Mount Mutis

Mutis reaches 2,427 metres in central West Timor and is the highest point on the Indonesian side of the island, protected as a nature reserve, and it looks nothing like the tropical Indonesia of the brochures: the upper slopes are open highland with stands of Eucalyptus urophylla, ampupu, growing in grassland grazed by cattle and horses, and it is genuinely cold - frost forms in the dry season, which almost nowhere else in Indonesia does. The reserve is the water source for much of West Timor, feeding the rivers on both sides of the border with Timor-Leste. The Dawan people farm and herd here; Fatumnasi village at the foot has traditional beehive-shaped houses, ume kbubu, and homestays. The climb from the village takes several hours through the eucalypt.

What you actually see

• Eucalypt highland - ampupu stands in open grassland, unlike lowland Indonesia.
• Frost in the dry season - genuinely cold nights, rare anywhere in the country.
• Dawan herding country - cattle and horses grazed through the reserve.
• Beehive houses at Fatumnasi - the traditional ume kbubu with homestays.

When to go

May to October; it is coldest and clearest then. Two days.

Honest expectations

Nights are genuinely cold - bring proper warm clothing, which visitors to Indonesia rarely pack. The road in is rough. Facilities are village homestays. Guides are needed on the mountain.

Nearby

Soe is south; Kupang is further south-west; the Timor-Leste border is east.