Exploring Timor-Leste on Foot - Ten Amazing Hikes

Your host, Jonty, talks about ten amazing hikes in Timor-Leste...

Horta Loop in Dili, 10km, 3 hrs, Easy - Timor-Leste’s best known day walk

Tasi Tolu Hills in Dili, 5.5km, 2-2.5 hrs, Moderate to Hard - Spectacular views of Dili from several lookouts, from Gruta de Nossa Senhora Maria Auxilliadora / Cave of Our Lady of Mount Golgotha

Tibar Coastal Walk in Dili, 13km, 3 hrs, Easy - Beautiful coastal walk to mangroves

Mt Ramelau / Tatamailau, 9.5km, 3-5 hrs, Moderate to Hard - Summit the highest peak in Timor-Leste

Matebian, 9.3km, 5-9 hrs, Hard - Challenge yourself on the second highest peak

Mundo Perdido, 6.6km, 3-4 hrs, Moderate to Hard - Explore Timor-Leste's largest remaining rainforest

La Rende!, 92km, 6 days, Hard - Discover the WW2 history of Timor-Leste with Mad Dog Adventures

Mt Saboria to Mindelo, 45.8km, 3 days, Hard - Remote hiking through spectacular landscapes with Eco Discovery

Tapo to Atsabe, 41.4km, 3 days, Hard - Enjoy two hot springs and the highest waterfall with Eco Discovery

Timor-LesteCoast2Coast, ~100km, 8 days, Hard - Cross the entire country on foot with Eco Discovery

Exploring Timor-Leste on Foot: 30 incredible hikes in one of the least visited countries in the world - https://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Timor-Leste-Foot-incredible-countries-ebook/dp/B0DNF9VK9Z

