Pulau Banda Besar the big island at the south of the Banda group. Not surprisingly, “besar” translates as big.
Banda Besar was covered in a lrge number of nutmeg plantations at the height of the spice trade, hundreds of years ago. The Dutch company VOC controlled the trade and operated the plantations with Dutch overseers and Bandanese providing knowledge and labour. The island is a prime destination for tours of the old plantations, but we took took ourselves, using information from other yachties to locate the features and find our way around.
We travelled by dinghy to the beach at the village of Lothior, and then walked around the island for most of the day. The village of Lothior lies on the shore of the harbour across from Banda Neira with the big volcano of Gunung Api looming overhead.
We walked through the narrow alley ways to the busy mosque which was kept shiny and clean with the month long Ramadan half over. From there, the stairs built by Dutch colonisers lead up the cliffs to the preserved nutmeg plantation that stands protected by huge kenari nut trees. The plantation is surrounded by more village which is still watered from a well constructed by the Dutch hundreds of years ago. The village cemetery near the plantation holds graves from those slaughtered during the unrest created by the VOC, but is still active today, with a funeral being conducted as we walked through. After the plantation, we walked through the back alleys of the high village to the ruins of the old fort of Betung Hollandia, passing houses with spices and clothes out drying on tarpaulins spread on the ground in the sun.
As it was the height of Ramadan, finding food for lunch was not easy in this moslem village, but after our trek down through an old plantation, we found a little cafe on the shore where some plates of finger food of savouries and sweets filled us.
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