The Hunt Trace on Savannah

A black car passed through the clamor of Pekanbaru, Riau, on a sunny day. Drs Djuharman Ari?n Apt MP, the vice chairman of the Assembly of the Riau Province, sat on the left side of the driver. Trubus sat on the back seat next to Muhamad Syifried Wahab, an agricultural consultant of PT Arara Abadi, an akasia producer. Djuharman was coincidently in the middle of a recess and Muhamad Syifried Wahab generously accompanied Trubus road trip in Bumi Lancang Kuning.
The aim of our road trip today was to hunt nepenthes in its original habitat. According to Djuharman Arifin, at his 50 acres plantation there are many ornamental plants, which have pitchers grown on it. The journey began from Pekanbaru to the west. Along the road, rubber estate and oil palm plantation were seen spreading out on the left and right side of the road. A couple of old truck transporting oil palm racemes were treaded on the road pantingly.
After crossing the Sungai Kampar bridge, we entered the protected forest territory, as wide as 250 acres. That is the place where Melayu Datuk Mudo tribe settled. The protected forest is a part of Pasirsialang District territory, Bangkinang Seberang Regency, Kampar. We had covered 60 km distance so far. The black car usually creeps over smooth asphalt road, but now it faced a unfriendly situation; a muddy red soil road for about 1 km in length. There was no other choice.
Therefore, the car was forced to get through the road. The plantation site belonged to Djuharman is directly next to the protected forest. The plantation is being opened for agro-tour acreage. The car was parked on the hill top due to the inner road is soil. We went down the hill, passing an artificial lake, of twice a football court in width. Guarded
On the hill dominated by sandy soil there were a lot of karamunting and nasi-nasi growing. While on the hills valley, peat moss soil is spread out evenly with thickness of 20-40 cm. Obviously the soil is quite muddy. On the ground at 400 m above sea level elevation, some mud holes of pigs trace were visible. Around 60 buffaloes were eating weed freely. Suddenly Djuharman's voice broke the silence at the border of bushes, 'This is the nepenthes,' he said while pointing at an adult's tumb sized green pitcher.
It was Nepenthes gracilis which crept on the savannah. The plant was creeping along for at least a couple of meters in length. Ten meters nearby there was a Nepenthes ampullaria. In Latin, ampulla means bladder. The leaves and the sprout of kantong teko-another name of nepenthes-has soft brown fur. There are red or purple irregular spots on the outer surface of the pitcher.
Both species of nepenthes grew spreadingly on a football court wide acreage. Almost on every 5 meters, nepentheses grow. At first Djuharman planned to demolish the acreage to be transformed into an agro-tour site, but after Trubus informed him of how precious the Nepentheceae family member is, the alumnus of Pharmacy of Universitas Sumatera Utara (North Sumatera University) cancelled his intention. He made the acreage where a lot of piwuok-piwuok-nepenthes term in Riau, which means periuk-periuk, jars,-grow as a conservation area.
After taking pictures and observing both nepenthes, we headed back to Pekanbaru before twilight. The nepenthes hunt in Kampar was over. In another month, Trubus scored a trail of hunting nepenthes in Habema, Jayawijaya Regency, Papua.
Trubus reporters felt psychological obstruction due to a reason that for the military, Habema is in the category of red districts or the basis for Organisasi Papua Merdeka (the Organization of Liberated Papua). Moreover when we were there, the situation in Papua was heated up due to a demonstration which demanded to have gold minning in Timika to be closed. Therefore we had to submit coverage permission to the intelligence unit commander of the Police Administrative Unit of Jayawijaya.
The police banned any coverage to Habema because they were worry there would be casualties. Enthusiastic passion and curiosity strengthened our determination to go to Habema. It was not easy to get rid off worries eventhough 2 local villagers of Wamena, Pindias Kagoya and Komoro Wakerkwa, accompanied this journey. Hendro Saputro, a coffee businessman in Wamena, has been so kind giving us a ride using an old but strong hardtop. Kobe-kobe
The hunt started from Jalan Patimura on Lembah Baliem. Seen from above, Baliem is synonym with a bowl base surrounded by a mountain range. The temperature up on 1.700 m above the sea level in the afternoon is around 20oC. Hendro Saputro pushed his 2.500 cc engine car ahead towards Sinakma. The double geared car crept along the rocky road for about an hour. Afterwards the road is badly damaged: muddy. A half wheel almost sank in a mud puddle. Once the accelerator was hit, the wheels spin fast, but the car would not move.
We descended, looking for rocks to fill some of that muddy road. Afterwards the car was able to move out of the mud hole. After 2 hours walking, the car finally arrived at the border of Habema. We passed through footpath as wide as 2 spans where tall, coarse grass grow on the right and left side of the road to Habema.
The slippery road made Trubus often slipped, lost balance and fell. Just last night a very heavy rain poured down over Wamena. The white shoes we wore turned to brownish as a result of too often fell headlong to muddy mud holes. After around 30 minutes walking, we finally arrived in Habema. Tall trees soared up high. Underneath a savannah is spreading out evenly. Around the tall, coarse grass Trubus saw tens of beautiful Nepenthes maxima. Their beautiful figures seemed to wipe out weariness when penetrating Habema.
The local people call it kobe-kobe. There are 2 varieties of maxima: red and green. The red variety has glaring pitchers. All over the pitchers are greenish spots. The figure is very contrast with the leaves which are also red, young leaves in particular. The veins of the leaves and the shoots are also blushing red. While the green Nepenthes maxima of the same size, the length of the pitcher is only around 20 cm.
The beauty of periuk monyet-monkey cups-is indeed enchanting, but often becomes a boomerang which threatens its own life existence. The wild hunt and forest slash and burn have threatened the safety of 58 species of which hundreds of varieties has been identified. That is the reason why the nepenthes paradises like in Kampar, Riau and Habema in Puncakjaya, Papua, have to be preserved so as our descendants will not only hear its name, but can also witness the beauty of nepenthes.