Camping on the road from Palembang to Jambi - Wahana Tirto Mulyo Desa Tega

Route: Palembang – Wahana Tirto Mulyo Desa Tegal – Jambi  

 

The first few days heading north from Palembang to Jambi were quite a shock to us. Welcome to the reality of Lintas Timor, a seemingly endless road with heavy traffic, tons of potholes, and overloaded trucks driving like they’re alone in this world.

Lintas Timor is one of the three main roads through Sumatra. As the name gives away, it runs along the eastern side of Sumatra, all the way from Palembang to Banda Aceh. It’s the fastest of the three main roads which makes it the favourite road for long-distance busses and trucks. Most goods in Indonesia get distributed on trucks, so you can imagine how busy this road is.

When driving on this road we needed to constantly be on high alert. It happened countless times that we had to steer the car onto the side of the road to get out of the way as huge trucks suddenly appeared on our lane on steep hills or after turns. The thing is that a lot of these trucks are old and overloaded. They struggle to get up steep hills and when there are two or more trucks in a row, they would often just steer onto the oncoming lane, so they don’t have to stop and risk getting stuck on the hill. If you happen to be on that oncoming lane, you better get out of the way.

Danu and I have both travelled quite a bit before and don’t get shocked easily by crazy drivers, but I must admit that the first few days on Lintas Timor were very nerve-wracking.

But then, there are not really many other options when traveling in this area, so we just needed to deal with it and get used to it.

 

Camping at Wahana Tirto Mulyo Desa Tegal

Most of the towns along the Lintas Timor have cheap transit hotels but we wanted to camp in our car Black Pearl as much as possible. This turned out to be more difficult than expected but on this leg of the trip we got lucky. I found a Tempat Wisata (tourist spot) called Wahana Tirto Mulyo, not too  far from the Lintas. It’s a park with some fishing ponds, swimming pools, and selfie spots. On the pictures, it looked like we might be able to park our car there for the night, so we decided to check it out. The road led for around 13km through palm plantations to what seemed like the middle of nowhere. But then there was suddenly a small town and close to it, we found Wahana Tirto Mulyo. 

When we finally arrived, the place was already closed for the night. As expected, it's not a campground, but after a quick conversation with the caretaker, he allowed us to park Black Pearl on the premises and use their facilities. He did not ask us for money, but a small donation to show appreciation is highly appreciated. We were happy to have found a safe and quiet place in nature to spend the night and recover from the craziness of the Lintas.

 

It seemed like this little town does not get a lot of visitors as the news of our arrival spread quickly. Throughout the evening several people came by to chat with us. Even the manager and marketing director visited us. They took pictures and were very interested to find out more about the campervan community. They reassured us that they’d be happy to welcome more campers in the future.

 

Location: Wahana Tirto Mulyo Desa Tegal (between Palembang and Jambi) – click here.

Tip: Make sure to find someone to talk to and ask politely before setting up camp in a new place. The locals know best if an area is safe or if it’s better for you to find somewhere else to stay.

 

Stay tuned for lots of tips about how to find camping spots and stay safe on the Lintas Timor.