Website - www.exploringtimor.com

TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@exploringtimor

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@ExploringTimorLeste

Books - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D82D3TBJ

Transcript

Jonty: 0:06

Bondi. Welcome to exploring Tim Este, the podcast that talks about Southeast Asia's best kept travel secret. I'm your host Jte, and I'll share firsthand insights, expert interviews and practical travel tips. Whether you're a traveler, a cultural lover, or just curious about places rarely covered in the mainstream. You're in the right place. Let's explore two more. Less day. Today's episode, I'm gonna talk about one of my favorite activities in Timor-Leste, which is hiking. Timor-Leste is home to some incredible hiking with some of the most impressive scenery in Southeast Asia, including near 3000 meter high mountains, beautiful waterfalls, stunning beaches, and diverse landscapes. Exploring Timor Este on foot allows you to enjoy the sites as well as the rich local culture, and spend time with warm and welcoming Timorese. Note that hiking in Timor Este is very much frontier. Hiking with limited facilities and signage, you need to be prepared for heat, humidity, and hills. It's best to walk early in the morning, soon after sunrise rise. Avoid the worst of the heat and take plenty of water and sun protection however, if you are well prepared, Timor Este rewards with stunning scenery, friendly locals, and a real sense of exploring where few other tourists have been. So in today's episode, I'm gonna talk about 10 hikes throughout two more less day. So three in dili, three summits outside of Dili, and then four multi-day adventures. I'll do separate episodes in the future about day walks in dili and day walks, and longer walks on Roo Island. But this episode will give you a good overview for what you can do on foot exploring Timor Este. Before I get into the walks, I will highlight that I have written a book called Exploring Timor Less Day on Foot, which is available on Amazon as a Kindle ebook, and that has the 10 I'm talking about today and another 20 more. The book provides a lot more information that I can cover in the podcast, including maps and photos. So if you are particularly keen on hiking and team Oreste, check that out. I'll start with the TER loop, which is probably the best known day, walk in Timor less day, and that is in Dili from the Christo ray area. It's a 10 kilometer walk, takes about three hours. It is technically easy, but there is limited shade. To make sure you carry an umbrella or go prepared for walking in the sun for several hours, navigation is pretty straightforward. It is basically a road walk, although most of the road is gravel road. So you walk up past Ramsay's ER's house on the Hira coastal road, and follow the road and then that will take you down to the coast on the other side of the hills, and then you turn left and then you follow the coastline around. There's a couple of nice bays you'll walk around by. Back beach. And then you're getting to Christo ray, the statue of Jesus, and then Christo Ray beach, and then back to where you started in a loop. And what's particularly good about this walk is there are a number of good places to eat, like Beachside or Cas Bar. And you can start and finish from those places. So you can have brunch before, after you do the walk note that it is best to do the walk with other people. There have been a few instances around the very far side, so just take care. It's generally a very safe walk, but it goes to some relatively remote parts in Deli. It has beautiful scenery. You'll get amazing views of the coast. You go to back beach, and if you bring your snorkel gear, that's a great place to go for a snorkel the second walk is in the Tassie Tolu Hills. So Tassie Tolu are the lakes near the airport in Dili. This is a two to two and a half hour walk, which is quite a bit harder than the ter loop'cause it involves more climbing uphills. But it offers some of the best views of dili from several lookout points. Now Navigationally, this is a little bit trickier, but if you start from the Gru, Deno, Sonora and Mariana Aux. Or the cave of our Lady of Mount Gha, which you can find on Google Maps. That is the best place to start. So from there, there is a shrine notice. It's a silent shrine, so be quiet and respectful if you're walking through there. And behind that shrine, there are 14 stations of the cross, which lead up the hillside to three crosses representing where Jesus was crucified. If you follow the crosses, that's quite straightforward and offers amazing views, and then you can return the way you came or we can continue around the ridge line and come down a different way. Now there are maps for all these hikes on exploring timor.com. If you visit the hiking section of the website, there is a Google map which has lots of information about all these hikes and it has links to GPS maps, which you can use in all trails to avoid getting lost. The third walk is also in Dili, and this is another easy walk. It's about 13 kilometers, takes about three hours, and Navigationally is quite straightforward and it's a T-bar coastal walk. Start from Dilly Rock, which marks the border between Dili and Kosar you basically walk along the coast from Dilly Rock. There's a bit of road walking, then you get onto the old Coastal Road to Sal, which is a gravel road. Beautiful coastal scenery. I'd really recommend walking it at low tide. If you walk it a low tide on a still morning, you have stunning reflections and you get great views of t-bar port. At the end of the hike, you'll finish off at the mangroves in T-bar, which are well worth a visit. There's a lot more boardwalk than I was expecting and there's some really interesting wildlife that's a really good kind of way to either mark the halfway point of the walk you can either walk back the way you came. Or catch public transport back from the mangroves to where you started. Hike number four is probably the best known big hike in Timor-Leste, which is Mount Ramal. So this is the highest point in Timor-Leste, nearly 3000 meters high. It's a three to five hour return walk. It's about 10 kilometers and it's moderate to hard. Navigation is relatively