Victor Valley College Tropical Research Initiative
Herpetofauna of Timor-Leste
Phase IV

Same to Suai, Covalima District

In the three previous phases of this project, during 2009 and 2010, we had visited twelve of Timor-Leste's thirteen districts, with only Covalima in the southwest left unvisited. From Same we drove to Suai, the main town of Covalima, where we were to initiate a survey of the Tilomar Reserve, which abuts West Timor (Indonesia).

Map showing route from Same to Suai, Covalima District

The road from Same to Suai

The road to Suai involved dropping back down to the coastal lowlands from the mountains and included several river crossings, not all of them via bridges, let alone completed bridges. The first river crossing had no bridge, so we forded the river in low-4. One of the other crossings comprised an unfinished bridge that left the expedition up in the air and required a detour to cross the wide, rocky but fortunately fairly dry river-bed.

The Ainaro River, dry and rocky at this time of year	River crossing, one of the Jets discusses the best route across with Hinrich
The bridge to nowhere, but back where you came from, or so it seemed at first	Motorbikes took the short-cut but the angle was too tight and the gap too narrow for loaded troopies with roof-racks

After about three hours and 85 kms we reached Suai and checked intro the Castelo Fronteira Hotel.