finish and chatting with the shop’s owners, buying a few snacks ourselves. Ade once finished, yet not really satisfied, asked if we wanted to go back to Muara. We agreed, got on the bikes and left. The road between the two parts of Rokdog, wasn’t any less challenging on the way back. I almost lost one of my slippers in a deep muddy puddle, nearly falling over in between two of them and later tipped over the motorcycle when the back tire slipped into one of the deep groves in the ground. Having eventually made it past the last bridge and almost back to the main part of Rokdog, Ade, still hungry and itching to get back to his family in time for dinner, asked us whether we’d be able to go the rest of the way alone. As the way back isn’t complicated at all, we let him go and he went off at high speed. We continued at a more leisurely speed, I got a little distracted by the surroundings in Rokdog and got a little close to another driver, which my girlfriend didn’t think was funny, luckily nothing bad happened. Nothing more happened until we neared the end of the hilly part of the road, which was empty at this time, when we noticed the back feeling a little soft. Suspecting a minor puncture and not wanting to get stranded in between villages, while the sun was setting, I picked up the pace, hoping to get back to town before the mechanic’s shop closed. We made it back in one piece and minutes before they were closing the shop, we couldn’t find a puncture, but the tire was a little low on pressure, so we just topped it off and went back to the Inn for dinner.