Travel Pantai Gigi Hiu, Lampung

Travel Info

Destination:
Pantai Gigi Hiu, Pegadungan, Kelumbayan, Tanggamus, Lampung

Travel Date:
17 - 20 Aug 2017

Travel Type:
Group Photography Trip

Travel Mode:
By Land and Sea (Car, Ferry, Motorcycle)

Travel Day By Day

Day 1 (17-Aug-2017)

We (Me with two photographer friends and a driver) started the journey by car on 16-Aug at 11.30pm from Jakarta in order to avoid the heavy traffic due to National Day on 17-Aug. Travelled through the Jakarta - Merak Toll Road, reached Merak toll road exit at around 1.30am, unexpectedly quite heavy traffic to the Merak port and took around 1 hour for the car to enter the ferry. The ferry provides common room with aircon for Rp 10,000 per person fee paid on board, so we can rest during travel which takes around almost 2 hours to reach Bakauheni port in Lampung.

Reached Bakauheni port before sunrise time, but the sky quite cloudy especially the horizon, so no sunrise experience on our first day in Lampung. We continue the travel to Bandar Lampung which took more than two hours and check in hotel to rest until lunch time. We met our local guide there and the go for lunch then continue our travel to our local guide homebase, the last to travel by car since due to the road condition, we will continue the travel by motorcycle the next day together with the rest of the groups who will arrive in Bandar Lampung by air in the morning. The EO and local guide will fetch them while me and one other photographer friend will spend night at our local guide homebase. Well, in countryside, mosquitos are common, so be prepared with mosquito repellent.

Day 2 (18-Aug-2017)

I woke up quite early in the morning before sunrise time, quite cold there. Took a look at the sky but it was still quite cloudy so didn't expect nice sunrise sky. While waiting for the rest of the group, I prepared by photography gears. Mobile phone signal still quite good there, especially Telkomsel, so browsing internet (still have H+ data connection) was quite effective to kill time while waiting. Just before lunch time, the rest of the group arrived. After getting know each other, we had our lunch and the prepared to travel to the Homestay (where we will spend two nights there) by motorcycle.

Each participant is provided with one driver cum porter who will assist you during the photography travel, they have quite good knowledge about photography gears. All the motorcycle drivers are very experience since they have been done it for many years. The road is quite challenging but better that one year ago when I travelled to Pantai Gigi Hiu for the first time, some part of the road has been widened, and actually car can pass the road up to the Homestay but by motorcycle will be much faster. Some part of the road still muddy and slippery when it is raining, so need to drive very careful.

 
Motorcycle ride on the rough path...

It took around one hour to reach the Homestay, but it is still to early to go to the final destination, Pantai Gigi Hiu, so we took some rest and chat while waiting for the time to go there. It is a simple coutryside house but sufficient enough to stay the night. The water is clean, sources from the nearby river through the small water pipe. The house owner will prepare simple good food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The main problem is mosquitos at night! So, you better apply insect/mosquito repellent to any exposed part of your body or otherwise you will be blood donor the whole night... ha ha.

It was cloudy when we started the journey to Pantai Gigi Hiu, the path is still very rough, need to climb the hill then go down, enough for one motorcycle. Travelled by car is definitely impossible at the moment. This part of journey is the most challenging adventure, you need to really hold tightly to your driver of motorcycle along the way. Thank you to the experienced drivers that we all safely arrived at Pantai Gigi Hiu. From the motorcycle parking area, we still need to walk by the beach about half kilometer to reach the destination. Unfortunately the weather was not getting better, thick clouds until the sunset time, but the low tide allows us to explore further to the rock hills area and watch the rage waves slamming the rocks nearer, and also managed to climb one of the the rock hill which is the most favorite spot for photography. We need to take turn climbing the rock hill due to limited space above there.

360-degree view of Pantai Gigi Hiu

The weather wasn't friendly, it consistently gloomy till sunset time and even chance of raining getting higher. So after took some shots of rocks and waves, we decided to go back when it's getting darker... halfway, it was raining and the road was getting tougher to pass through, but thanks God, we all arrived safely but wet at the homestay. After took shower, we had our simple dinner and went bed to get rest. The rain was on and off the whole night, so no chance to shoot milkyway.

Day 2 (19-Aug-2017)

It was still raining until early in the morning, so no sunrise session. While waiting for one more sunset session at Pantai Gigi Hiu, human interest photography session was done, fishermen concept at the nearby stream (small river) in the morning and traditional countryside kitchen concept at nearby house in the afternoon.

As for the photography session at the stream, we also did nature photography there, capturing the rocks and the stream/flow. The water is clean and cold, so refreshing. Nice adventure also walked along the stream through the rocks and water, but need to be careful because some part is slippery. The session went well, then we went back to the homestay to have our lunch then continue with the Human Interest session at the house nearby then take a short rest before continue our photography session at Pantai Gigi Hiu.

In the afternoon, the weather looks promising. The rain previous night might clear some of the clouds, the sun can be seen in between the clouds. After short rest, we started the journey again to Pantai Gigi Hiu, accross the hill, up and down of the rough and challenging path.

During this sunset session, I climb the rock hill and stay there until sunset time. There were other human interest session done below at the same time but, beside the red & white flag at the rocks session, I didn't join since I already at the great spot for sunset.

It was nice sunset, got some nice shots and some panorama shots as well. The human interest photography session also went well. When the day getting darker, we called the day off and returned back to homestay. We cleaned up and had dinner. Fortunately the sky was clear and we decided to go out to the beach for Milky Way photography session with point of interest the rocks at the beach and a single coconut tree. We got quite numbers of great shots this day so we can rest with light heart and with expectation to get nice sunrise the next morning.

View from the top of rock hills at Pantai Gigi Hiu

Day 3 (20-Aug-2017)

Woke up quite early in the morning, but alas, it was raining... so no sunrise session also. Some of the group member went to the beach nearby to capture some morning shots there while I prefer to get prepared to go back.

After all done prepared and packing, we started the journey back. Since it was raining, some part of the road were wet and muddy. When we also reach the homebase, it started rain again and we get wet arrived at the homebase... what a trip! We had early lunch at the homebase, they when the cars are ready, we started the journey back to Bandar Lampung which will take around 3 hours travel.

We reached Bandar Lampung quite early, still have time for the rest to catch their flight, so some of them went to buy some souvenirs or tid bits to bring back to Jakarta. While they were shopping. I took the opportunity with some photographer friends to eat pempek, a traditional food of southern part of Sumatera (South Sumatera, Bangka-Belitung, and Lampung).

After fetch the rests to the airport, we continue our travel back to Jakarta by land and sea. The traffic is light, no trouble at all to reach Bakauheni port. Just nice, it was about sunset time at Bakauheni and it was sunset time when the ferry started its journey to Merak port.

The colors of the horizon looks nice during sunset, just wish that it was one more day at Pantai Gigi hiu, might get more stunning pictures... well, that's the consequences of nature landscape photography, we can't predict the weather correctly. We just need to enjoy the travel to great places and if we get great sunrise and sunset, it definitely a bonus. 

Nice burning horizon during sunset on Ferry on the way from Bakauheni to Merak

It took almost two hours to reach Merak port, our car was among the first vehicles to go out the ferry since we also enter the ferry early at Bakauheni. Journey back continue through Merak-Jakarta toll road, since it has been quite late, we had our dinner at the rest area, craved for Padang food... he he. We arrived in Jakarta safely. That's the end of this trip.

Pictures of this Pantai Gigi Hiu travel can be seen here in Gallery.