Karimunjawa Islands

Karimunjawa is a group of twenty-seven islands about eighty kilometres north of Jepara in the Java Sea, gazetted as a marine national park covering some eleven hundred square kilometres of water, reef, seagrass and mangrove. Five islands are inhabited; the rest are empty, and the main one has a town, guesthouses and a road network. Snorkelling and diving are the point, over fringing reef and around wrecks, with a mangrove boardwalk and a hilltop viewpoint on the main island. Two things are worth knowing. The shark pens - captive reef sharks in enclosures visitors swim with - are a welfare issue that has drawn criticism. And the park has been under pressure from unlicensed shrimp ponds along the coast.

History

Local folklore says the islands were found by Sunan Nyamplungan, Amir Hasan, a son of one of the Wali Songo, the nine saints who brought Islam to Java, who settled on the main island to spread his father's teachings; his tomb there is an important place of pilgrimage. In 2001 twenty-two of the 27 islands were declared a marine reserve, Karimunjawa National Park (Wikipedia, Karimunjawa).

Highlights

• A marine national park - twenty-seven islands with reef, seagrass and mangrove.
• Reef and wreck diving - the main activity, from the inhabited main island.
• Mangrove boardwalks - the trail through the protected mangrove belt.
• Empty outer islands - only five of the group are inhabited at all.

When to go

April to October; boats stop in rough weather. Three days.

Before you go

Ferries are cancelled by weather and can strand you for days - build in slack. The shark pens are a welfare problem, not an attraction. Coral condition varies and some sites are damaged.

Nearby

Jepara is the mainland port; Semarang is the nearest city.

Key facts