Lengkuas Lighthouse

Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Sat 15 Oct 2016 22:37
Lengkuas Island Lighthouse
 
 
 
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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. 

 

 
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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. 
 
 
 
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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.
 
 
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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.
 
 
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Up we went.
 
 
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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.
 
 
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Looking straight down from the top.
 
 
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Views from the top and across to the anchorage.
 
 
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Back on the beach things are busy.
 
 
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Quite something, time for a snorkel.
 
 
 
 
ALL IN ALL QUITE AN ACHIEVEMENT WITH AMAZING VIEWS
                     INCREDIBLE MECCANO SET