straightforward, but you've got a reasonable amount of ascent to get to the summit. This starts from the village of. How to al, which is in Narro. So if you go to moi and a bit further on from there. The road from Moi to Hako is a dirt slash mud road, depending on whether it's rained or not. You'll probably need a four wheel drive vehicle in order to get to HaCo. That is the highest settlement in Timor Este, and it's a beautiful village just to explore. Many people go up Mount Ramala for sunrise, which is around 6:00 AM So you need to start around 3:00 AM So an early start. But they are awarded with some stunning views at sunrise and it was also very windy up there. And it's cold. It's the coldest place in Timor Este, which makes sense is the highest point. So make sure you take some layers while you're waiting for the sun to rise. A slightly warmer and more sleep friendly approach is to go for sunset, but please make sure you take your head talks when you come down in the dark. The second highest peak in Timor Lester is Matter bn, which is in the Baal municipality. It is a little bit tricky to get to the start. You need to take a rather rough, although it is being redeveloped, road up to Bagilla, which is a beautiful place to visit anyway, it has an old Portuguese fort which you can stay in and then you all need a guide for this because it is very easy to get lost and it is quite a climb up to Mat bn is. Not overly technical, but it is steep and a decent workout. So expect to take somewhere between five and nine hours return to do the nine k walk to the summit. But the views, as you can imagine, are pretty impressive. Interestingly, the summit of Mount Ramal. Is marked with a statue of the Virgin Mary, which was brought over from Italy in the late nineties. And the Summit of Matter bien is marked with a statue of Jesus looking a bit like Christo ray, but quite a lot smaller another great hike is around the Mundo Perdido region, which is in Vicke So it's one of the more remote areas. If a KK has got beautiful landscapes and Tito is very worthwhile for those interested in hiking again, a local guide is required.'cause the tracks are pretty rough and often overgrown, it's also a good place for wildlife spotting as it is Timor less day's largest remaining area of rainforest To move on to the multi-day hikes. These you will need to do with a tour operator. There is very limited facilities and infrastructure for long distance. Hiking in Timor, less day even getting food and water can be quite challenging. So you all need a support crew who can help you with the directions'cause there are no obvious trails. And also with, food and supplies. The first of the multi-day heights to talk about is Lae. This is a six day adventure, primarily through Amira, which is particularly beautiful and mountainous part of Timor-Leste to the southwest of Dili. Now, this follows in the footstep of Australian soldiers and the Tim who fought alongside them against the Japanese in 1942. This can be organized through Mad Dog Adventures, and it's a mixture of. Scenic hiking plus historic sites. You will get a good understanding of the conflict that took place between February and August, 1942. It's 92 kilometers long and expect to climb around four and a half thousand meters and go down three and a half thousand meters. The final three hikes I'll talk about today are multi-day adventures with eco discovery. Eco discovery is pretty much apart from Mad Dog who doe Eco Discovery are the go-to tour operator for doing any hiking in Timor Less day. They've got the experience and they're just very nice people, and I had a great time exploring these roots with them. The first talk about is Mount Saia to Mandela. Start close to summit of Mount Saia, which offers great views of Mount Ramal. From there, you follow the original lines with fantastic views into the MOI area before climbing to the shrine at the summit of Mount Rabbi Lao, which is different to Mount Ram Lao. So Rabbi Lao there's, there is a bit of a festival that happens there every year and they're trying to turn it into a bit more of a tourist destination and there is a rare campsite. You'll see a lot of coffee being grown on this hike as it's one of the main coffee growing areas of Timor less day, as well as walking through welcoming and interesting small villages along the way. The last day is very remote. And the main reason for visiting other than some very impressive scenery is to go to the site where Tim Marie's hero, Nicholas Lovato, was killed by Indonesian forces in 1978, and you get a real feeling for they were hiding from the Indonesians. And this is quite a remote place to hide, and you can understand why it took them a while to find them. This is a 46 kilometer three day hike along some quite rugged terrain. So you do need to be fit and well prepared. The ninth hike is tap to Asab. It's a phenomenal four day hike through Bobro and Amira That includes two natural hot springs and the highest waterfall in the country. You start off hiking through beautiful Litchfield Forest up to a summit before a long descent, down to Morobo Natural Hot Springs,. They're not very well maintained, but they are an incredible spot to visit. Camping there for the night and then heading over into a mirror. Through to Asbi, which is probably one of my favorite villages in Timor-Leste. It has amazing mountain views and it's just a beautiful place to camp out. So that is a four day trip with about two and a half days worth of hiking because it's a six hour drive to the start and a six hour drive back to Dilly at the end, and you're gonna cover about 42 kilometers and go up and down about 2000 meters. So it's a reasonably challenging hike But you are rewarded with an incredible hiking experience. The final of the 10 is the longest and probably therefore the hardest of these hikes. This is an eight day epic crossing the entirety of Timor-Leste from the North Coast to the South Coast. Again, this is with eco discovery and you're gonna hike around a hundred kilometers with over 5,000 meters of elevation. This includes summiting, Mount Ramlow, and you'll also have a good look at Mount Kaki, which is the fourth highest mountain, two more less day, and probably the scariest from my experience, just given the terrain and it's