Red Shrimp
”Can I swim here really?” I inquired Amin who brought me to the lake. “Yes you can,
nobody forbids” his answer excited me, the salty surface of the lake seemed so calm and
it would be fun to swim. But wait, a little doubt crossed my mind, the lake looked dead
and Amin didn't have any desire to join us swimming. What is going on? This feeling is
problematic. Is it safe to swim here? I was imagining those horror Thai movies , those
scary creatures emerging from the lake or Anaconda lurking inside the calm lake. What the
hell, at last I dropped my ass into the lake and swam happily with the cute red shrimps.


Sombano Lake
Sombano lake, a salt lake situated in village Somabo. A village in Kaledupa island,
Watakobi. Kaledupa island contains vast reefs which caused the island to have plenty
hollows in the bottom, those hollows are the channels of sea water flowing and coming
through the inside of the island.

To reach this lake was not conveniently easy, after having lunch. I and Vindya started
the trip with the help of two ojeks, Amin was one of them. Amin had told few about the
lake, when he said that the lake has bloody-red shrimps, I was afraid it would be like my
friend's shrimp farms in Juana. What does this lake have to offer? I already worked hard
to reach the lake, hoped it was worth it. We started heading to the southwest from Ambeau
where I had been lodged, we passed 8 kms of village ruined and abrupt roads. I saw many
copra farmers spreading what they harvested on the ground to dry under with the sunlight.
When I reached the village, I hurriedly began trekking to the spot of the lake with Amin
as our company.

How to get the Lake
We walked crossing along the coast for about 10 minutes, then entered shrubs forest ,
hopped from one reef to another for at least 20 minutes, but those suffering activities
had been paid by the great scenery of the Sombano Lake.

The water is crystal pure and clear, from above the surface I could see lot of blood-like red crustaceans comfortably floated off in the bottom of lake. The red color was so contrast to the green algae growing evenly almost on all the bottom of the lake. As I braved myself to plunge in the lake, thousands of red crustaceans were seen playfully joked to each other. Those shrimps were peculiar and amusing. When my hand tried to feel them, they orderly tried to reach my hand to pinch its skin.


Trekking
The sun began to fade, and I had to hurry to head back to Ambeau, avoiding the darkness that could add the trouble my trip through the ugly roads. I and Vindya hurried to Sembano Village where our motor bike was parked. On our way back, Amin uttered “That is sacred lake, only some villagers are brave enough to swim there”. What?? Why did he tell just now after I swam there. I suddenly cowered, what if bad luck hunts me after or cursed maybe. And the men who enjoyed coffee in the stall in front of our inn confirmed that.

Wowww Red Shrimps

As told by the men, local people are scared with with that lake. There said, a black big crocodile had lived in the lake as the controller and the red shrimps I had fun with were its cooked shrimps.

Let us set aside the myth,  that lake deserves to be research object for researchers. The biota can definitely enrich the data of aquatic animals in Indonesia. And if all that can be packaged into educational tour, that will be beneficial to local people in Sombano who depend on the seaweed as their livelihood.

1 comments:

  1. wooow....wooow...I have to go here...really have to go here...crystal clear water and its beautiful creatures...

    ReplyDelete