Turiskai to Laclubar hike – Tetuluai to Larmera

Day two of a four day hike with Eco Discovery through the remote landscape of Manufahi and Manatuto between Turiskai and Laclubar. This was a reconnaissance trip to work out a potential route for future tourists so it was very much a hike into the unknown.

After heavy afternoon rain in Tetuluai it was blue skies the following morning. This was welcome but also extremely hot! Tetuluai was a pleasant hamlet to wander through, with corn hanging to dry.

It was then downhill, with views ahead, to a river which we followed for a while. A local from Tetuluai kindly came with us to show us the paths so we could avoid as much road walking as possible.

Soon after he returned to Tetuluai we came across a couple of lads who were happy to take us up little used paths up the hillside.

Part way up were these overhanging cliffs where the now Prime Minister of Timor-Leste spent time back in the 1980s hiding from Indonesia troops during the brutal occupation.

This wasn’t easy but offered great views as reward for the effort involved.

More fabulous views of the Manufahi landscape.

We dropped down into the hamlet of Fatumaquerec where the school was out for early lunch so we were instantly surrounded by kids. Timor-Leste has an incredibly young population, there are children everywhere!

We walked on a bit further but locals advised that there are no decent paths, just the rough road. In mid-November at the start of the wet season the rain clouds were gathering all around, so we decided to get in our support vehicle and drive to the remote hamlet of Larmera, crossing the municipality border from Manufahi into Manatuto.

This took 40 mins of driving up a steep and tough road, so I’m glad we didn’t walk it! Though there were some pretty epic views between the trees.

We reached Larmera in time to get permission from the owner to set up our tents under this structure, though first some foundational work was required to flatten out the piles of earth underneath it. This was finished just in time before half an hour of torrential rain.

Thankfully it stayed dry after this, and we had an audience of seemingly all the children in the hamlet come to watch us. Despite the rain, water supply is a real issue here in the mountains and a 20 minute walk was required to collect enough for cooking.

It is such a privilege to spend time in these super remote but beautiful places, where resourceful and hard working people live their lives with almost nothing of what the developed world take for granted.