very overgrown and quite a challenging mountain to hike around. But it was an incredible experience. When I did this hike in 2024, it hadn't been hiked for about six years and probably less than 50 people have actually done this hike. So it is pretty remote. A number of people have run it or attempted to run it which is beyond what I could do, but hiking over eight days was just a, an amazing adventure. Very varied. You get a real feel for two more less day as a country. Hopefully those 10 hikes have given you an idea of the variety of hiking that you can do in Timor Estate. It is worth finishing off with us. A few general points around hiking and Timor less day. So first of all, it is a hot place. This is a tropical country, relatively close to the equator, so expect it to be hot, 30 degrees plus and also humid. So you do need to be prepared with some protection in terms of hats and plenty of water, and things like electrolytes or electrolytes are really useful for refreshing yourself. An umbrella can be fantastic if you have limited shade. You need to be careful to avoid heat stroke. That is a always a risk when you are hiking team or less day. Again, starting early in the morning will help and taking rest through the day and drinking and pacing yourself. Now the terrain in Timor less day is quite rugged. Underfoot is generally not too bad. It's often rocky or potentially a little bit muddy. You don't need to worry about true roots that much, particularly compared to my native New Zealand. But there are no real official hiking trails. You're using the paths that locals use to get between villages, so the condition of those paths can vary quite significantly, and you will need a local guide. Otherwise, you are going to get very lost very easily. Apparently nearly half the land and Timor less state is at a slope pool, 40 degrees or more. So expect to generally be going up a hill or down a hill. River crossings are rarely bridged. So you would need to read the rock hop or Safer option is to walk across in your boots as they will dry quickly in the hot climate In terms of wildlife. Despite Timor, Este being relatively close to Australia, which is full of things that will kill you, there's always nothing in Timor Lesse that's gonna hurt you. Although Team Este does have a few poisonous animals and plants, you're very unlikely to come across them. During hiking. I did a lot of hiking team Este. I saw one snake which was quite impressive, but it disappeared as before I could get my camera out I found one place had stinging nettles, but otherwise, the plants are gonna leave you alone on at rural island, March flies can be a problem in some places at some times of the year. They're not poisonous, but they do have quite a nasty bite and don't seem to mind even copious amounts of de. So the only way to really cope with those is to wear long pants or wear zip offs that you can add them when required. In the wet season, there may be leeches in some places near Rivers. I came across, I think two or three leches in my entire time, Tim Oreste. So they're not that common, but if you're unlucky, you may come across them. The most common animal you're gonna come across are dogs because pretty much every single household in Timor-Leste has at least one dog, and they're there to protect the household, so they're not going to necessarily chase after you. They will bark much more than they will bite, but you just do need to be aware that they will come and investigate if you are walking close to'em. This is where I find that having local guys is very helpful to deal with the dog situation. I never got bitten by a dog, but I certainly got barked at by a lot of dogs. And if you're not comfortable with that, that can be quite confronting. If you start talking to the owners of the house, that tends to calm the dogs down. Hiking poles are very useful just to give yourself some protection and just move away from the home when you can, and then they will leave you alone. So I've mentioned a few times that guides are essential for quite a few of these hikes. Less so maybe in Dilly, but certainly when you get outside Dili, they are invaluable. In terms of finding a guide. Eco Discovery, they can really help you out either with organizing hikes with them, or they will have local contacts also in local guest houses. For example, Bigge Fault, near Mat bn, they will can help organize guides Those were a couple of ways you can find locals who can help you out. There is no certification of guides in Timor less day. Anybody can call themselves a guide. So you may just get the the local farmer's son helping you out, but they will know the local terrain and be probably raining rain Jans, and go up the hill much faster than you all. There are no hiking shops in Timor less day, so you need to bring everything with you that you want to use. So decent shoes, plenty of water. A camelback is very helpful. See, sun lotion, sun hats, sunglasses. I think hiking poles are essential, both for dealing with the terrain, with the ups and downs, and also dealing with any dogs. I swear, by umbrellas for hiking, which is a bit of a minority view, but they're super helpful for some protection and obviously rain protection. Bring some decent insect repellent. Electrolytes and hydrolyses are very helpful after a day's hiking to help you rehydrate. A small cloth or a sweat rag can be really useful as well.'cause your hiking shirt is gonna be wet through with sweat pretty soon after starting hiking. Bring along any food or snacks that you want.'cause options are limited to non-existent whilst you're out hiking. And expect limited mobile phone reception depending on where you are. Hopefully that's given you a bit of a taste of the hiking. And two more less day check out exploring two more less day.com. The hiking section for more information and exploring team or less, stay on foot for a comprehensive guide to hiking in this beautiful country. Thank you so much for listening to exploring Timor Less Day. If you've enjoyed today's episode, please consider leaving a rating or review. It really helps more people discover the show. If you have any questions or feedback, I'd love to hear from you. Drop me an email at exploring Timor lessDay@gmail.com. Until next time, or Bodo ADEs.