Baucau

Baucau & north-east East Timor - darkometer rating : 3 - This area was actually the first one I headed for on my 8-day round trip of East Timor in August 2014. Baucau , as the second-largest town in the country, was the natural base for excursions in the north-east of the island. --- jump to photos --- The original plan had been to go south from Baucau to some places closely associated with Fretilin/Falintil activity during the occupation by Indonesia , as this had been a stronghold of resistance (see history chapter ). We were to see Quelicai , a place heavily bombarded by Indonesia's air force during the occupation, and where a “resettlement” camp for captured Timorese used to be. Furthermore we were to travel to a waterfall in the foothills of Timor's “holy mountain” Mt Matebian , whose slopes were also a last-stand battlefield against the Fretilin/Falintil command in 1977. Apparently you can still see secret hideouts they had dug into the mountainside here. However, as it turned out, we were not able to do any of this – mainly because my guide was informed that there was some sort of “unrest” or “trouble” going on in the relevant areas that we would have had to drive through. Apparently police enforcements had been sent to restore order. So it was decided we had better stay away from this area. My guide instead took us on a road trip along the northern coast all the way to the end of the road at Com . It was very scenic but had far less dark-tourism relevance, of course.