• Following pick up at Medan International Airport we transfer by charter tourist class bus to the cool mountain highlands of central Sumatra. We will break up the 3-hour drive with a picnic lunch along the way and have an opportunity to explore oil palm and rubber plantations that are transforming Sumatra’s landscape.

• Soon we arrive at the rim of Lake Toba, the world’s largest crater lake. We gain some idea of the enormity of the volcanic eruption that created this caldera (70,000 years ago) as we follow the 100 km long body of water that now fills the lake 500 meters deep.

• Arriving in Parapat, a small town on the lake, we board our charter boat and set sail on a wonderful cruise along the southern shore. Here isolated Batak Toba villages carry on time-honored traditions far removed from the outside world. We will go ashore to visit with some of these warm and welcoming people, to visit their village school and to learn about daily activities in their gardens, fields and subsistence fishing.
  
  
• Returning to our boat, we will sail further south to a spectacular waterfall that plunges from the rim of the crater directly to the lake and so oxygenates the water that fish dance perpetually in the spray. This is a delightful place to swim and play under the falls with the safety of a life jacket. It is the quintessential initiation to our “wet, wild and wonderful weekend” as we immerse ourselves in Lake Toba’s enduring charm.

• It will be sunset time as we cruise our way across the lake to beautiful Samosir Island, the largest island on an island in the world and our idyllic home for the next two nights. Flocks of herons, bitterns, and egrets will be seen migrating to their roosts for the night, so lessons in lake ecology will become part of our day’s study focus.

• Carolina Cottage is a delightful, family-run resort perched on the lake shore of a dramatic peninsula. Here we’ll stay in well-appointed rooms designed in Batak-style, enjoy a superb dinner and an evening around a camp fire on the beach sharing tales of our day’s adventures.

Overnight: Carolina Cottage