Lengkuas Lighthouse
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 15 Oct 2016 22:37
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Lengkuas Island
Lighthouse  Lengkuas
Island Lighthouse is a half an hour boat
ride from Tanjung Kelayang Beach and is a very popular tourist
attraction for locals and visitors alike. Along the way we passed lots of groups
of huge granite boulders with island names such as Burung, Babi, Pengadaran,
Lutung, Keri and Jenang, but many remain unnamed. We had seen the lighthouse on
our way in and really wanted to climb to the
top. Our driver skilfully threaded his way through the reef and
dropped us on the beach, then he backed off to park a little way off with some
other local girls.
   We ‘paid’ a man to sweep sand from our feet with sponges and
to look after our shoes. More like he helped himself to a couple of small notes
– about 30 pence worth . That done we walked around the
base to the entrance past the keepers houses.  Lengkuas Island
Lighthouse is a sixteen-sided cast iron tower, painted white with a lantern and
gallery. Just off the northern point of Belitung, facing the Karimata Strait,
which joins the South China Sea to the Java Sea between Sumatra and Kalimantan.
It was prefabricated by Enthoven, The Hague.    Standing sixty one metres high and
flashing a white light every seven and a half seconds, the lighthouse was
ordered in 1882, built, flat packed, shipped and rebuilt in 1883. It arrived in
numbered pieces like a massive puzzle. By Bear’s knee is
level one, his shoulder number two, above his
head number three and so on. Each ceiling piece is
also numbered.    Up we went.    The higher we climbed, the tighter the
turn, the smaller the steps. Each hand rail had a nice finish in green scrolls. Floor four numbered pieces 18, 19 and
20.                         Looking straight down from the
top.      Views from the top and
across to the anchorage.  Back on the beach things are
busy.  Quite something, time for a
snorkel.
ALL IN ALL QUITE AN
ACHIEVEMENT WITH AMAZING VIEWS
INCREDIBLE MECCANO
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