Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine September 2016 | Page 112

110

Travel | Padang

Rimba’s boats are available for
tours along the coast.

As the boat eases into the shallow bay at Rimba Ecolodge,
you could be forgiven for thinking that you’re landing
on a deserted beach.
Then you catch sight of the thatch and
palm-wood chalets, almost hidden by the
trees. It is a purely natural Swiss Family
Robinson backdrop. And that’s just how
French owner Nadége Lanau and her
Indonesian husband Reno Putra like it.
There are a thousand ways of running
‘ecolodges’, but all too often the title
is seen as little more than a marketing
gimmick. It’s refreshing to see that Rimba
modestly does its best not to provide any
first impression at all beyond that of a
beautifully wild and untouched beach.
“We left the trees primarily because we
try to leave the jungle here as natural as
possible,” Nadége tells me as we step into
the palm-wood restaurant, “and also
because they serve a useful purpose.”

Nad, as she prefers to be called, has seen
first-hand how the fierce storms on this
western coast of Sumatra have wrecked
the roofs of nearby properties while hers –
protected by the sturdy trees – remained
untouched. She’s seen too how erosion can
take hold once the web of protective roots
has been removed from the shoreline. Nad
believes that successful eco-properties like
Rimba have a part to play in advising others
so that the same mistakes need not be made
elsewhere. It is part of her philosophy that
true ecolodges should be more interested
in networking than in competing.
Because nature has been allowed to remain
intact here, there is a delicious sense of
jungle living that has made this rustic
and relatively simple retreat a firm favourite
among many guests (mostly European)
who return year after year. In the mornings,
troops of beautiful silver langur monkeys
leap through the trees and the haunting call
of agile gibbons drifts through the canopy.
I ask about jungle trekking activities:
“We resisted the temptation to clear trails,”