Teva Adventure

This is a very unusual hike: The entire hike is through the Comoro river. Most people in Dili will only know the Comoro river as the huge sandpit that supplies most of the sand and rocks for the houses in Dili, but if you go a bit higher upstream, the Comoro River is actually a river with water.

The starting point is near the town of Railaco. A long bridge crosses the Comoro river. While crossing the river on the bridge, check the water levels. If there is lots of (brown) water then this will not be good day to make this walk. If there is absolutely no water, then the hike will be possible, but might not be as existing as it could be. However, if there is clear stream of water, only a meters wide, then you have chosen the right time to make this hike.

So, if the above was not clear: Do not try this hike during the rainy season and it's probably not much fun near the end of the dry season. However, at the very end of the rainy season this hike could be a lot of fun.

The reason for this explanation on when to take this hike has to do with the fact that this part of the river goes through a very narrow canyon. The water runs over huge boulders and forms little waterfalls and small pools. This is a beautiful place, but for a very large part of the hike, you will not have any chance to get out of the canyon. If the water would suddenly rise as it could do after a typical rainfall in Timor you might be caught in a flash flood and that may be very dangerous. However, if you use some common sense there is not much too worry about.

We have named this hike "Teva Adventure" as Teva sandals as probably the best footwear for this hike: You will probably need to cross the river many time and are likely to get wet quite a bit. Having Teva sandals will give you a bit of extra grip that you need to climb over rocks and not loose them while crossing the water. If you don't have Teva Sandals, you could also use a pair of sneakers, but we would not recommend hiking boots as they get twice as heavy when wet.

The other thing you need to prepare for is the fact that you may get wet. Some of the rocks can be slippery and you be socked before you know it. So it's best to keep some of your belongs in a well closed plastic bag. I would also recommend to put some extra shoes & socks in your bagpack so you can switch shoes after about 2/3 of the hike.

And then finally 1 more warning: Be aware that the water is not drinkable as it passes through several towns before it reached the point when you are hiking. People will already have used the river for washing of clothes, bathing, to dump garbage and as a sewage. So you can probably swim at a few spots along the river, but I would not recommend to go under water with you head and try to prevent to get any river water in your mouth or you may have different memories of this hike then we had.

Now for the navigation. Note that his is a one-way hike. So you will have to find a volunteer that will bring you to the starting point at the crack of dawn. However, around the starting point of the hike there are lots and lots of different birds, so you may be able to find someone that want to give you a ride and then goes off watching the birds. The indicated way points will get you to the starting point of the hike. This road requires a 4WD car and in case you don't have such a vehicle, you may require to hike this part as well, which will add around 2.5 kilometers to you hike. However, as this hike is already quite long and hiking though/along a river is very slow, it will add at least 45 minutes to your hike.

The hike starts at a point where you would have to road crosses one of the streams that lead to the Comoro river. From this point, you will hardly need your GPS to find your way: Just follow the water downstream until your back in Dili. In fact, because the canyon is so narrow at many places, you may have some problems getting any signal from time to time. However, it's still good to load our track in your GPS to have some indication on how much of the hike you have already completed. As hiking though/along a river is so much slower then regular hiking, don't be surprised that it will take longer then usual.

During the hike you will walk some parts on 1 side of the river and other parts along the other side of the river. We recommend to keep looking ahead so you can swap sides on time, but you may sometimes need to track back and try another route. That's all part of the fun. But please be careful and use common sense. Don't try to stay dry and run the risk of making a bad fall. If you would hurt yourself, your hiking buddies will have a very tough job getting you out of the canyon.

We recommend to take this hike very early in the morning and if you do, you may see some monkeys that wash and sun bade in the early morning. But they are extremely shy, so if you are too noisy you may not see them at all.

During the first half of hike you will be in a very narrow canyon and probably not see any other people, the second half of the hike, the canyon slowly goes wider and wider. There is still very steep mountains around you, but you will see some people from time to time as well as their houses.

At the end of the hike you will be in the Comoro delta and back in Dili. At the endpoint of the hike you should be able to get a taxi. If you are unlucky and there is none, just follow the road that you were already on and you will get into the more busy part of Dili where you'll find a taxi for sure.

We hope you will enjoy this special hike as much as we did.